The Colorful Scenery of the
C&RM Railroad
text and original photos by Randolph P. Meyer
originally published in the Spring 1995 RPO
digital images (2002) of the new C&RM by Rich
Schumacher
Click on color photos for enlarged, high-resolution
version.
Well, are you getting "snow blind" yet from
all those white rocks that you have made since my
article about rock casting? Don't you think it is about
time to add some color? Adding a little color will bring
the rock castings to life. The colors add shadows and
highlights that will give the rocks depth and detail. To
bring this out, we will need to use more than one color.
As Jim Wild and Dwane Esterling say in their clinics,
"Nature is not monotone."
When you look at a rock closely, you will see
different shades of the same color that make up that
rock.
 If we have a whole hillside of rock,
think of how many different colors, and shades of those
colors, you could see. If we only use one or two colors
for our scenery, we cannot hope to achieve a realistic
mix of colors to copy nature.
Several materials can be used to color rock castings.
We could use clothes dyes, artist oil paints, latex
house paint, artist water colors or artist acrylic
paints. All of these have advantages and disadvantages.
Of those I have tried myself, I like the artist acrylics
best. I prefer them as they can be cleaned and thinned
with water, come in a wide range of earth colors, are
non-toxic, and do not have an odor.
 Artist acrylics do have a disadvantage
of being slightly more expensive than some of the other
coloring agents. However, I believe the advantages
greatly outweigh the minimal extra cost. Although I will
explain how to color rock castings with these acrylics,
the technique I use can be applied to any of the color
mediums, so feel free to experiment with any other type
of paint or stain with which you are comfortable.
Before we can start coloring our rock castings, we
first need to clean up the mess made by the casting
process. Pick and sweep up all of the loose chunks and
chips of plaster that you broke loose when you carved
and blended the rock castings together. Make sure to
save those broken pieces, as they will be used in the
ground cover part of the scenery process. Next, pull up
the tape covering the track. This will pop loose a lot
of the soft plaster that washing down onto the track
during casting. Vacuum up the remaining plaster dust
from the entire area. This plaster is discarded because
it is too soft to make good ground cover.
 Southwestern Colorado scenery colors:
raw sienna, burnt umber, raw umber, burnt sienna, and
yellow oxide. The spray bottle of plain water washes
excess color from the scenery.
Make sure to check that you have enough clearance for
your equipment before you start coloring. I push my
largest engine over the track, constantly checking to
make sure it clears all the rockwork. Where it does not
clear, chip away the plaster until it does clear. Clean
the track, and run the engine through under its own
power several times just to make sure everything will
clear. Vacuum the area again, and then you are ready to
begin coloring the rock castings.
 As most of you know, I model
south-western Colorado. For me this means the rocks are
shades of brown, rust, and yellow. Those of you who
model other parts of the country may wish to substitute
other colors. For example, modelers wanting gray rock
would substitute Mars black for the raw sienna. A small
detail you could add is a green shade to the rocks along
a stream or other wet area where moss would grow. This
is done by brushing a thin wash of a mossy green color
over the final rock color. Use your imagination to come
up with other color details you can add.
Before I begin coloring the rocks, I mix up a very
thin stain of each of the colors I will use. This thin
stain will be used as a guide for the final coloring
step later on. I dab these thin stains onto the scenery.
Working in an area of one or two square feet, I first
use the yellow oxide and burnt sienna. Because these two
colors are bright, I use them sparingly as highlight
colors on some of the protruding rocks.
Next add the shadow detail with the burnt umber
stain. This is brushed under rock overhangs, into deep
cracks, and any other piece that would be in shadow.
 This gives depth to the scenery.
The remaining area of the rock is stained with thin
washes of raw umber, raw sienna, and a little more burnt
umber. Apply these in a random over-lapping manner. I
try to keep the colors from being distinct patches by
overlapping, blending, and shading from one color to
another.
Now that you have an idea of where you want the
colors to go, you are now ready to put the final color
on the rocks. Use a wet brush and the acrylic colors
straight from the tubes. The brush is first dipped into
the stain of the color you are using.
 Then squeeze the tube of paint so that
the paint barely just barely comes out of the tube.
Gently rub the wet brush over this paint. Then, to
dilute the paint on the brush a little more, dip the
brush back into the stain. Smear the diluted paint over
the same area that had received the light stain earlier.
This paint stain mixture will produce a color that is
not too dark. However, if you get too much paint on the
brush, and the color on the scenery gets too dark,
lighten it a little by squirting it with clean water
from a spray bottle.
After covering all the spots of stain with the
thinned paint from the tube, use the raw sienna stain to
wash over the entire area. This tones down the brighter
colors and blends them all together. This area of
scenery is now colored, and you can move on to the next
section of uncolored scenery.
Squeeze the paint tube until paint just comes out.
Gently rub the brush over the paint. Dip the brush into
the stain of the same color and brush it onto the
scenery.
 As you are working, keep two things in
mind. First, railroad room lights are not as bright as
sunlight. An second, keep in mind that much of the rock
surface will be covered with ground cover. Both of these
things tend to make the color you put on the rocks
darker than it actually is. Therefore, it is very
important to darken colors by adding more stain. It is
much easier to darken the colors than it is to lighten
them. If everything goes wrong, and you get the color
too dark, spray a mist of bleach on the dark area to
lighten it. I have not tried this myself, but I have
read and heard that it works.
This coloring process can also be used on flat
surfaces and rolling hills. The variation of color shows
through the ground cover added later. This gives the
ground a very natural appearance.
I hope this article will help you as you work towards
more realistic scenery.
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