I'll Be Trying That Also

I'll be giving Joe's technique a shot also, though scenery is a long ways down the road for me.  Where did you order your pigments?

I purchased my Tempera

I purchased my Tempera pigments from Discount School Supply and looks like they have Black

I bought mine at Dick Blick

Got mine from Amazon.

I don't ever plan on white plaster again! Plaster plus tempera was the basis for the stone cliff beside the track. Later washes of acrylic paint did the finishing touches.

Bruce - good point!  I HATE

Bruce - good point!  I HATE white plaster dust and it stands out like a neon sign!  I used to tint my plaster with a brown concrete colorant.

"I used to tint my plaster

Which type

Hi Rick,

I want to follow this tempera use of yours closely. Dick Blick has a wide variety of tempera products - which one did you choose (perhaps the new Richeson brand)? Dick Blick has quite a variety of liquid tempera, but, as I understand it, Joe Fugate's ZIP texturing uses dry tempera.

Zip texturing

UP - you are correct

I ordered the new Richeson Powdered Tempera Paint which is $3.19 per 1lb bottle.

Thanks, Rick

I'll make a note to use that product (presuming you have good results using it).

Good to see

Good to see people are finding the zip texturing approach useful.

One thing I've found is that besides the tea strainer approach to applying zip texturing, you can brush it on and then mist it with water if you need lots of control.

Once it all hardens, if you need to "tweak" the colors at all, you can also mix up some weathering powders and dust them on the hardened zip texturing lightly to alter the coloration as needed. As always, match to photos to get spot-on coloration for your scenery.

I zipped textured the base

I zipped textured the base for my sawmill on the club layout. I loved the look, but didn't like the track work. So I tore it all out. Getting ready to redo the zip texturing soon.

Alan

Blick is the deal!

A possibility to consider is

Joe, I ran across your

Bruce, you are too kind! I

Zip Textured Scenery

I tried out Lynn Westcotts Zip Textured scenery way back in the early 70's using a product that he used. it's called Rainbow Dry Colors from Empire White Products Co. in Newark, NJ. I have six colors, black not being one of them. The product is used for coloring cement, stucco, mortar, etc. I found on a previous layout that the zip texture fades out rather quickly so after Woodland Scenics came out I switched. Recently I used it mixed with sanded grout for things like dirt roads and sidings covered in dirt. I have also mixed it with plaster to cast rocks (it lengthens setting time considerably). The colors came in 16 oz boxes and are now over 40 years old and still in good shape.  

Fading of zip texturing?

I've not experienced fading of the tempera-based zip texturing on my Siskiyou Line and the layout's over 20 years old now. However, I quickly changed from florescents to low-wattage incandescents in the early days, which I think greatly reduces the ultraviolet, which is what tends to do the fading.

That said, I think experimenting with colored grouts could be interesting ... and using concrete coloring pigments could be a good option, since those tend to be more colorfast (made for outdoor use). Tempera paint is more for indoor use on signs and such, which means long-term fade resistance isn't a concern.

R. Olivarez

Instead of Tempera paints has anyone tried using acrylic paints to mix into the plaster?  I figure that they can be diluted with water prior to being added to the plaster for Zip texturing.  That way, if the plaster gets chipped, white will not show because the the color will be mixed throughout the plaster already.  Should still be able to tint an area with a darker stain if the area is too light.

stucco tint

I've been useing stucco color pacs from Home Depot to precolor my rock castings. The color pacs are available in many different earth tone colors and a little goes a long ways.

Plaster mix material

Re the question on mixing paint with plaster-- I've had success with a base coat of plaster, then coating it with a mixture of patching plaster and "dirt" colored latex paint.  The top coat is not very thick, but does not show white when chipped.

Acrylic colors with plaster

I use acrylics in my plaster all the time and love not having 'white' spots any longer. Buy the big, cheap tubes. All acrylics will be color fast according to a manufacturers rep that I spoke with. Typical mix for me is a dollop (about 1" out of the tube), add water to make 1 cup, and mix. To this, I add the plaster. Acrylics come in some many colors you can match any kind of terrain you want. I have used them to get Rocky Mountain gray granites to Rocky Mountain off white soil mixes - titanium buff. I then go back and add dry brush highlighting of greens, pinks, etc to show some variations... at least my visitors and I like the results. For the high lighting, I used the craft paints. 

Visit a big, local art store and they may have visiting manufacturing reps talking about their products. What a 'free' education that can be. 

Suggestions for Base Colors

Joe (and all),

Since Rose Art stopped making their dry tempera paints, do you (or any of you) have a good guide for which colors to use as replacements for the ones you used in your article? Your color mix guides are great, but I'm not sure if there's a good color match with the Sargent Art and Jack Richeson paint powders.  Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

-Matt

I use

Crayola powder paints I get at Michaels.