The color should be dark.

The color should be dark. Just remember that the eye automatically focus or direct the vision to the lightest place. So rule of thumb is to have the fascia board darker then the surrounding area which that should be the layout. You want the attention to go to the layout and not the outside edge of the layout.

Good Luck !

I am using..

I am using a dark green color since I will have a lot of green on my layout itself in the form of trees. I considered the idea of making it completely black but I decided against it. Before I dismantle this one to make room for the next I plan to give it a coat of blank to see which I prefer. I chose a glidden paint called "Pine Green" but its a shade too bright. Next time, should I stay with green, I will go with something a bit darker.

I painted my facia with a pebble grey color initially as a primer. Why pebble grey? Its one of the colors I have left over from when we tried some samples for rooms in the house. I have painted the valence green already but have experienced enough drips and such from the scenery that I felt it would be foolish to paint over the primer before I was done.

Chris

Color

I like the look of the very dark green that was used on the Greeley CO.  Freight Station Museum layout featured in the December 2008 MRR.  It looks better than black IMO.

One rule of thumb that I like ...

One rule of thumb that I like for fascia color is to make it a dark variation of your basic scenery color. For an area with lots of vegetation, a dark green works well. For a desert area, a dark tan would be good.

I paint the fascia first with a couple coats of primer, then give it a couple coats of the dark green I'm using. Scenery work will mess it all up, but not a problem. I just scrub the fascia down when I'm done, lightly sand it if needed, and give it a couple more coats of the dark green.

On an under-construction layout, installing a painted backdrop and a painted fascia very early goes a long ways toward making the layout look nice, even in the benchwork stage.

Light colors?

I think Paul Dolkas ( probably butchered the name - sorry ) did just the opposite on his layout.  He was doing desert scenery so his fascia and valance ( I think ) ended up a sandy color.  Blended right in with the scenery and you didn't even notice, not to mention it helped lighten up the area as well.

I guess it depends on whether you're looking for a shadow box effect that's clearly framing the layout, or if you want something that just sort of disappears from view.  Either should focus your gaze on the trains, but they seem to differ in just how it works.  One says "look HERE" and the other is more of a natural "I'm boring, ignore me" kind of effect you get outside.  You ignore the grass at your feet and pay attention to the moving, interesting stuff.  The other is more like looking through a window.  You still ignore the window, but your focus is definitely more directed.

Hopefully I explained that right.  I've been up far too late again....

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S

don't us black

I did mine black and wish i had used a green . black makes every thing look glume I have a medium size layout and I get so tried of all the black .I'm getting ready to repaint mine a medium green .

Bright Pink.  Like Fucshia or

Bright Pink. 

Like Fucshia or Magenta!

Or how about bright sunny yellow?

Fascia

How about (Woodland Scenics Earth Undercoat # C1229) used a color chip of it to get a gallon of pearl satin latex paint. It blends in quite well with our summer scenery. We also use it to seal all the benchwork.

Earth Undercoat C1229

That looks great. I haven't thought about a fascia yet but that is defintely a great color for one.

My layout is set in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and upstate New York and Connecticut so I don't know how well it'll match the scenery which I expect to be mostly grass with a few rocky places. I wonder if what a fascia that is painted to match the different types of scenery (i.e. green for grassy areas and stone colored for the areas that cross the water along the Hellgate Bridge area) would look?

Irv

Brooklyn/Queens Facia

For a Brooklyn/Queens Facia, hire some kids to paint the facia up with graffitti..

Not desert for Dolkos

I think Paul Dolkas ( probably butchered the name - sorry ) did just the opposite on his layout.  He was doing desert scenery so his fascia and valance ( I think ) ended up a sandy color.  Blended right in with the scenery and you didn't even notice, not to mention it helped lighten up the area as well.

Paul Dolkos' former layout was set in New England in midwinter. (He's torn it down to replace it with an industrial switching layout). Paul's fascia was a medium tan, as I recall, picking up some of the colors in the midwinter scenery. You may be thinking of David Barrow, who once had a dark tan fascia on his desert-themed layout. (Before Barrow regressed to Plywood Pacific scenery).

Soelberg maybe?

It was maybe Soelberg I'm thinking of?  Also probably just massacred the name.  I think he did the Mountains to Desert book that Kalmbach put out.  At any rate, I do recall seeing an article in MR, or one of their books, on fascias and the desert one was really quite notable as they showed kind of a before and after shot.  One with a gray type paint and another with the tan color.  The tan really just disappeared and lightened up the whole area.

The graffiti idea is pretty funny.  OTOH, who wants to operate a layout and be worried about rounding the peninsula and getting mugged on the "wrong side of the tracks" part of the layout? 

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S

Brooklyn/Queens and Grafitti

< The graffiti idea is pretty funny.  OTOH, who wants to operate a layout and be worried about rounding the peninsula and getting mugged on the "wrong side of the tracks" part of the layout?  >

I thought the comment was pretty funny but then I wondered why do people who have never been to either Brooklyn or Queens have this idea that everything here has tons of grafitti on it? Must be the movies.

While there are muggings there are few of them in most parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Again the movies and TV play a role in this. Either that or somebodies been spending too much time watching all those Law and Order reruns on cable.

Irv

Likely Pelle Soeborg...

I'm guessing you're thinking of Pelle Soeborg's Daneville and Donner River layout.  Its another modern masterpiece, IMO.  His website is here. 

Facia Colours

Colour choice IMHO also depends on the style of layout. Black helps to focus the eye onto the layout, and probably works best if the layout is framed by a facia both above, below and to the sides. Green looks good with rural scenes, while a brick red is sympathetic to an urban scene.

Whichever colour you may prefer my observation is to avoid any shiny gloss paint and find a good matt tone. The gloss facia seems to stand out against the layout as it can draw the eye by reflected light which the matt avoids.

Mind you I also only use an off white or very pale blue for backscenes and avoid any painted background scenery.

Good luck with your modelling.

Regards,

Eric

That's the one!

Just having fun

I expect most of NY is relatively clean thanks to Guilliani's efforts to transform it into an urban theme park

Seriously, the myth that New York is a dirty city is based on the fact it is filled with dirty Yankee fans.

Chris

NYC

Last August I just celebrated my 30th wedding anniversary and took my wife to eat lunch in NYC and it was a beautiful city. People were super friendly and helpful. Spent the time in China Town, Little Italy and Manhattan. I just could not understand why my wife could not eat here in South Florida... 

Black or colored?

As some already have said; at least the fascia should always be substantialy darker than the landscape.

I've seen a great deal of green fascias and my opinion is that green never works. To make green work it probably has to be so dark one has to look twice to see if there is a color. And thats what the fascia shouldn't  do; draw attention.

I use dull black consistently. Black is not a color, it is the absence of color as no color is reflected back to your eyes . Black never works against your scenery colors, but emphasizes them and works almost like a color booster. Black does not draw attention. In TV, film and theatre black is used in a similar way. If you want the attention away from something, paint it dull black.

I think Les' pic abow works well. At that particular point at least. A good exception as it appears in the pic.

So my fascias are always dull black and so is the legs underneath and all other immaterial things as well.

And I don't think it's glume. Black isn't anything.

Chris said: "Seriously, the

Chris said:

"Seriously, the myth that New York is a dirty city is based on the fact it is filled with dirty Yankee fans."

Chris,

You hit the nail right on the head man!  Stinking Yankees!

Seriously, "tagging" aka vandalism is a widespread problem.  Luckily, in my freelance world there is a bounty on taggers and my railroad "bulls" carry Winchesters. :o)

There will be no graffiti on my rolling stock or anywhere else.

I see it in real life

so I'll see it on my railroad.  I don't think I'm in any way promoting graffiti by modelling it on my rolling stock.  I understand those that choose no to, but I choose to model it and am happy with it.  Its tough to see any rolling stock around the yard near my house without tagging on it.

Tagging

Irv said:

"Gee there may be a good way to discourage grafitti by taking a page out of John Allen's book. He had a lynched diesel salesman on his layout. Maybe there is a place for lynched grafitti artist on your's?"

Hangings too good for those rascals! )

Dave,

Yeah, I agree it's tough to go near a yard without seeing all kinds of tagged cars.  Some of it even looks ok.  Right now I can't see myself defacing the beautiful paintjob on the car below by applying graffiti. :o)

Ominous

Our club uses a dark grey which I think was called "Ominous" by CIL.  It doesn't attract the eye and since almost all the lighting is over the track, it helps with the shadow box look we were going for.  The scenery around Subury varies between lush green forests and yellow wheat fields to blackened rocky hills with little vegetation, so we were going for something neutral.  Fascia, valance and vertical framing between scenes is all the same colour (where it's completed so far, anyway).  It looks very good.

I think that if you're going to move towards a colour rather than grey, you should go to a darker earth colour like deep tan or brown rather than greens, but that's just my opinion.