Raw Umber

Raw umber, a brown without fire

Umber got its name after Umbria in Italy, where the natural earth with a content of manganese was dug. In its unburned form it is cool, shifted slightly toward green, and that is exactly how soil looks when the sun does not shine on it: the northern slope of a cutting, the bottom of a ditch, the soil under a tree, a board that has been soaking for twenty years. A modeler therefore does not reach for it for its richness but because terrain then stops looking freshly cast.

Typical use

• The basic tone of soil on slopes and in the cuttings of a line.
• Bringing out the grain in the texture of cast or cut wood.
• Toning down brown shades elsewhere in a scene that are too rusty.
• A base under scatter, so that the spots showing through are not white.

Properties and working with it

The preparation mixes with water, it is not toxic and it can be dissolved again once dry, so a tone can be tuned step by step. Suitable bases are porous ones: shaping paste, plaster, plaster cloth, wood, paper pulp and shaped foam. The bottle carries 118 ml and with the usual thinning it is a supply for a whole stretch of terrain.

The best result comes from layering: first a weak glaze over the whole area, then a second one only into the hollows and finally wiping the raised places with a damp sponge. That creates the transition from a light top to a dark bottom that rain makes on a real slope. Let a finished area dry out properly; only then do glue, scatter or a tuft of grass belong on it, as otherwise the damp pigment is drawn into the fibers and colors them.