Slate Gray

Slate gray for rock castings

The liquid pigment from the scenic Earth Colors line serves to paint terrain that a modeler casts or shapes themselves. This shade holds the cool gray of slate and limestone, that is of the rocks whose quarries and cuttings line the lines in the foothills and mountain roads. On a plaster casting it behaves as a stain: it soaks into the pores, emphasizes the sharp edges and stays darker in the hollows, so a rock gets depth even without a dry brush.

What the pigment holds on

It is formulated for plaster cloth, shaping paste, plaster, foam, wood and paper pulp. It is thinned with water, it is non-toxic and once dry it can be dissolved again; a tone can be lightened with a damp brush or taken off entirely and started again. By mixing it with further shades of the same line you mix a color of your own, which with stone matters, because a uniform gray looks flat.

A procedure that has proved itself

• Wet a casting before painting and the pigment will then flow more evenly.
• Build up from the lightest tone to the darkest and let it become tacky.
• Wipe the excess off the raised areas with a sponge while it is damp.
• The bottle holds 118 ml, that is four fluid ounces.

The gray tone finds a use beyond rock faces as well: it tones down plaster that is too white by retaining walls, culverts and tunnel portals, and the concrete area of a station can be dirtied with it. The surface that arises stands up to further painting with acrylics and dry pigments, so the pigment tends to be the first layer of a whole piece of terrain, not the last.