# Base coat of paint



## Ml-toys (Dec 19, 2013)

I am using the 2 inch foam and woodland scenics risers and inclines. After the plaster cloth that i am using is it best to lay down a base coat of paint over the whole layout. If so would you suggest a brown base or just a flat white to work on top of ?


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## Lehigh74 (Sep 25, 2015)

That plaster cloth will probably need at least a few coats to hide its texture. For the first coat over the plaster cloth, I would use whatever latex paint you have leftover. For the final coat under applied grass, I would use brown.


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

it's preferrable that the paint be close to the colour of your ground cover as it helps to hide imperfections better ... some even sprinkle some ground cover to the second coat of wet paint to get a start on final appearance ...as in most cases first coat of paint doesn't cover completely ..


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## Ml-toys (Dec 19, 2013)

Thank you for the suggestions.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Plaster cloth will need something over it to hide the grid pattern. Nothing ruins the appearance of scenery faster than an unnatural cross hatch pattern. I recommend painting that with a thin coat of plaster before anything else.

For my base color, i took a bag full of dirt to my local Home Depot and browsed through the paint chips until I found a color that was very close (Glidden Ground Nutmeg, IIRC). I bought a quart of that, and applied two coats to the layout surface and fascia.

A somewhat cheaper method is to look in your home center's reject area and see if someone has returned a paint color that will serve. These returns can often be had for cheap.


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## Ml-toys (Dec 19, 2013)

Thanks, i didnt even think of that with the cloth. Good idea to find the natural dirt color. :thumbsup:


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## RH1 (Jan 4, 2016)

My usual technique with plaster cloth (I usually use it over chicken wire, cardboard, etc - foam just seems like too much expense and mess to me, but I digress...):

Once the plaster cloth is hard/dry, I mix a soupy mixture of Sheetrock 45 (drywall compound in a bag) and paint that on with a brush. It hides the cloth texture, and thickens the "shell" of my scenery just a bit.

Once the shell is dry, I then paint it with a flat latex paint - basically the colour of liquid mud - that I buy from mis-tints at the local paint shop. Sometimes it requires mixing a few colours of paint together to get the right shade of mud!

I brush a fairly heavy coat of paint over the shell - and before the paint dries, I sprinkle a fairly liberal layer of whatever ground cover I want on there. The paint soaks into it a bit and makes it permanent.

Works for me...


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## Ml-toys (Dec 19, 2013)

Cool, thanks.
Different techniques are good to learn.


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