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I'm trying to get a terrain piece painted and am a bit stuck at the moment. Early WIP picture:



The question I'm stuck on is which color to paint the bridge. To explain:

I have nice, neutral greys on the concrete and the ship's hull, similarly neutral browns (albeit lighter than they are at this point) for the ground and a touch of color with the red part of the hull. Additionally I'm thinking of painting the large pipe in the wall cutout red as well. The bridge is made of metal which will give me some dulled silver and rusty brown/orange. I intend to add a few yellow and black warning stripes where appropriate, such as by the ladders.

So far I'm pretty happy with the color selections. Mostly neutral and muted so as not to detract from the actual models on the board, with a few spots of color to make it look interesting.

What to do about the bridge, though? It should obviously be painted so it doesn't rust (worked out well, didn't it? ). Conventionally I'd say a light green/olive, or railroad bridge green as I call it, is the default for these things, but I don't know. People love the combination of red and green for some reason. I don't One as a main color and the other on a few small bits? Sure, fine by me. But both in large quantities? Not sure that's for me.

Any input or opinions on this would be appreciated.

It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but the bridge support and pumping station are connected by a large pipe. I'm completely undecided on that, too. It's not a big deal if it's just silver, brass or completely rusted, but if it helps this could serve as space to bring in a contrasting or complementing color.

How about iron oxide? A bit like the Forth Bridge:

People love Red/Green combinations, because they're opposites on the colour wheel and therefore have a high contrast while working together.

I would paint the bridge red and tbh, I would use a Red/Green combination. Dark red for the bridge and dark green for the boat hull.

Thanks for the input, guys.

Red might just work as a subdued red brown (that's what iron oxide is, right?). What I really like about that bridge picture is that it combines red with sand colored stone. Now I don't have stone on my model to easily replicate this, but I'm thinking a little artsy decoration for the bridge support might work. Sand colored corners with a broad, vertical red stripe on each side. I think otherwise it'll look just too red.

 Hanskrampf wrote:
People love Red/Green combinations, because they're opposites on the colour wheel and therefore have a high contrast while working together.

I would paint the bridge red and tbh, I would use a Red/Green combination. Dark red for the bridge and dark green for the boat hull.

Can't paint the boat green, that's against Navy regulations.

Iron oxide is literally rust.

 greatbigtree wrote:
Iron oxide is literally rust.

I meant that more along the lines of color tone. Rust happens randomly and looks somewhat spotty. My paints are hopefully less spotty and everything in the pot is the same tone. If you know what I mean.

I'm just terrible at picking out color differences, that's why I asked.

Sorry - meant red oxide, as in:

That's very red! I'm going to put a basecoat of a darker red on the bridge to see how it looks. Got nothing to lose since it's going to get toned down with a wash anyway, but I'll see if it looks alright or if a more brownish red is the way to go.


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I have a good feeling about this. Racing stripes make everything better!

Still not sure on the kind of red, though. Current WIP: