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Comments
Elliott
Weathering was going to be an issue. I wasn't quite sure how to get it from the brand new look (above) to something similar in color as the adjacent roof over the old mill. I used chalks (just like with the boat house) but used a base color of the lighter 408.7 raw umber instead of the darker 408.5. I also added some grays, burnt umber, and a little yellow ochre here and there for accents and worked all the chalks in with a stiff stencil brush.
Then, I washed the chalks in with straight 90% alcohol (no india ink) and let it dry. I repeated the process a couple times, adjusting and building up the colors as I went. One final dusting of chalk followed by a dry brushing with a tan craft paint and I had a nice weathered cedar roof.
There is a noticeable color difference between the cedar roof and the wood slat roof-- and probably should look that way since they're two different materials. However, I think the difference is still subtle enough to convey the idea that 2 roofs were constructed at about the same time.
Overall the roof blends in perfectly with the rest of the structure, very nicely done!
Karl.A
Watching from the sidelines, so take what I have to say with a grain of salt...I have kits but not the time or space to do them. What you say about the shingle roof colour matching the board roof colour is correct, they look to be completed at about the same time in the (original) building's construction, but I am wondering if you have deviated from the dictum that Brett has put forward on the web page where finishes should be four steps in total? I'm Just Curious, as when I finally get going my fingers will be older and less capable of fine movement (I am fifty now...) so minimising steps will have a selfish appeal. Do tell?
GregInOz.
(its ANZAC day today,..we are honouring our veterans.)
I like your roofs - - personally.
Due to other things in my life my project progress is very slow at present.
Thank-you for sharing your modeling on these posts as I feel your work is wonderful.
Alan--thanks as always. I understand about life getting in the way of modeling. Get back to it when you can. I still want to see how you finish that boiler house!
Greg--the roof material on this part wan't included in the kit so I strayed from Brett's directions. I repeated the process until I got the look I was after. (BTW, the cedar material is from Sierra Scale Models). If you point me to the part on the website with the 4 steps I can help you out some more. I think you might be referring to the finish for paper shingles, but I'm not sure.
Here are a few things I did they you might find helpful for building a pond or water scene. The depth of mine was to be about 7/8". The slope of the shore made it difficult to measure where exactly the resin would end. So, I made this little gauge:
The top of the horizontal piece of stripwood is level and exactly 7/8" high. I tapered the one end on a belt sander so that I could pinpoint the heigth on the shoreline and reach into the tight spots around the docks and smaller areas. Also, I used it to line up the logs to see how much wood I'd need to place under each in order to get them to "float" at the right level.
In studying pictures of log ponds, it seemed to me that the logs float in triangular or "v" shaped paterns:
Given that, I pre-assembled some angular groupings of logs.
I made a few groups like this which helped in arranging the layout in the pond and also kept them from tipping over like dominos.
Here's a full view of the pond. You can see that I started painting in the envirotex along the shoreline. Dave Frary recommends this to prevent the resin from creeping up the bank.
One other thing I did was add debris at the far end of the pond. This would be the stuff that sank and was carried away by the current. In this case, the current flows from the upper left of the picture down toward the trestle at the bottom.
Here's a close up...a lot of it will probably never be seen, but the stuff that does show will hopefully convey the idea of junk getting caught and collecting around the rocks.
As soon as I get the logs glued down, I'll start the pour! Woo Hoo!
Thanks, Alan. Very nice of you to say! Hopefully, I've inspired you to GET GOING on that Engine House!!!!
Thanks, Ted
Everything on the logs is natural. I shaved down some areas with an Xacto. Scraping off just a little removes the outer bark and reveals the darker brown color; shaving off a little deeper takes it down to the lighter blondish color--the sapwood.
Yes the work must progress on the engine house ASAP.
The pond is progressing nicely. It might be overkill (or paranoia), but I went ahead and covered the docks and shore with plastic wrap and painters tape. My habit of "do-overs" is no help at this stage! I'm really pleased with the transition from shallow to deep water with this first pour. Brush strokes can still be seen in some areas but those will blur with additional layers of Envirotex. I made this first layer very thin because I wasn't 100% certain how opaque the paint had made the resin. It looked almost too dark in the mixing container, but in the end I got it just about right. A few more layers with this same opacity and I think the illusion will be complete. Hopefully, people will be wanting to look under the benchwork to see how far down the water really goes!
Just for fun, I modified the little raft in the log pond slightly. Rather than have it floating on logs, I thought I'd rig it up to float on some old drums:
Since it's been so humid here, I'll probably play it safe and let the resin harden for a good 48 hours rather than 24. Layer 2 to follow...
Thanks for the heads up Alan. The humidity level here is down considerably (43% outside) but waiting an extra day won't hurt. If it took 3 days to harden it sounds like you might have gotten a bad batch or didn't get the envirotex mixed completely.
Before I started, I called their customer support line for some last minute advice and talked to Hillary. If you've never used this stuff, here are a couple things I learned from her.
*to tint the Envirotex: Combine the resin with the hardener and mix it for 1 minute. Transfer the combination to a different mixing container, THEN add the color and stir for 1 more minute. Enamels work best but acrylics usually work fine.
*You really have to scrape the sides and bottom of the container when mixing. Even small amounts of unmixed resin or hardener will leave soft spots that won't cure. That's also the reason for transferring to a second container: if you combine 1 chemical into the other, the original chemical likes to stick to the sides making it difficult to get them completely mixed in the 2 minutes before it starts to set up.
More to come...
Even after only the first pour I can tell that the pond is going to turn out great.I've never actually done very much water let alone this volume and on a beautiful Dio where the water is such an integral part of the scene I totally agree with the boss on the "Ballsy aspect" of this pour. The raft on oil drums is a very clever idea. Way to go fellow minion!
OM
All jokes aside it looks stunning. I cant wait to see how it turns out after the second pour.
Wes...the blue tape actually IS to scale and available exclusively through "UK Guy Paint & Supply".
Mike-the color for the pond bottom is "Black Green" by Ceramcoat blended into "Country Tan" by Apple Barrel. On pg. 10 there are some pictures of how I painted it. For tinting the resign, I used PolyScale GN Empire Green. I agree, it's a really nice grungy brown-green color. Use it sparingly. For that fist layer, I dripped about 5 drops off a mixing stick into 8 ounces of Envirotex. The next layers are each 16 ounces of Envirotex. Layer 2 had about 15-20 drops of paint. Each layer after that was about 5 or so just to give it a hint of color. Here are the additional pours.
Layer 2:
Layer 3:
Layer 4:
And yesterday, I poured layer 5:
It's rather tough to show the depth of the water because it's so glossy. While it has darkened quite a bit, a lot of what you are seeing is the dark (unfinished) ceiling being reflected by the Envirotex. There are still a couple spots where the wood supports holding the logs can still be faintly seen. That will disappear with the remaining layers.
It's gonna take a little more than a 1/4" more Envirotex to get the water up where it needs to be. I've used 128 ounces of Envirotex so far, but I made my pond a little bigger than the manual describes. Unfortunately, I didn't damn up the inside of the log brow so a few ounces filled that void. No biggie...just need to head back to Menards for more!
I did a little reading on an art website that suggested using a synthetic brush to apply the gloss (I used a relatively stiff natural bristle brush). I'm not sure if that would make a difference or not.
The bottle says "continuous over brushing or vigorous brushing will result in fogging after dying." I did go over the one area while it was still wet, but nothing that I'd describe as "vigorous" and I didn't dye it at all.
I'm hesitant to go any further until I figure out what's going on.
Anybody else have this happen or have any suggestions?
Thanks,
Bill
Heres a possible solution...
the air bubbles look like they are right on the surface and have actualy burst as it dried. this has left a very thin raised 'wall' of the bubble remaining which is what looks white. In a small area (preferably on a sample piece if you can replicate the effect) use a small soft brush and 'paint' over the top with a thin high gloss clear coat. The clear coat should fill in the air bubbles and make them dissappear again.
Call if you want to discuss.
Karl.A
(well... hopefully....)
Experiment is in progress...
Sure is good to have friends in this hobby!
Bill