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Comments
Gonna toss out a thought: do you think the stone wall looks a little bland? I see a majority of gray stones and 3 or 4 tan ones. Just wondering
Bill, You're right about mostly gray stones. Even the ones I painted different colors mostly blended with the weathering. I'm going to try to touch some up with some chalks and see how it looks. Stone walls are always challenging to me because if they color changes are too drastic they always feel wrong even if it would be natural. I definitely tend to stay pretty conservative with the variation. I'll post some experiments.
I touched up a few more of the stones with some brown chalks.
I may still touch them up a bit more. Not sure yet.
I started putting the roof together. I still need to glue it down and add all the roof details. It looks almost dark gray but it's green. I used Krylon Camo Olive.
I cut and painted the base also. I'm going to start detailing it tonight I think.
-Steve
Thanks Robert. I'm going to experiment a bit with some moss and vines once I get the structure planted on the base.
I'm starting to get everything laid out now. More progress tomorrow hopefully.
-Steve
Some very good vine material is roots. You know, the real fine roots like in a potted plant. I have used juniper roots to make very convincing vines.
Geezerbill
Awesome job! Looking forward to all the castings and scenery in place.
Jim
Small update today.
I added the porch to the front of the main building. This rather small addition pretty much instantly brings life to this structure and gives it some really cool character.
I built the railings over the templates but when I was trying to install them on the porch they completely fell apart so I built them in place. The vertical supports are 1/32" square stripwood and they are very delicate. It ended up being a little challenging.
I added a base coat of dirt to the diorama. I'll start adding weeds and details next.
I used push pins to mark where the chain link fence will go. I've never done a chain link fence before so it should be fun experiment. It doesn't look too difficult. I have all the castings ready to go for this area so once the fence is installed I should be able to move pretty quickly.
Ken, I haven't really done much that needed close up in the last few steps. I'll make sure I get some as I start to detail the different areas. You're the master you won't need to use my work as guide. I'm curious to see what clever things you come up with to give it your signature touch.
-Steve
I was a little intimidated by the chain link fence at first but it ended up being really easy and I'm happy with result. I've learned at this point to just trust Brett and jump right in. These kits are full of easy techniques that create really excellent results.
The fence is made from brass wire and my wife thought the product used for the chain link is called Tulle. I'm going to head to a fabric store and see if I can find some. The wire is blacked with Brass Black and the fabric is colored with gray primer. I made a rusty chalk wash and coated the whole thing once it was done.
Ignore the left side porch support. I knocked it loose when putting the fence up.
It was time to start adding some color and detail to this area. I rewet the area and sunk this long casting in the dirt. I also added a few weeds along the way.
The details really look cool through the fence. Feels pretty natural to me.
I wanted to have some foliage growing between the wall and the fence.
I added a few other castings to the area.
This area behind the fence was too plain so I added some small bushes, silfor and a couple pieces of wood.
Some scrap wood and beat up old pallets. I'm not sure what I'll have spilling out of the barrel, maybe some cinders or sand.
This stage of the build is always my favorite. Moving and adding details until a scene looks natural is a lot of fun to me.
I had to stop here for the night. I was starting to work over myself and disturb the details I had already placed.
Thanks for checking in. More detailing of this area then I'll be tackling the shingle roof on the side building.
-Steve
Mark
-Steve
Ed, I like the idea but I've never seen a decent HO scale bicycle. I'll check around for the dog.
Brett, It's so simple it almost feels like cheating. Every one of your kits I build I learn a whole bunch of cool new techniques.
I have a larger update this weekend. I got to working on the roof for the shed.
I try to plan ahead a bit where I want some worn or missing shingles. I cut into the roof card with some boards.
I covered the boards with tissue paper painted black to simulate thin tarpaper.
Every wood shingle roof I've done has looked a little wrong on the first row. The shingle angle doesn't match the rest. This time I put down a thin piece of stripwood to bring the shingles up a bit to simulate the starter row under the first row of shingles.
I have a pretty decent system for laying out the shingles. I do a row at a time on each side. By the time I'm done the other side the opposite side is dry.
I looked at a few pictures of worn out shingle roofs to see how the shingles fell off. This looked pretty natural to me. I also added some spots of dark paint further up so I can have a few missing shingles here and there.
Same basic idea on the other side.
It's a little hard to see here but I wire brushed all the shingles after they dried for 24 hours. I also attacked the roof all over with my xacto blade to add some splits and texture.
Same thing on this side.
I wanted a more weathered gray color than I got in the past so I painted the roof with a thinned out Floquil Grimy Black. It really looks terrible here. I started to really doubt my decision on the coloring.
I wanted to tone down the dark gray a bit and blend everything a bit some I painted the whole thing with driftwood. Still looks pretty terrible.
I drybrushed the whole roof with some lighter gray. It looks better but the coloring still looks wrong to me.
After a wash of A&I followed by some driftwood and some gray drybrushing I got the color I was after.
This is a picture of the color in better lighting. I wanted a bleached out gray color.
I staged the shed up against the main building. It looks pretty close to what I was going for. I added the doors also.
Thanks for checking in. The sign is next then I start adding all the smaller details.
-Steve