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Comments
Great projects. Two fine looking structures as well as great photos of the projects. You accomplished quite a bit of modeling and photography not to mention posting between October 13 and today. Thanks for taking the time to share your construction and all the photos. The final photos are awesome! Hopefully the O-Scale bug has bitten and taken hold. The Woodcutters Shack and The Blue Sky Company are still available and with your building acumen would look great as exhibits in a Plexiglas cases as Bryan Brown has done with his O'Neills build.
Later, Dave S Tucson, AZ
Frank
Tom
Terrific finish on these little kits, Tom. I especially like the gray tone of your siding. I’m always fiddling around trying to find a “perfect” formula for grayish silver boards. In looking at the coloration I get from Silverwood stain, there’s a hint of blue in it. That may be why I over complicate things rather than going simple: good old A/I.
Thank you for the reminder. Your results speak for themselves. Well done!
One suggestion—and this is purely a personal choice: it might look nice to paint the edges of your base with a neutral color. The fresh cut wood can draw in the viewer’s eye and detract from your work. Perhaps a slate gray or a tan that’s close to the color of your dirt. (Some use black but my feeling is that’s just as jolting as raw wood)
On a diorama, it’s impossible to make an invisible transition between model and support material. The goal would be to “soften” that edge a bit.
Again, just an idea.
Having grown up in the Midwest my recollections are wood aging to a silvery gray color. In my mind that is my reference point for weathered wood. I play around with varying intensities of A/I till I find a mix that looks good to me. While I like the color of wood that is gotten when using the methods outlined in the kit instructions, it just seems too brown to me. It reminds me of colors that might be seen in the west. It's just a point of reference for me.
I also recollect heavily weathered wood having dark gray and blackish streaks in it. I have tried to duplicate this by dry brushing black on my weathered boards, but it doesn't turn out the same. Dry brushing doesn't penetrate into the lower parts of the weathered wood, but sits on the top. These streaks I recall are solid and highly irregular. Sort of like the picture
I’m in the Midwest as well so we’re on the same plane when it comes to our color mindset.
Those black streaks can be achieved with a very fine brush and a dark mix of A/I. Use a steel ruler as a straight edge and make repeated applications building the color up to where you want to be. If you use too heavy of an A/I mitxture it can be a bit unforgiving. Once you go too far it’s tough to bring the color back down.
Another idea is to use a mix of 90% alcohol colored with really dark chalk (not black, but a couple steps up from pure black). Same idea: apply with a thin brush and straight edge so the streaks run perfectly perpendicular to the ground. Evaluate once dry. I’ll sometimes follow up with an up-n-down application of clean alcohol to fade, blend and “hypnotize” the streaks a bit.
Finally, some of those MiG enamel colors would be an option. Find a real dark one. Since they’re solvent based, you can thin them down as needed. You also have the option of using an application of straight thinner to “erase” any mistakes—much more so than the other two methods.