Andy the Sheep
SMF Supporter
Take a que number for that corner...Now that is quite simply stunning Tim......I will now find a corner to crawl up in and consider the futility of my modelling existence.
Simply outstanding.
ATB
Andrew
Not a Moment to Lose… Battle of the Bulge, Ardennes, December 1944
- Thread starter TIM FORSTER
- Start date
langy71
SMF Supporter
Having read through this thread I was wondering if there's any room left in that corner,Take a que number for that corner...
maybe I should take up crocheting...
TIM FORSTER
SMF Supporter
Thanks so much for all the kind comments. I really do appreciate them.
Most of the time I am flying by the seat of my proverbial pants and I really don't know how a lot of this stuff is going to turn out. The acrylic paste was a good example - I thought I had ruined everything at first, but in the end it worked out.
Since the pictures above were taken I have added some washes, etc, but it's still work in progress until I get the groundwork down and see how the colour balance works overall.
Anyway, here is the next leap into the unknown...
Adding colour (and other stuff) to the roof
After spending so much time painting the stone and brickwork, I was a little wary of tackling the roof, but it was actually pretty quick, easy and a lot of fun.
I had already added some very basic pre-shading with an airbrush when I was giving the walls their first coat, but what the roof really needed was some variation to the individual tiles.
So I started with a grey black (these are all Vallejo paints) and mixed in various browns and blues to give me a palette of around five basic colours. These were then applied with a brush using the wet-blending technique to give some graduation within each tile with the darkest shade generally at the top (where the one above hangs over the one below).
This was done in a random manner and I didn’t even bother to paint every tile - so some remained in the original (pre-shaded) tone. Incidentally, the thick black card stock I had used to make the roof takes the paint very well and there was no sign of any warping (which was a relief).
Next I lightened these colours a little and went back over the tiles adding random spots, focussing generally on the lower edge of the tiles (but not all). None of this was scientific - I was just going for the right ‘look’.
To complete the illusion I then applied slightly lightened and diluted versions of the colours at the top of the roof planes and used a broad brush to drag them down vertically to give to look of rain stains.
The next step was to add speckling. I have always been slightly nervous of this technique because it seems a bit crazy and uncontrolled - and usually looks awful when first applied - but having tried it with rust colours on mufflers it really does add depth to most surfaces.
So, in essence, what you are doing is wetting a brush in paint, holding it a few centimetres from the surface and using something like a cocktail stick to bend the bristles back and spatter the paint. The trick is to keep the paint fairly diluted and use colours that are close to what to what you have already used to paint the surface on which you are speckling.
The great thing with Vallejo paints is that they dry pretty fast, so even if the effect looks to strong at first, they soon start to fade into the background and leave you with a subtle variation of the base colours. Anyway, it worked!
The final part of the painting process was to add speckles of Japanese Yellow to represent the typical blotches that you see on roof tiles (at least here in Europe). I believe this is lichen.
You can also see that I painted the ridge tiles a sort of concrete shade. These were originally terracota, but whilst that worked for my Italian diorama a few years ago, it would not have been appropriate for a farm building in NW Europe.
And then the final touch: moss! This is the green, fuzzy stuff that you also tend to see on rooves in rural areas and especially in damp climates.
Some years ago I bought this lovely tower of mossy stuff from Landscapes in Detail at IPMS Scale Model World in Telford.
I’m not sure if they are still going (I hope so!), but they are a great Spanish father and son team who have also published some superb diorama books. Anyway, I had never used it - until now.
Of course, this could not be simpler: simply apply some PVA glue with a fine brush (slightly diluted with a drop of washing up liquid added to break the surface tension), sprinkle the stuff over and then tip off the excess. And voila!
You can also see a few more additions in some of these shots, such as one of the downpipes, a creeper and the beginning of groundwork around the base of the building. I will cover these in future posts, but I’m pretty happy with the way this has turned out so far…
Most of the time I am flying by the seat of my proverbial pants and I really don't know how a lot of this stuff is going to turn out. The acrylic paste was a good example - I thought I had ruined everything at first, but in the end it worked out.
Since the pictures above were taken I have added some washes, etc, but it's still work in progress until I get the groundwork down and see how the colour balance works overall.
Anyway, here is the next leap into the unknown...
Adding colour (and other stuff) to the roof
After spending so much time painting the stone and brickwork, I was a little wary of tackling the roof, but it was actually pretty quick, easy and a lot of fun.
I had already added some very basic pre-shading with an airbrush when I was giving the walls their first coat, but what the roof really needed was some variation to the individual tiles.
So I started with a grey black (these are all Vallejo paints) and mixed in various browns and blues to give me a palette of around five basic colours. These were then applied with a brush using the wet-blending technique to give some graduation within each tile with the darkest shade generally at the top (where the one above hangs over the one below).
This was done in a random manner and I didn’t even bother to paint every tile - so some remained in the original (pre-shaded) tone. Incidentally, the thick black card stock I had used to make the roof takes the paint very well and there was no sign of any warping (which was a relief).
Next I lightened these colours a little and went back over the tiles adding random spots, focussing generally on the lower edge of the tiles (but not all). None of this was scientific - I was just going for the right ‘look’.
To complete the illusion I then applied slightly lightened and diluted versions of the colours at the top of the roof planes and used a broad brush to drag them down vertically to give to look of rain stains.
The next step was to add speckling. I have always been slightly nervous of this technique because it seems a bit crazy and uncontrolled - and usually looks awful when first applied - but having tried it with rust colours on mufflers it really does add depth to most surfaces.
So, in essence, what you are doing is wetting a brush in paint, holding it a few centimetres from the surface and using something like a cocktail stick to bend the bristles back and spatter the paint. The trick is to keep the paint fairly diluted and use colours that are close to what to what you have already used to paint the surface on which you are speckling.
The great thing with Vallejo paints is that they dry pretty fast, so even if the effect looks to strong at first, they soon start to fade into the background and leave you with a subtle variation of the base colours. Anyway, it worked!
The final part of the painting process was to add speckles of Japanese Yellow to represent the typical blotches that you see on roof tiles (at least here in Europe). I believe this is lichen.
You can also see that I painted the ridge tiles a sort of concrete shade. These were originally terracota, but whilst that worked for my Italian diorama a few years ago, it would not have been appropriate for a farm building in NW Europe.
And then the final touch: moss! This is the green, fuzzy stuff that you also tend to see on rooves in rural areas and especially in damp climates.
Some years ago I bought this lovely tower of mossy stuff from Landscapes in Detail at IPMS Scale Model World in Telford.
I’m not sure if they are still going (I hope so!), but they are a great Spanish father and son team who have also published some superb diorama books. Anyway, I had never used it - until now.
Of course, this could not be simpler: simply apply some PVA glue with a fine brush (slightly diluted with a drop of washing up liquid added to break the surface tension), sprinkle the stuff over and then tip off the excess. And voila!
You can also see a few more additions in some of these shots, such as one of the downpipes, a creeper and the beginning of groundwork around the base of the building. I will cover these in future posts, but I’m pretty happy with the way this has turned out so far…
Tworrs
SMF Supporter
Very impressive Tim!
Very impressive work Tim…wonderfully executed…so realistic looking