Alongside finishing the baseboard and building the bridge I have been experimenting further with the block walling. The Scalescenes printed paper sheets looked good, and will save a lot of time in painting. I printed them out on the laser printer at work - this gave a slightly darker and more defined finish, and is resistant to water drops (bubblejet ink smudged and ran when wet). I also understand laser prints are more resistant to fading.
Once the paper is applied to the card or foam-core model I have added a little relief by scribing with a blunt metal object - actually one point of my tweezers. It is easy to follow the printed courses and although the relief is barely visible, it does make a difference, especially when viewed at an angle. The depth of mortar courses is very small in reality so I think this is enough.
Once the paper is applied to the card or foam-core model I have added a little relief by scribing with a blunt metal object - actually one point of my tweezers. It is easy to follow the printed courses and although the relief is barely visible, it does make a difference, especially when viewed at an angle. The depth of mortar courses is very small in reality so I think this is enough.
These photos show the embossed finish, that has also had some colour variation added using brown and grey weathering powders. Again this helps bring the prints to life, and allows dirt or rust staining. I don't have a green powder but I need to find a way to represent the moss on the real walls under the bridge. Finally a coat of Testor's Dullcote matt varnish should protect the paper and weathering powder, and ensures a nice matt finish. The piece of stone wall is polystyrene pizza base embossed with a pencil. So far I am not happy with the colour on this, or the render on the sloping buttresses.
You will also see the bridge has been painted. It was given a coat of red primer, then painted with brown rust colours. Dabs and smears of PVA glue where applied, and once dry, it was painted green. The glue patches were scraped off, and soaked off (leaving the bridge in water) to reveal lots of rust, final touching up and some weathering powders finish it. The result is not as rusty as in the photos of the real bridge, but the model is set 20+ years ago when the bridge was much newer!
Loosely put in place the bridge scene is coming together. I have bought a Gaugemaster sky backscene, but I'm not sure how best to fix it - any ideas?
Finally I've been looking for a fork-lift truck or other suitable vehicle to add to the scene. I haven't had much success so far, but I did find this in my son's toybox*. It is missing the seat and (obviously) the forks, but it might have potential with a bit of work. However it is a little over-scale, and I think much too modern for the late 70's/early 80's era of the model.
Finally I've been looking for a fork-lift truck or other suitable vehicle to add to the scene. I haven't had much success so far, but I did find this in my son's toybox*. It is missing the seat and (obviously) the forks, but it might have potential with a bit of work. However it is a little over-scale, and I think much too modern for the late 70's/early 80's era of the model.
*He has given me permission to use it!
4 comments:
Green wethering powder is available from Humbrol. I've used it for this and it works very well.
Base Toys do a pair of nice 4mm scale fork lift trucks.
Unfortunately not in 7mm scale though!
I'll look out for green weathering powder, or pastels should do the job.
Woah. I've always thought that paper textures like that were a bit of a poor relation to plastikard/scribed clay and putty but they look really awesome. Might have to experiment!
Just like to say that Epson DuraBrite Ultra ink for Epson ink jets is resistant to water damage and fading. Some of our cardboard model buildings are over a year old and show no sign of deterioration. I have no affiliation with Epson, just a railway modeller at http://ngaugelightrailway.blogspot.co.uk
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