Sunday 14 June 2020

Stonework at Hexworthy

Unlike many I have been fully occupied of late - I'm not complaining, but modelling time has been more limited than expected. Slow progress has been made though with the stonework around Hexworthy - scribing and painting. The wall and bridge had been cut from foam (polystyrene pizza bases) for some time, finally I have scribed the stonework into it. 

The small space behind it looked empty, there's supposed to be a road and another wall, so I added a second wall behind it. As you can see from the close-up this wall is far too close, the road is only about a scale 3' to 4' wide, but from normal angles this isn't obvious so I hope the subterfuge works. With a gate, and a few trees and bushes hanging over the wall the transition to flat back-scene should look more natural. I've also added a water tower, actually a resin casting from Anyscale Models; a nice size tank and the stonework matches well but it was rather low, so I made a coaling platform for it to stand on. (Ignore the brass weight holding the wall upright in place for now).


One area I am unsure of is the painting of the stonework. I used acrylics with a grey coat mixed with PVA to strengthen the foam, onto which individual stones were picked out, unified with a thin wash, then the mortar added from weathering powders mixed with talc. The effect looks OK, but it is perhaps a little dark, and looks much darker brown than the station.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/W6nhyG]IMG_3520

The real stonework colour of course varies with ambient lighting and weather, moss and damp, so hard to say. 


The roadway is also foam, with talc sprinkled over the wet grey paint. It's not come out as well as when Gordon Gravett does it...


The little bridge has also had the stone treatment. Again, I think too dark?

3 comments:

Phil Parker said...

Try dabbing it with talcum powder. I suspect this will cure it.

Michael Campbell said...

That's what I thought, but I did that already!

Unknown said...

May be it is a bit like the case of the leaky canal? Having said it leaks the builder complained to the engineer who just said puddle it again then? Maybe a light spray first with some matt varnish and talc again once dry? Grey and green pastels, to look at that bridge picture.
Andrew K