Sometimes I wonder if my builds are prototypical enough ? Do they look like something that could exist ? Added a couple of exhaust pipes on Verne’s building that look good to me but..well you have to determine that for yourself and leave a comment if you don’t like it. Still have to paint them and give them a bit of te rusty look like rust as you know..Oh and I did add some green paint stuff for moss to the roof..
Well time for more, added the roof to the staircase tower, finally. Just plain paper grey Canson MIteintes coated with a couple of thin coats dark grey acrylic primer with the airbrush. Made a small mistake and added Ammo African dust to all the seams tossing the bottle. One complete mess. Toss the lid they already warned me often..big luck for me I work on a big A2 sketchbook, so only the paper soaked. Back to business, added this nature effect to all the seams and feathered it with odourless thinner. After that I went through my pigment collection and picked a few, Europe Dust, Industrial City Dirt, Factory Grey and Dark Mud all from Mig Productions. Placed, feathered, moved finally touched down with odourless thinner blown dry with just the air from the airbrush. That’s where the double action comes in handy. On the sloped roof I painted a couple of streaking effects before I went over with pigments. Pigments also had a light streaking motion. Finally I speckles on some dark earth tone wash and a light dust wash wich I feathered with a damp brush and gave a streaking motion on the sloped roof.
Slow progress on the Verne Niner Fresh Fruits buildings, spend a lazy sunday painting and playing with the airbrush. Adapted the Chuck Doan technique for weathered and peeling paint planks a long time ago and I did want to try something different. That’s why I started painting wood like it’s a styrene based building. Finishing the weathered woods I added a couple of coats of AMMO heavy chipping fluid to the walls of the building. Let it dry for a short time and gave it a coat of aged white. It’s like the hairspray technique. After the aged white has dried wet the surface with clean tap water and start chipping with a brush.
Used the same technique on the doors with the difference that I used scratches effects from AMMO for this one, just to get smaller chips and scratches. But first I did paint all the doors with several thin layers of different rust tones, very thinned paint, splatter with a brush and so on. After that three light coats of the scratches effects followed by a coat of faded light green. Tap water and a brush for chipping and scratches. For the windows I rely on the old chipping technique with different colors of rust colored acrylic paints, they are to fragile for the chipping technique with the AMMO fluids..
Been a long time that I did some work on the layout. For one of the newer structures on the wharf of Mara Harbor I tried another approach. This time no stains to start with but from the beginning various coats of acrylics. Started with spray-painting all the seams black followed by a light coat of white primer to highlight the middle of the planking. After that an overall coat with a sand-colored primer.Varios planks spray-painted using an index card with a concrete color followed with a dark grey wash. Hand-painted, highlights with several other wood like colors followed by another wash of dark grey.As this building will have a heavily chipped off white color I do like the dark tone the wood has right now. I think it adds more contrast to a building placed in the background of the layout and it will attract the eye that way..
With the Scenic Express SuperLeaves at home for more than 2 weeks now I did find some time to use the material. So it was time to give some groups of birch trees their foliage. First layers of tiny branches done with grassfibers applied with the RTS greenkeeper. Used 12mm , 6mm and 2mm fibers. Don’t mind the color as I paint them a greyish brown after I apply the fibers.Use a RAL 7006 wich would be close to Pantone 404C. Then the leave material, Scenic Express SuperLeaves. Somekinda crushed and grinded foam wich comes in several fine-looking colors. Picked the light green for birches. First I thought it is a bit to bright but birches do have a quit bright color of leaves. But most of all I’m pretty happy the way they look even in a close up.
After the first show I did with Mara Harbor I started on finishing the scenery. Finaly after 2 shows more I fitted a couple of the modules into the Cardigan Bay Coastal Railroad. Did I see the difference between my skills from 2012 and those I have now. Yes I did. So I made a start on renewal of the scenery on Nolans Wharf. Almost done now and I just have to build a couple of trees more before I can say I’m finished on this part..
Richard Gardner a fine modeler who passed away shared his drawings of a short SHRR outside framed boxcar with pleasure and sended all his revisions without asking. As a tribute to him I like to share his drawings for the general purpose of all who like to build his cars..
on the Mara Harbour modules. For more then a year ago I started with my plans for new modules for shows. The goal was to attend the OntraX 2014 show in Utrecht march this year. And I was there but not completely ready. For now I show you the status the modules where in short before the show.
From this post on I shall try to get back in time and document the build of Mara Harbor in several posts.
since my latest update in this blog, been very busy finishing the Mara Harbor parts for OntraX 2014. And to be honest I attended the show but wasn’t ready at all. From this day on I try to update more often..
cardigan bay coastal railroad 