Finito!

The project is officially over now and I've spent the past week since my last post putting the model all together and particularly working on the surrounding landscape and rocks of the baseboard. I used the plaster covered foam for big rocks and painted up gravel stones for medium sized rocks. The rest of the lanscape consists of sand and scenic scatter (that you can get from model shops) that I put on with PVA glue.

I intend to photoshop some of the photographs I have taken of it into an environment that will hopefully make my miniature look as realistic as possible.

Painting

Over the weekend I have been concentrating on painting the main outbuilding and lighthouse. I'm trying to achieve quite a weathered look to make the lighthouse look as authentic as possible. I sprayed the main white and red colour of the lighthouse with cellulose paint, as it is quicker than painting it by hand and I didn't want visible brush marks. To create the weathered stains and variations in colour I have been working with acrylic paint and chalks. I find that chalks allow me to create a more subtle shading difference than a paintbrush.

With the outbuilding I have painted it all by hand using acrylic paints. I first put on a basic base colour, then shade in darker areas, around edges and windows etc, and finish off by highlighting areas to pick up on the brickwork. I have tried to keep the brickwork quite subtle, as given the scale I don't want it to be too noticeable, unless you look at it more closely.

Finishing up

Today I started adding the landscape to my baseboard. I've used sand glued on with PVA and added a few of the coastal rocks. I still need to make a lot more rocks, which I plan to work on tomorrow. I'm using real gravel stones to create medium size rocks, which I'll paint up to fit the colour scheme. I've also been working on painting the front of the main outbuilding.

Update

Upto this point I've mainly been working on the main outbuilding of my model. I cut out the walls first in MDF and cast panels of brickwork in fast cast which I stuck on top.

I've also added the windows to my lighthouse and finished the railings on the top balcony.

I've sprayed the baseboard with a sandy colour speckle so that when I come to add sand to it will hopefully blend better with the base.

Making Railings

Today I've been working on the railings at the top balcony section of the lighthouse. I had previously lathed a piece of chemi-wood into the shape of the balcony and now I'm finishing this particular top section off by using wire to create the railings. Once this section is completed it'll be ready for spraying. I have decided to use a spray gun to colour any sections of the lighthouse that are in red so that I can get in between the railings more easily and I won't have a problem with having to keep remixing paint. I'm also deciding to do it with a spray finish as this part of the lighthouse doesn't have texture and I do not want to leave visible brush strokes.

Back on Track

Today I finished creating the brickwork effect on my lighthouse. Unfortunately as I lost a week out from being ill on this project I am not going to have the time to mould and cast my lighthouse so I will be using the MDF master. This will add quite a bit of weight to the baseboard so for practical reasons I'm going to hopefully leave the lighthouse so that it is detatchable from the base. I have also had to dremel out spaces for the window. As the windows are going to be butted up against solid MDF I'm going to have to back spray the window panes.





Despite losing a week of the making process last week I've felt on track up until that point I took time off and taking the moulding and casting of the lighthouse out of the equation hopefully means that if I continue to work steadily as I have done I'll still make the deadline for this project.

Bricking the Lighthouse

Today I made the brickwork pattern on my lighthouse. I did this by first carving a brickwork pattern the size I needed into carbody filler . I then made a texture mat of this carving by covering it with silicone. I then covered a section of the MDF cone shape that I lathed out in car body filler and wrapped the silicone mat around it to transfer the brick pattern. I think the result is quite effective, the end result looks like weathered rendering that has worn away in places to reveal the brick underneath it. However it was quite problematic holding the silicone mat in place, as I had to wait for the car body filler to set before I could peel it away.

Contours Continued...

Today I cut out my contours and stuck them down. Unlike I previously suggested in my last post about cutting out a space for the buildings to slot into, I decided against this idea as it would have taken me quite a bit longer to cut out a shape in every contour to create the insert. To finish off I need to cover the contours with car body filler and do a lot of sanding to smooth them off!