Tuesday 1 January 2008

The Tower Project - 4 - In color.

The upper storey - turret, cupola and dome.

The side of the tower.

The Leibgarde Grenadiers march past.

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Here's the tower with the first major areas of color blocked-in. Wisdom has it that all model buildings should begin with darker colors near the base, working upwards and lightening each shade along the way. I've done the same here. All pigments used are acrylics; some areas are made of card (such as the doorway and portico) and these were treated to paint with a little PVA mixed in. The door is painted in the Hetzenberg national colors in the chevron style favored in some German countries. Two brass door rings will be added when it comes time to paint finer details.
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The dome was probably the hardest area to get right in terms of shade. I don't know about anyone else but I find verdigris a very hard color to replicate. In this instance I began with an undercoat using Vallejo light gray (70990) over the whole dome and the area atop the cupola. Over this went a coat of grass green (Miniature Paints 15), then a coat of Humbrol green (5037) with a little of the light gray mixed in. While this was still wet I dabbed on more gray using a piece of foam, and once this was dry I finished with a wash of black, dabbing off some of the wash to leave lighter areas to reflect the variable effects of weathering. It's not a bad attempt I don't think?
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So, this project is essentially finished. All that needs to be done is for the windows to be added to the gallery and the cupola, some minor relief in light shades here and there and a black wash over the tiles.

5 comments:

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

Happy New Year A.J.!

Your tower looks lovely, and I am envious of it. Your onion dome color is particularly good. Well done.

Best Regards,

Stokes

Bluebear Jeff said...

I agree . . . a very good looking building. What I particularly like is that it has "character" . . . it isn't a "cookie cutter" type of building.


-- Jeff

old-tidders said...

Great looking building

-- Allan

Cindy A. Matthews said...

Wow... Impressive! You are a great architect, sir. ;)

Cindy

Fitz-Badger said...

I agree, well done!
It was good to see the progression.
Thanks! :-)