Windy Wednesday

With here in the UK being battered by Storm Christoph I though it appropriate to post a wind related item - nothing to do with my diet but it is about the Dapol windmill! As mentioned in a previous post a Shelf Queen of some years standing which is now actually finished! I started with this.

Once primed, grays and white were sprayed t start to bring some life to the model.

The sails and wooden main structure were sprayed white and whilst the roof to the brick base building was sprayed grey. The bricks are not actually painted on this model. A trick I picked up from Phil Parker, he of British Railway Modelling and Garden Railways magazines fame showed this on his blog (well worth looking at Phils Workshop ), was to use coloured pencils! When I first heard what he was about to do I thought that it stood no chance of working but it does. The trick is to have several brown, orange and red coloured pencils and use them randomly to rub across the brick work of the model. Because the mortar lines of the bricks are recessed in the model , the pencils just colour the bricks leaving a great finish. If you doubt it try it!

A bit of weathering took place with some black dilute paint and earthy type weathering powers toning that pristine white finish back to a more life like battered one. The doors and windows were painted pale green and whilst the green was on the brush a bit was added to a few spots around the base to give that moss/algae look that old brick work gets when damp.  The finished item I think looks good and to say that the moulds from which this kit are made are over 60 years old they still have great detail There is even a horse shoe on one of the doors! 

As the two wires hint, I have motorised this kit and just to prove it works.....

If you have the volume you will probably hear a clunk on each revolution where one of the sails was hitting the base - soon sorted with a slight bend. You may also hear a cat in the background who wanted his dinner and had no understanding of the Spielberg moment going on!

If you are interested the kit is actually based upon a real windmill at Rolvenden in Kent - Picture here. 

Right , I better go see if I have a garden fence left after this Windy Wednesday!

Barn Done It!

 Well I am pleased to say that the barn is done! A mere two years since assembling the eleven parts of this Wills kit the painting and weathering was done over four days. This is where I started with the kit in its four plastic colours. As always, click on the pictures for a bigger image.

 

Primed in black and then with some thin gray sprayed on the stone work it looked like this.

Then things got interesting with the woodwork sprayed a tan brown. Being old wood this was not the final finish but gave a good base for what was to follow.

Individual stones were picked out in different shades of tan made by having a spot of both tan and white on a pallet and mixing different hues randomly and applying it randomly. Being random is harder than it sounds though!  The wood was given a light spray of gray to tone the tan down and give it that silvery look of old weathered wood. The roof tiles were given an overall coat of an orange which was toned down with white and then individual tiles picked out using various further shades of the orange and white mix. Then I took advantage of the detail that the model has by using a very dilute (about 1part of paint and four of water) mix of black to just flood the detail. Gravity is not your friend for this process if you want the paint to stay in the relief of the mouldings so once painted I left each side facing upwards for an hour to let the paint dry. The photos below probably give a better idea of the whole process.

Having done all that and let the paint fully dry a light dusting of MIG European Dust was applied all over and then a light spray of matt varnish to protect it all and remove any sheen. The final product looks good to me!

What was nice about this project was that as I had other projects on the go I could take the time to leave this one well alone whilst the paint dried - something that I have paid the consequences for not doing in the past! The other bonus was that it was finished over a relatively short period if I ignore that it sat on the shelf for two years! Anyway, another part of the bigger Shelf Queen project that I mentioned in the last post is complete and that has to be good for the sole Barn Done It!

Paint it Black!

Paint it Black - not the old classic song by the Rolling Stones, but something model related. Been able to progress on a few projects since my last post. Although not a Finish Friday project three Shelf Queens were chosen as they all form part of a bigger project which as you may have guessed is also a Shelf Queen! However in the interests of moving matters forward and taking account that if I started the three at once then one job I do not like would only have to be done once and that is cleaning the airbrush after priming them. Having 'sacrificed' one or two airbrushes over the years by my laziness of assuming that if you leave thinner in the cup than all will be well when you come back six weeks later, I am now somewhat more diligent and my wallet somewhat less thin! Moving more across to acrylic paints has also helped in that water seems to clean out the residues as well as any airbrush cleaner if you do it straight after finishing spraying. Anyway, the three Shelf Queens, in no particular order, are:

The Dapol windmill kit CO16 (previously Airfix) and if you are wondering it is motorised and more of that later. However the good guys across at Budget Model Railways (always worth a look to see what they are up to) on YouTube did a video on how to motorise it if you are interested. Video is here - Tutorial Tuesday Episode 3 - How To Motorise A Dapol Windmill Kit.

The Wills Scenic Series Barn Kit ref. SS30 for 00 Gauge.

And finally the Emhar 5001 MkIV "Male" Heavy Battle Tank in 1.72 scale.

I used, for the first time, Vallejo black primer that I bought in a 200ml bottle for about £10 (UK price) which, for what you got, seemed good value. Having now sprayed it I can say it worked well for me and it does indeed "Paint it Black" so I will be using it again. Here are the three Shelf Queens now basking in their new colour.

 More to come on progress with these but anyone wanting a Volvo fix I can report that it is not back on the shelf and although progress has slowed it now has its full body kit. Just waiting with the side skirts as I am in two minds as to whether to fit them. I will ponder but leave you with the latest Volvo FH 16 pictures.

Hmmmm! That white looks - well white! Think it will need toning down a bit!