Picking up where I left off — I started with the small office building on tall stilt legs.
As this is pretty similar to the main building in terms of materials and technique, I thought I’d instead highlight what each of my stain steps look like. I use thin/light stains in multiple layers, so any and all effect takes a while to achieve. The process can look messy. The following photos were taken with the stain still wet, but it highlights the staggered, almost striped like fashion they are applied. This is done to achieve variations almost board by board (without losing my mind in the process)
Again, from top to bottom: light A&I pass, Driftwood pass, light gray pass, extra light Golden Brown pass & A&I again on lifted clapboards.
Here’s the finished office:
Then I turned my attention to the water tower on the “peaked roof”:
I used the same technique on the lid as I did with the doors on the main building. First, a light beige base/primer coat. Then I used a few thin coats of a brown oil wash. With thinners, I subtracted from the areas I wanted to stay light. When it was dry, I did a thin black oil pass to highlight the detail.
After everything was dry, I painted the metal detail parts with dark silver and then further weathered with pastel chalks to simulate mold and mildew around the hatch.
Rust, as seen on the supply pipe in the image below, was achieved using an awesome product from a company in the UK called “Dirty Down”. I use this product a lot for any surface rust. See below for an image of the bottle.
With the water tower complete, I started on the elevator/bell tower.
I painted the clocks a bronze and decided to added a verdigris effect. I figure these clocks face the elements day-in-day-out, so it’s likely the bronze would have this heavy patina. The verdigris was achieved with a combination of paints, all of which were carefully stippled on.
The bell was colored in a similar way, although the verdigris was far lighter, given that the bell is sheltered in the tower (unlike the clock faces!).
The bell supports were painted to represent heavy, worn iron.
The door was painted alongside all the other doors at the start of the build. This ensured uniformity. All I did was add pastel chalk weathering and I installed the casting into the walls. It’s satisfying to not slow down on construction to paint a single casting…
The railings and posts, colored similarly to the cornice, were carefully added next, followed by the shingled roof. Until the corner strips on the roof were added, it actually looked like a hot mess. It’s amazing how these little 1/8″ strips of brown bag paper tidies everything up.
With the office, elevator and water tower all complete, this brings the build to the following stage — which is approximately 55% complete:
Next up, the stairway and guard shed.
by on February 27, 2021
