Wednesday, March 6, 2013

The Watchtower painted!



Well, it was a pretty crazy day with the snow and the shoveling, etc., but in between rounds of snow clearing, I did the painting and flocking of the watchtower!

The colors were very simple.  I stuck to the Liquitex acrylic paints, using a little bit of black, Titanium White, Sap Green and Cadmium Red.  I also added a bit of tan and a few other colors of regular miniature paint for some of the smaller details.


By mixing the Sap green and Cad red together, I got a nice brown.  I could vary the hue as needed (more green vs more red) whenever I wanted. 


For instance, I knew I wanted the interior wall color to be a reddish brown, with the corner stones being lighter and cooler.  The reddish brown would be a nice contrast to the eventual flock and grass treatments.


By mixing in some of the white into those color variations, I could make them more or less saturated.


You can see that I painted in some cracks on the stones.  That was to save time, but still create a nice effect.


Once all the painting was done, it was time to put that flock and grass onto the tower!  I had a few colors of flock... a green, and a yellowish tan.  Those were placed in alternating patterns on the ground and along the walls.  That put a nice mossy texture on the stones, and added some great color contrast to the reddish browns of the walls!


Some static grass was placed on the upper surfaces of the rock base.

One thing to note:  I was not able to take WIP images of this part of the process, since I was in and out of the house all day.  I wish I could have snapped some images of how I used thin lines of glue in the 'gaps' between some of the stones for the flock.  This made stone texture where none had been, which was very cool!

I have some more top views coming tomorrow!!!



10 comments:

  1. That looks great, nice work! The stones look weathered and the moss is looks natural and not overdone.

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    1. Thanks for the kind words! It's always interesting to realize how you have to be able to visualize that in advance, when it's just pink foam and a cereal box :-)

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  2. Beauty. Love the vine work and transition of colors.

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    1. Thanks! Limited palette exercises are very fun...

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  3. The model itself looked good, but nothing special (not a bad thing), but once you painted it, it looks incredible! I love the colors and cracks and everything.

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    1. Thanks! Yes, that is what I mean by 'seeing' what it will look like in advance.

      I have gotten many sideways looks as I build terrain, since I don't care what it looks like before painting :-) I use whatever materials are at hand, which means the projects are usually lighter on the wallet as well!

      That's always a plus! We are well know for literally pulling stuff out of the garbage to make terrain. That's what happened with the cereal boxes...

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  4. What a fabulous build, the vegetation really tops it off wonderfully.

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    1. Many thanks :-)

      While I know it will be very messy, and I will get it all over my fingers no matter how hard I try, it is always worthwhile!

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  5. Nice job, those little hand painted crack lines make it pop!

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    1. Thanks! It can be a little tedious to make all those, but as you said... they just add that 'something' :-)

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