FSM Kit #295 Fox Run Milling Build by ReadingBob

[gnatshop]

OK, you're back from your trip and only two days until a week-end - mow the grass and do the
typical Floridy 'grow like he, err, heck, schtuff!
We're still hangin' around for the 'rest of the story' on Fox Run Milling! 

[Dave K.]

I just re-read the thread, so we're all up to speed and ready...but no pressure. 

[ReadingBob]

Thanks guys,

  I'll be getting back to this one shortly.  I started doing the final painting on some of the detail castings and have been thinking about posting a few pictures and comments about that process.  Normally I skip that part in a build thread cause there are so many others out there better than me when it comes to painting the castings but what the heck, I might delve into it a little bit this time.

I've also started a CCK kit that I'm going to do a build thread on so that, plus being on vaction, has kept me a way from this one for a little bit.

Hang in there!  I'll be back.   

[ReadingBob]

Okay, I have actually been working on this one recently but I've been focusing on painting the detail castings so there's been no "glue on wood" at this point.      I'm going to walk you through the steps I took to paint the stone retaining wall that runs along side the road.  I consider this a happy accident.  I've never been pleased with the results I get when I paint stone walls but I think I lucked out on this one.

This wall is a metal casting and I had previously primed it with Floquil Primer.  The first thing I did was, per the instructions, paint it with Floquil Concrete.



Painting it with Concrete was as far as I went with regards to sticking to the instructions.  The instructions then call for painting some individual stones with Floquil Oak Stain and some with a darker gray after which A&I is applied and then drybrushing.  I opted, however, to paint the individual stones with cheap craft store acrylics: Raw Umber, Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna.  (If you follow my lead on this don't worry about being too precise painting the stones.  Also, blend the various colors together to create even more shades of reddish browns as you paint the stones).



When I finished the wall it was just a little too dark, overall, for my tastes.



To lighten it up I took another cheap craft store acrylic, a light gray, along with a lot of water to give the wall a "wash".  Partly because I was impatient and did this right after I paint the stones so the paint hadn't fully cured and partly because I used cheap craft store acrylics I discovered that scrubbing the stones a little bit with the wash blended the browns together to a grayish/muddy sort of color and exposed some of the underlying Floquil Concrete.



After the wash dried I gave the wall a treatment of A&I being very careful not to brush the walls.  The A&I will definitely loosen up the acrylic paints.  One nice thing about using cheap arcylics for something like this is if you don't like the result you can wash them off and get back to the underlying Floquil paints with little difficulty.



Here's my final wall after drybrushing with an off white and adding a few bits of coarse turf.  The wash blended the rather harsh browns together but left just a little bit of distinction between the stones.  Some are just a shade darker than others or more reddish than others but all in all I ended up with colors I'm happy with.      I'll probably hit it with Dullcoat to seal the acrylic paints so the water that will inevitably get on it when I'm adding scenery doesn't mess it up.

Thanks for following along.  Back to painting those detail castings.   

[GPdemayo]

Good work on the wall Bob.....

[ReadingBob]

Ooops.....it would have helped if the picture of the finished wall had been included in my previous post.   



Sorry about that!

[Zephyrus52246]

Nice lookin' wall, Bob.

Jeff

[Dave K.]

Nice job on the wall!

[Oldguy]

Wow!  What an improvement over the first go around.  But then I'm partial towards grayer rocks.

[bparrish]

Terrific stone work ! ! !  !

Thanx
Bob

[Mark Dalrymple]

Great colouring, Bob!

Nice and subtle.

Cheers, Mark.

[cuse]

The extra steps to arrive at the finish line are what make your builds special. The way that the finished appearance was created was really impressive. If someone (me) painted those gray stones gray, there would so much missing in the final coloring vs. the way you got there.


Educational as always...John

[BandOGuy]

Yeah, the wall's great and the castings are good. BUT, LOVE the T shirt. Just don't like 'em in the NL East cellar.

[Mike Engler]

Nice work Bob. I kind of wondered what Greg liked so well before you added the last photo of the wall.


This is one of George's kits that I'm sorry I missed. I had my hands on one at a show but Jaime talked me out of it. When I went back later it was gone. H'mmmm. No, he wouldn't have- would he?

[NEMMRRC]

Nice work Bob. I kind of wondered what Greg liked so well before you added the last photo of the wall.


This is one of George's kits that I'm sorry I missed. I had my hands on one at a show but Jaime talked me out of it. When I went back later it was gone. H'mmmm. No, he wouldn't have- would he?

I resemble that remark.


Fox Run is the last of the big kits. All kits thereafter are the Jewel Series.


Jaime