Steel cable transmission

[Peter_T1958]

Thanks Marc and Narayan



At last I found a reference photo that gets an idea of what it could have looked once. This is a barrage in Southern Germany and was also built in the late 19th Century.
You can clearly see that the surface of the sandstone is rather smooth still today.

Here my latest attempts. This time I used different methodes to reproduce the subtle chiseling pattern of the sandstone, e.g. removing the casting mould sides during the drying process led to some random effects of flaking sandstone ..




Peter

[Hydrostat]

Hi Peter,

the stones look great - especially the upper left one and the right one beneath. Can you show us a weathered attempt?

Volker

[Peter_T1958]

Hi Volker (Hallo Nachbar )

Most photos show heavy discoloration due to water, weather, efflorescence, and fungal infestation (). No idea how to do those blotches, scratches, shades... yet.
Here annother reference pic:



Peter

[Hydrostat]

Peter, please try with very thin watercolour (gouache). Caran d' Ache is a very good brand from Switzerland which I can recommend to you. But every cheap watercolor set from school does nearly as well. You can work wet in wet, starting with only lightly coloured water. Your material should absorb the water well. If it doesn't (whyever) just add a bit (a tiny drop) of dish detergent.

[Ray Dunakin]

The texture looks great, I think you've got it just right.

[marc_reusser]

Peter,

The new pieces are perfect, and quite stunning. Hard to believe this is 1/50 scale. Thank you also for the 2 new reference images.

[Chuck Doan]

Looking good to me.

[Peter_T1958]

Hard to believe this is 1/50 scale

And it is a very time-consuming process. Day-to-day after work and after having read my litte daughter a bed-time story  I am going to cast one or two samples. Only one of five trials is somewhat suitable...
But your comments will encourage me not to give up. Thanks!

Peter

[lab-dad]

Peter
I feel your pain.
I have been casting and flooring lintels for weeks.
many poor examples nothing worth showing!
I am looking forward to more progress from you - and myself!
Marty

[Peter_T1958]

I am looking forward to more progress from you - and myself!
Marty

Sorry Marty, there is no progress to show at the moment. But I want to accelerate my attempts over the Christmas holidays.
Here the result after some nightly work - ready to pour the casting rubber into the forms. This will become the masters for two stone strips, as each strip is of different high  



Peter

[nk]

Peter, you really have great texture on those blocks. One thing I have noticed from my experience as a picture restorer is that if you have the texture right, the exact colour becomes a lot less important. My only other advice is to cast many spare blocks to experiment with different media: watercolour, watercolour pencils, gouache (think of it as opaque watercolour), oil and acrylic. They all work differently and you will find the ones that works for you. Also for some of your dark areas with light spots on them, a liquid mask may be helpful. Also, I have found if the colour doesn't work, you can always re-texture the surface and add more paint, and sometimes you can strip off paint with masking tape, which also adds a nice texture. Good luck, I am sure you will achive amazing results.

[Peter_T1958]

Here my first try on the "old" texture with heavily diluted Vallejo paints (Contrarily to my first thoughts my the porcelain-like casting compound doesn't absorb the water.). It simply served to check the color hues of the cast stones. Ok, it gives an slight impression of the "how to look at the end". Even so that's not exactly what I had in mind yet...  I will start over at a later date and will take a slightly different approach.

Some hours later I read Andy Littles advices in the "Dry Stone Wall ... SBS" thread concerning the different green hues. Very interesting! I will consider them in my next attemps (Thanks, Andy!).

Peter

[Peter_T1958]

The original plan was to cast umteen blocks of sandstone, staking them with the help of superglue - and finished! Now, the idea has been surpassed by reality... I have to bring them into line in sanding block by block. Quite boring and time consuming too!
Here three rows on their wooden sub frame before leveling the upper surface. Next steps will be the abutmen. There I will use slightly rougher ones as there is more water erosion.



In the meantime I was working again on the color of the sandsone on some surplus items. No progress at all - my attempts just didn't look right! I never tried the hairspray technique. May be I should give it a try. 
Oh yes, it seems that I need some help and input indeed.

Peter

[Ray Dunakin]

That looks great so far!

[Malachi Constant]

Well, it may be a lot of work, but it sure looks GOOD!  -- Dallas