I am making a model of the street outside my apartment building in South Boston. The view is (corrected for parallax):
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I thought I would start with the most challenging part, which is to make the road markings. As you know, these are sprayed paint but applied very wet and have a distinct thickness and applied as a band about 12" (30cm) wide with a distict ridged surface.
After lots of experimenting, I found that I could mask out a shape on thick mylar, apply the paint (Golden liquid acrylics) and smooth it out with a squeegee (The squeegee is used to apply a clear film to a cellphone). The thickness of the masking tape is about right for a scale paint-film thickness, and roughness of the the tape causes the squeegee to move unevenly and give the top of the paint a ridged appearance. I removed the tape as quickly as possible to allow the paint to flow a little and have a rounded edge.
It took most of the day to get this far, but luckily there was a blizzard going on outside, so I had nothing else to do!
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I think it gives the correct apprarance of a painted traffic arrow. Now I have to let it dry for a week of so and then I can peel it off the mylar and stick it onto the base. Then I can weather it with a q-tip and solvent to get a good worn effect.
Since my bottle of Skull White from CItadel has dried up, I am looking for a nice replacement acrylic to give a cracked paint line...more soon.
Good to see a new project!
The base is made. I used cherry plywood and cherry edging. I am branching out from my usual dark walnut stain and I like how it matches my new desk! There is also a cherry spacer to give it a floating look, rather than sitting flush with the display surface.
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages15.fotki.com%2Fv1626%2Fphotos%2F7%2F698387%2F11665124%2FIMG_2945-vi.jpg&hash=3f6299eee83cb1ed601d238ea643970a42059232)
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Interesting approach on painting the arrow.
Good to see another street from you. I'm particular to cherry with no color.
A quick update.
I made a Boston street grate out of extruded rod, sheet styrene and injection moulded letters. It took a lot of scalpel nibbling and then filing with a triangular file to get the shapes right but it looks good test fitted in place.
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages52.fotki.com%2Fv726%2Fphotos%2F7%2F698387%2F11665124%2FIMG_2948-vi.jpg&hash=0ec7a4a5affa3e998817306d5bd140e3988a8d78)
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages12.fotki.com%2Fv616%2Fphotos%2F7%2F698387%2F11665124%2FIMG_2952-vi.jpg&hash=803299f226f4e4eddd8f39d1f3f098baed75cb4c)
And the easy part was buying some 1/24 manhole covers from Dave at Vectorworks. I used one OOB and the other I made a new rim to have a slightly misfitting cover
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages50.fotki.com%2Fv1558%2Fphotos%2F7%2F698387%2F11665124%2FIMG_2953-vi.jpg&hash=ffaa3ba06bb73c35a4d4e9f2cdf064627c80fa69)
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Nice to see you back at work. -- Russ
I agree with Russ..so great to see you back at this. Always a joy to watch and a lots to learn. I missed the arrow technique post earlier....what a great trick. Definitely ome to remember. Thanks.
Thanks Russ. Its nice to be back at the bench. Marc: very happy to be of service. I can feed you the ideas and you can execute them more finely than I could ever hope.
A quick update. One line was painted directly onto the surface and attached immediately with masking tape and a scalpel to weather it. The other thicker stripe was painted out onto mylar and then peeled off and glued onto the base. This is yet to be weathered, but I like the thickness of the paint on the road. And lastltly an overall with the arrow not stuck down. I am just working out its final location.
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages54.fotki.com%2Fv77%2Fphotos%2F7%2F698387%2F11665124%2FIMG_2956-vi.jpg&hash=40882e5d39417291612176e657833227c82a6fee)
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages57.fotki.com%2Fv496%2Fphotos%2F7%2F698387%2F11665124%2FIMG_2957-vi.jpg&hash=cba020d188d0df1b25d61acb23d301d65f92459a)
All the pieces are glued into place. I used Elmers (PVA) to glue the arrow down as well as the BWSC plate, and superglue for the manhole covers. I filled the space between the studs on the BWSC plate with a sifted dirt and Elmer's glue to give a sense of trapped crud. I am very happy with all the different textures on this little scene.
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages49.fotki.com%2Fv1511%2Fphotos%2F7%2F698387%2F11665124%2FIMG_2963-vi.jpg&hash=bd3455c0e63aadedd29c51af3f3fb79f5ddb622d)
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages52.fotki.com%2Fv737%2Fphotos%2F7%2F698387%2F11665124%2FIMG_2966-vi.jpg&hash=e0d77eb5ea7869e0657a3bc6a371793944fecaf9)
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages108.fotki.com%2Fv1629%2Fphotos%2F7%2F698387%2F11665124%2FIMG_2965-vi.jpg&hash=e0e9df0bebe15f31715b201051801f7786b2e277)
Now to start the weathering...
Looking good, Narayan!
I finally finished this one. It will be winging its way to Portugal shortly.
I had fun applying the oil drips to the road surface... I applied paint to a piece of dental floss and then stretched it taut and applied "drips" in a straight line to simulate oil leaking from a moving car. I found that I could use a fresh No.11 blade and carve in the cracks to the white paint and it looked pretty good, provided I followed the detailed reference pics I had. The weathering was very routine stuff.
Here is an overall:
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And some details
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages51.fotki.com%2Fv102%2Fphotos%2F7%2F698387%2F11665124%2FDio2-vi.jpg&hash=d03f3a633344d75d614f2fa88ea190f27eea8996)
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages52.fotki.com%2Fv1551%2Fphotos%2F7%2F698387%2F11665124%2FDio3-vi.jpg&hash=199dd5b64736ee90118127fa6b920d2684792f65)
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This looks realy nice. The weathering, oil and cracks in the paint came out great. Really a wonderful study of these details. I really enjoyed seeing this develop, it brought a lot of interesting details to light, that I had never noticed before (such as the arrow stem tapering, and the oddly layered paint thicknesses). I also like haow you have take the same basic elements as at the real intersection, and done just a slight bit of adjustment, to make the composition be visually better balanced.
Yeah, what Marc said!
Adequate. -- Russ
Marc thank you for that critique. Coming from you it is very high priase indeed. You are absolutely right about the composition. I really like playing around with the compositional elements to find some balance. I've always admireed artists like Fred Sandback who can just have two lines on a sheet of paper and it is perfect, right composition right colour.
Thanks Ray and Russ for your feedback
Great work, looks very real. If someone told me it was the real thing I would easily buy it. Out of curiosity, why are you sending it my way (Portugal)?
Hi Nalmeida, I am sending it to a friend in Lisbon who is an artist. He gave us a painting when we saw him a couple of years ago and I know he loves street markings, so I made this model for him. He was in Boston a few months ago and saw it in progress and was excited to receive it when it was done. That is why it's on its way to Portugal.
I don't have a lot of storage space at home, so I tend to make these little scenes and then give them away to friends. That way I can keep on building and not worry about accumulating too much clutter in my apartment.
Good hearted, generous, and practical--nice combination. -- Russ
Thanks for the feedback, I know the world is a real small place but these things really make it small!!