{"id":3904,"date":"2010-09-02T18:06:23","date_gmt":"2010-09-02T23:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/?p=3904"},"modified":"2010-09-02T18:06:23","modified_gmt":"2010-09-02T23:06:23","slug":"in-progress-%c2%bb-%e2%80%98futuristic%e2%80%99-prototype-01-vincent-%c2%bb-motel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/in-progress-%c2%bb-%e2%80%98futuristic%e2%80%99-prototype-01-vincent-%c2%bb-motel\/","title":{"rendered":"In Progress \u00c2\u00bb \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcFuturistic\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Prototype 01 Vincent \u00c2\u00bb Motel"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been progressing with the scenery while waiting for some LEDs to arrive for Vincents head. First up is the portable marquis sign. After completing the scratch-building process I primed the sign in Mr. Color Base White.<\/p>\n

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Then when dry I masked off the white portion and sprayed the whole sign in uber-cheap “Color Place” flat black spraypaint from Walmart. It’s under a dollar a can and actually sprays beautifully. Over that I sprayed a thin random coat of rust-tone-mixed Tamiya Acrylic, a thin coat of FFA, and after that cured a generous coating of hairspray with a dash of salt.<\/p>\n

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As soon as the hairspray dried I sprayed the whole sign in XF-18 semi-gloss black. After a couple minutes I rubbed off the salt and started the chipping away of the black coat with water and various brushes and toothpicks.<\/p>\n

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After the marquis sign was done I went to work on the Motel sign. I used the same techniques described above, but with different top-coat colors. For the blue, red, and yellow I sprayed a coat of white down first over the hairspray so that they would come out brighter. This had an added benefit of multi-toned chip-edges. These will all be faded and weathered more in later progress reports. More pics below in the gallery.<\/p>\n

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I also worked on the base. The asphalt is plaster of paris mixed with brown ballast and beach sand. This makes for a nice textured surface once you give it a rough sanding. Cracks were made with razor blades while the plaster was semi-wet. For the color I applied very thin washes of dark brown-gray acrylic. WHat worked out really well is that the acrylic did not want to stick to the sand particles resulting in a very worn looking surface with just the right about of sparkle. Seriously looks just like my street which is great. Stains, dirt, tar, weeds, etc will be added later. I’ll probably add a pin wash to the cracks too to make them pop a little more. The retaining wall box around the sign was also made from this same plaster mix in a temporary wooden form and carved\/chipped when cured.<\/p>\n

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