Mural with iron fences

 

                                                                                                                                                                              




For quite some time I was dreaming about some murals (cobblestone walls) with iron fences. It had been very difficult to find some well done but still affordable plastic sprues with iron fences. My attepts to built and cast some for my self didn't work either. Bot finally I found a source in the internet and purchased a first supply of three designs.
With the measures of the fences given I could start working on the walls. I checked out some sizes and basic designs by the use of mock-ups from foam. My decission for the first set goes for a natural stone look and for three different hights. I made a mold from the choose mock-ups and cast them in a soft white plaster. Then I began scribing the structure of the natural stones. The finished masters with the provisory applied plastic fences can be seen in the next pictures. The miniatures are 28mm Grenadiers from Artizan and Black Tree Design and show the scale.





Then I built the molds of the six masters and cast the first murals in my usual black Dental plaster (Class 4).  From the next pictures you can get the first impression how the pieces will look together. Again the miniature is a 28 mm Grenadier from Balck Tree Design and is added for scale. The damaged fence in the last picture is made by using a lighter to heat and soften the plastic and then bent the fence.




Now it was time to paint the models. I decided to try a new painting technic for the natural stones to achieve an even more natural look. In the next picture you can see the old painting technic (groundcolor is dark brown, drybrush in light ochre, coloring different stones with thinned down airbrush colors (Schmincke AERO COLOR), light drybrushes with off-white and black) on the left piece and the new one on the right piece. I think the new style looks more naturalistic.



Here comes a short step-by-step guide of my new painting technic:
I started by mixing up two different colored dry pigments from MIG (Composite and Dry Mud) with enamel thinner from HUMBROL.



With an old brush I applied this mixture to the wall piece. Because the model is cast in a black dental plaster I didn't had to prime it before starting.


The following picture shows the result after some drying time.


With a wet papier tissue I removed the pigment color from the raised surfaces of the natural stones. The result of this step can be seen in the next picture.


The next step is to paint the surfaces of the single stones by carefully drybrushing them with acrylic colors. I used different shades of brown, ochre, green and off-white. The effect can be enhanced by the use of dry pigments in natural shades, which can be very carefully applied to single stones with a small synthetic brush. It is very importend to leave the dry pigments in the seams untouched. The result can be seen in the next two pictures.



Next was the painting of the iron fences. First I undercouted the plastic fences with a spray can. I decided to paint them in black, but I think they would look great in dark green, rotten metal or even white. The undercoated pieces where painted with black acrylic paints. Then I gave them a light drybrush in a dark grey. The rust was painted with a small brush to some points in a mid-brown acrylic color first. Then I added some dry pigments to enhance the effect. Sadly I didn't took pictures from this steps, but the result can be seen in the next pictures.



With the first six sections finished I took some pictures.







Here comes some more shots of the finished model, this time with some 28 mm miniatures. More pictures and some infos about the used miniatures can be found here and here.