A MODELMAKER’S LIFE: SUNSHINE WALKS, EXPERIMENTAL PAINT JOBS AND BIG CATS…

Having had a go at this scheme once or twice I know that getting it the way I want it to look is going to be challenge, and one that I’m still not sure I’m happy to approach head-on.

16th May 2025

Wow, the end of the week already and another Friday afternoon ramble. 

This week has certainly continued with the warm and sunny weather, hasn’t it? Unusual for this part of the world, the last time we had such an extended period of warm sunny weather this early in the year was during the COVID lockdown of 2020, when the sun came out in April and didn’t seem to disappear until the autumn. I’m sure the farmers are hardly happy with the lack of rain, but I have to say after the long cold and frankly dismal winter we all endured, I’ll take these warm sunny days for as long as we can!

We started today off with a walk out along the canal. This has been a daily pursuit recently, the chance to stretch our legs breath some fresh air and see how the canal has started to blossom as the spring has passed by, all being grabbed with both hands. Along with the flora and fauna that we are starting to see in abundance, there’s plenty of wildlife down there as well, with ducks, moorhens, swans and all manner of aquatic life, including tadpoles and fish, there to enjoy. It’s such a pleasing way to spend some time, our unused canal now becoming something of a wildlife reserve that many of the townsfolk enjoy being part of.

Walk done, thoughts returned back to work and the commission that I’m completing for the end of the month. Though this is still a secret project (it was commissioned as a wedding present, so I can’t reveal more than few glimpses of it…) I’ve been able to show off some off the experiments I’ve been carrying out to complete the sculpting and then painting of the rough sandstone (at least I think that’s what they are!) walls. 

These are very distinctive in the images that I was sent, so I’m keen to replicate them as closely as possible, both in physical texture and colour. It took me a while to work out how to do this, but I’ve now settled on the use of sculpted styrofoam for the walls and then Lifecolor acrylics, brushed and sponged on for the paintwork. The colours are quite muted, but despite that, there are some pretty impressive shifts from a very pale sandstone colour through to almost black where concrete structures mingle in with the older stonework. It will be a challenge to recreate this distinctive look, but one that I’m relishing. 

Along with the more pressing work today, I’ve also had a chance to complete the airframe of my Airfix Jaguar.

This has been quite a relaxing project so far, with everything in the kit fitting together beautifully. Unlike the building that I’m completing where I have a settled idea of how to paint the thing, I’m less certain with the Jaguar, that pale desert sand giving me all sorts of sleepless nights! 

Having had a go at this scheme once or twice I know that getting it the way I want it to look is going to be challenge, and one that I’m still not sure I’m happy to approach head-on. It’s such a pale colour both in miniature and reality, I don’t really want to darken the paintwork with too many effects, but know that that is likely no matter what. I can see plenty of layers and some extended periods of head-scratching before I arrive at the finishing line, as can I some bad language and thoughts of why the hell didn’t I chose another scheme?! Still, I’m committed to it now, so I’ll just have to pull my big-boy pants up and get on with it, after all, who does’t like a challenge once in a while?

See you tomorrow.