Details, details, details Part 1

I've started the process of cleaning, painting, and weathering the myriad of castings used in my mill build. Over the years I admit to making this my stopping point in painting and weathering details. Meaning I would do it to a point, but would leave a bunch of detail parts undone. I thought it much to tedious, and many times felt the process was not worth my while. But with the Twin Mills Deer Creek kit I've had a change of heart. Maybe its the isolation of Covid, and maybe its personal health issues, but I've taken on this part of the build with consistency of daily modeling.

The castings are of 2 different types; polyurethane resin and metal castings. Brett Gallant describes that washing the castings is a waste of time, that he does not use a silicon release agent in his molding process so therefore prewashing is not necessary.

I've always washed my castings, and even though the kit was purchased at least a decade ago I eliminated the washing and started detailing. I still filed all the pieces necessary to get rid of casting lines, and uneven bottom surfaces so the each piece stands correctly in its final resting place. Many of these pieces will need workbench wooden legs applied so a good bottom rough up of the underside will be necessary for glue adhesion and wood to metal contact.

The technique combination I've used are my own I suppose, but what I do is simply review and copy  techniques from the myriad of blogs, YouTube, and magazines both digital and paper. It enables me to see what I don't like and what I like. 

Here is the process I am taking to get these pieces completed.

All pieces are first sanded or filed to be readied for primer eliminating spurs and mold lines. Rattlecan Scalecoat grey primer is applied to every piece. 

I used Scalecoat silver, Floquil weyer green, even SP Daylight Red for initial coloring of individual pieces. Initially bright, they get dulled later, along with everything else. The Scalecoat silver is used on trashcans, tools, and metal bars. The SP Daylight red and Floquil weyer green was used for bottles and some of the paint cans, After the paint  dries I'm ready for  staining. For this process I used pan pastels Burnt Sienna Shade, Raw Umber Tint, Raw Umber Dark, Neutral Gray, and Pearlescent Orange, along with Doc O'Brians weathering powders Rusty Brown, Rusty Red and Gritty Yellow and lastly a couple of Joel Bragdon powders, namely a rust and grey used mostly for mixing or changing shades. Do they mix well? Yes - you bet! Greys in this case, with some experimenting mix and lighten many of the Pan Pastels used as a base. I use a dental tool to push a small amount of powder onto a small plastic pallet. If I wish to lighten it, then I push out a small amount of grey powder separately. I use the flat edge of the dental tool to grind the powder to a fine consistency, and if mixing is required I repeat the grinding process for the mixer. Mixing powders to the right color comes with experience and repeated use of the technique. The more you do the better you get though, One needs to be willing to try, repeat, repeat

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Example 4

Example 5

In general terms a heavier darker stain might be described as a paste, and the lightest stains could be describe as wet or thin.  I also take care to not blob a brush with too much stain, nor pick up any powder on the brush that's not fully combined with the IPA. Take your time, do as little or as much as you want, check your patience level. Again this is a mix of techniques and materials. Where you see green and silver is paint, the rest is staining. Lastly I dry brush in white stain to highlight these pieces. Some of this material will be only seen in the shadows; for instance those workbenches inside some of the buildings.

I would like to light up several of the mill structures and bring these details into the scene. I would hope to finish this part of the build by end of year. When done I'll try to shoot some more of them for the next installment.