Basic Colors Blocked in on Baltic German Town Center. . .

Burnt Sienna and white make a nice dusty brick color, with lighter values of the mix used on the higher parts of brick structures are darker closer to the foundations and in corners.  I like flat-bristled brushes for painting model buildings.  They make it much easiesr to controll the brsuh, paint in straight lines, and trim color into tighter areas without slopping it onto other areas that have been painted already.  As my aritist mother once told me many, many years ago as I sat on the floor at her feet while she worked at her easel (I must ave been four or five), it's all about controlling the brush and, by extension, the paint.

Just a few more in-progress photographs of the Baltic German town  center this afternoon to show where we are at the moment.  The remaining items to address now include:

1) Painting in the low foundation walls on most of the dozen structures. -- Done!
2) Painting in the cornice work on several of the same. -- In progress.
3) Approximating the timber work (fachwerk) on four of the smaller models.
4) Suggesting the placement of windows and doors with the use of a stencil and careful painting.
5) Final finishing touches in the form several small detail surprises.
6) Paint the internal ruins of the main front part of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit.


While I have always enjoyed producing model buildings made from heavy card and balsa, I don't think that I have ever enjoyed the activity as much.  To say that I am having a blast with this current batch must be the understatement of the year.

Meanwhile, the Grand Duchess and Young Master have left for ten days to visit grandparents in the Pacific Northwest, so it's just yours truly along with the two felines Gunnlaug and Onyx, plus the Young Master's fish in the fishtank.  I hope to finish everything here during their trip.  Cross your fingers and toes though because there is still quite a bit to take care of before I can call the project finished and get back to the toy soldiers. . .  who, incidentally, are calling to me from various containers, drawers, and shelves down here in Zum Sollenkeller Mk. II.  It's madness, I tell you!  Sheer madness!

-- Stokes

A smaller flat-bristled brush next to get color into those tighter areas.

And the finished front half of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit after some final touch-ups and gilt applied to the weather vain atop the tallest spire.  In real life, a rooster weathervane resides in this space, but I consider myself rather clumsy and accident prone where hobby knives and fingertips are concerned, so you'll grasp immediately why I have decided to keep things simple here.

Here is my reference photo of the real complex in Lübeck, Germany.  Not perfect, but I'm still very pleased with my progress above so far.  Ok.  I see a few more thin areas on the front of the two lower gables where I need to approximate corroded copper.  Funny what you notice when you step back or a moment and observe your brushwork.

Back on the tabletop, here are all of the model buildings with the basic colors now blocked in.  

The lighting is not the greatest in these pictures, but the Rathaus at the center is in  very light pink.  The university building in the foreground at right is in a very light gray.

Here is the old town hall in Tallin, Estonia (ex-Dorpat), on which I am basing the color scheme of my particular Rathaus.  My model won't be quite as ornate.  The actual structure was designed by a German architect from Rostock and built during the mid-19th century, but it is not unlike older structures that you stumble on all the time in Northern German and around the Baltic region if your eyes are open.

Finally, three of the smaller buildings (one in the foreground at right) which will eventually be half-timbered have been painted with Antique White, to avoid that stark, bone white "Hollywood smile" look once everything is finished.  I recall reading in a book on model railway and diorama scenery years ago that it is more effective to avoid stark, dramatic colors like the purest white or black.  Whoops!  Still a few chimneys to paint too.  Darn.