I See Red, I See Red, I See Red...

EnolaGarcia Haziran 07, 2022

Hi, All!

Looking rather fine... It's amazing how a coat of paint brings a model together.

Just thought I'd jump on the old Portable Difference Engine and give you all a quick update:

Machine details catch plenty of red paint - not a worry at this stage! I find trying to be neat and tidy really slows me down!

The boiler is nearing completion now, and I'm into the painting of it. I've been meddling with modelling since I was a wee nipper, yet it never ceases to amaze me how much of a difference a coat of paint can change a model. All of the odd little bits and bobs suddenly look like they belong together.

These tubes and joints will be black eventually, giving a nice contrast.

I've gone for big, bold red for the engine, with green and gold details. I feel this is sufficiently Victorian in style, while being somewhat flamoyant - in keeping with the outrageous machine it will be part of. Black and copper will add a contrast for various machine parts and as you've seen with the Core-Room over the last few weeks, it will all stand out very nicely against light blue-grey walls and bare wooden floors.

A pointy bit. Because.

I started with the red, painting pretty much the whole model. This took three coats to give a good coverage, followed by a thin brown ink wash and a rich orange highlight. I think the final effect is great - it's nice and solid, with a dirty machine feel to it. As you can see, I have now moved on to the green, which will be highlighted a lighter shade, then followed by the other details.

Sixteen of these discs required six rivets each... That's ninety-six just for these bits. Painted the same as the rest of the boiler, they really look like they belong.

Of course, before any of this could occur, I had to add a few more rivets... 249 of them, to be exact. So today's Rivet Count:

The boiler is up to 1167, bringing the total for the whole project to 2097 !