Paint always makes the biggest and fastest changes in any project. I had primed the piece last night and first thing this morning I started in on the first of two coats of base color. Because these were to be displayed permanently inside I could push the timeline between coats of paint just a little. The drying fas certainly helped speed things up.
The golds and coppers were way too bright but certainly made things colorful in a hurry. Once they were dry I added the first glaze - a rich caramel color. It was pretty subtle but it started to show the textures. I left more glaze in the folds and creases dramatizing the different levels and angles. The process is done quickly, flooding on the color and then wiping it off again in critical areas. The trick is to keep the leading edge wet so you don’t get a dry line between segments as the piece was much too large to do in one go. It went under the fans once more before I applied the last color of glaze - a rich dark brown which actually has a hint of metallic purple in it to deepen the shadows.
The compass ring suddenly was in tune with the airplane which had received the same aging glazes back when we built it last year. The piece will be allowed to set up overnight before I add the 23K gold to the lettering. I’ll try to take some pictures during that process to show here.
Stay tuned...
-grampa dan
