This weekend is a statutory holiday in British Columbia, which means my crew is off enjoying themselves and getting paid too. It was only fair that I did a little enjoyable work on my mechanical fish project. The deadline is now less than a month distant.

Today was time for some serious paint. I first laid on the base coats for the rockwork, painting from five different color cans of paint at the same time. The colors were a little bright (on purpose) but I'd tone that down in a bit.

The look I am going for is built in the 1930's, used heavily for three decades and then abandoned and forgotten ever since. The piece needed a serious coat of grunge and grime to make it believeable. Lots of rust on the cast iron would also help.

With all the hard to reach bits now painted it was time for one last coat of the metallic blue and then final assembly of the dock. I loved what I saw.

The fish was then docked for storage, while the paint cures and the rust finishes forming. It is a twenty-four hour process.

Now it is time to get back to work getting organized and ready for the crew, bright and early tomorrow morning.

Stay tuned for the next installement...

-grampa dan