Part 2 Working On A Dream: The O Scale Bond's Funeral Home Diorama Project
Working On A Dream The O Scale Bond?s Funeral Home Diorama Project
Part Two: Getting Some Prep Done
As we began to compile the information and photos on the Bond's Funeral Home for the layout, we were deciding on what we could use for the exterior. With waiting for supplies to be delivered & the drawing of the plans, we got a jump of some of the items that could be started.
The type of stone on Bond's, there is no real type of commercially available items for it. The closes we found was to be Plastruct's PS-79 Dressed Stone / Brick sheets (figure 1). The pattern is very close to the stonework on Bond?s itself. But Maria and I kept looking at it saying just painting it won't be good enough. So we came up with a very unique technique for bring out the stone look on the Plastruct sheets.
To give the stone real texture, we decided on using very thick latex texture relief paint and add it to the stones. These paints are easily obtained at A.C. Moore, Michael's, Pearl Art Supply, and Blick's. They are also available at ceramic supply places. Brands like Folkart, Decoart, & Mayco work great on projects like this. We went with using Decoart's Americana Stuccos because it has a rougher relief for what we need it for (Figure 2).
Next dilemma was how to apply it to the sheets of stone. Simply painting it on would take away the detail lines of the dressed stone and make it look like a basic stucco wall.
So Maria came up with the way. She used this paint on some of her craft items she made for craft shows. It is a tedious procedure but the results are excellent.
Using an ordinary toothpick she (and I mean she) applied a coat of the paint to every individual stone on the Plastruct sheet (Figure 3) after wiping the sheet clean with rubbing alcohol. This way every mortar joint between the stones is showing giving it a realistic look. The paint being latex also make it very pliable so if you have to bend the sheet around an area, the relief won't crack off. (Figure 4)
Painting the improved sheets is very easy using any of the possible acrylic paints available on the market.. After applying the coats you need for your look, just spray with Krylon Acrylic Flat Spray. Cutting the sheet for size and openings is easy using an X-acto knife or sharp scissors.
We also used this procedure on doing the stonework around Bond's windows. This we will show at a later date. A sample of the window stonework is shown in figure 5.
The next installment of this string will be the planning and drawing of Bond's itself and the cutting of the material. We hope you are enjoying us give you a little insight to this project
Progress: