Happy Trolleydays!

...And an Electric New Year! 

Photo:  J. Skelington

Yes sir! An electric new year!

Dandy

Tower of Light and Color

Now that this junction tower has got its business all straightened out, its time to get its business painted.

The lesson that Thomas Kinkade has relentlessly banged us over the head with time and time again with each successive painting is that light glowing from windows gives a building a very warm and inviting look. However, we are not painters of light. Actually quite the opposite. Us modelers have to paint where we don't want the light to emanate from! Judging by the iridescence of the plastic that this tower is printed from, I'm guessing that this building would glow quite brilliantly when lit from inside. So to help eradicate this problem, I have painted the cupola an undercoating of Floquil Engine Black inside and out.

I'll let that dry for a day.

Back to primer grey. Colors would have a heckofa time showing up over that black. So the tower is recoated with Floquil Primer. I was sure to paint every surface since the printers caution that the print material is sensitive to UV light. Somehow I managed to bust off the ball final on the roof. So now I have to find a way of replacing that.

Let this dry for a day as well.

Floquil Rust is one of my favorites in that its a pretty good color for replicating a mahogany color. These towers were built during the age of when mahogany (or similar) was a common building material for streetcar interiors. So I'm willing to bet these towers had this type of interior.

Again, a day of drying.

 Masking off the cupola, the ironworks are painted Floquil Pullman Green.

To prevent the mask from adhering to the previous layer of paint, or chipping the new layer of paint,  I pull off the mask as soon the paint begins to set and is still somewhat flexible.

Another day, another dry.

The ironworks and interior are masked off for a nice coat of Floquil Depot Buff.

 Well hey there handsome! Oh wait! I forgot something...

 Some Floqul Brass for the gong. We can't forget the bling! No sir! Can't forget the bling!

Dandy