I'm pushing to finish up Jack. I'm base coated and started shading on the feather, and attached it to the hat. I base coated the stand and the rose. The rose needs to be tweaked - I want to get it close to his hair color rather than introducing a new color for it.
I've finished up the tower over the past few days. There are some things that I like better than the first one, and some that are definitely worse. I like the slope of the roof better, and while I like the appearance of the underhang bits, I did a very poor job constructing and attaching them. So much room for improvement there. I also was much sloppier with the beams on the top section. I'm probably going to make one more, just for more practice (and maybe I'll remember windows) and to try to put those lessons into practice, but I may wait a bit to start. I have some other projects I want to do.
And then there's Jack. I worked on the hat and goggles, and those are pretty much done. I have started on the unattached bits - the feather, and the cigarette holder. You can see in the pictures I attached the cigarette holder. I was going to do that last to avoid breaking it, but...well, I got impatient. Now I'm going to have to be super careful as I finish this piece up.
He still doesn't have the feeling I was going for, but now that his hat is filled in...I don't hate it.
I worked some on Jack today, making the blue part of his jacket a bit bluer and doing some shading and highlighting on other parts of his hat. Don't worry, the goggles aren't going to stay green, that's just the undercoat for the bronze.
For the tower, I made the decorative pieces that are going to go under the top section. They are not good; I still need a lot of practice working with the Proxxon. First and foremost, I need to remember that the wire bends. Second, I think I'd have gotten better results if I made them differently. I cut the shape out of a thick block of foam, and then sliced it into this strips, and then put the strips together and trimmed the bottom edges on each successive top layer to get the stepped effect. This shows off that they are not consistent. Had I made the layers, then cut the shape, they probably would have been more consistent. Or maybe not, because the wire bends. Anyway, I'm going to go with what I've got, flaws and all.
Last, I finished painting the top section of the tower.
Both these projects re nearing completion Yay!
I finished the roof on the tower today. I experimented with something different with the cap. I don't love it. I also started painting the top section.
I started on Jack's hat. I base coated the main part of it, and got in a first round of highlights.
This weekend I worked on putting shingles on the roof of the tower, and also painted the bottom section. I still need to trim off the edges of the shingles on two faces, and then do the corners and the top cap.
I also spend some time on Jack. I got highlights on the edge of his labels and collar, did the buttons, the ribbon, a little clean up of his hair, and his earrings. I think next I will go to his hat, and leave the flower for last. I have an idea what I want to do with it as far as colors go, but I want to make sure it'll go well enough with the rest.
I continued on with Jack today. I tweaked the highlights on his lapels some, and then did some cleanup of his neck and chin, and the borders on the lapels. I also remembered to put a base coat on the ribbon that ties back his hair.
Next will be finishing off the ribbon, doing some cleanup of his hair, and the buttons on his jacket.
Experimenting with velvet textured highlights on Jack's lapels. I don't think it's bad, but I think I need to tweak the transitions a bit.
I painted the platform quickly yesterday:
I really need to finish him off and move on to something else.
Today was a build day. I made the frame for the roof of the tower, and practiced with my new foam cutter by making a circular platform.
Here's the tower, with the roof framework:
The whole thing will be covered with rows of shingles. It's got a lower angle than the last one, but the sheathing doesn't go down as far. I'm hoping that won't hurt the stability of the bottom row of shingles too much.
And then, the platform:
It's just a disc of insulation foam that's been given wood texture with a wire brush, and then had 'boards' traced in with a pen. Pretty simple, and it didn't take long to make at all.
Completed shading and started highlights on the ruffle. I might bring the highlights up a bit more.
It's funny how when one area gets closer to completion, the areas around it that aren't finished look more and more wrong. Once I finish that ruffle (yeah, the green definitely needs to go lighter), the pin will need to get finished. Probably those earrings, too.
I finished highlights on Jack's jacket, including on the stripes. It might need a little more yet, I haven't decided. They're fairly subtle. After that, I move on to shading the ruffle. That also needs a bit more.
I keep forgetting about the tie in his hair. Maybe next time I'll remember I need to do that yet.
I also worked some more on the tower yesterday. I put the texture paste on it. Didn't get pictures, but I will next time.
I had a bit of a week, so I didn't get much hobbying in. I finally got back to it today. First, Jack. I finished cleaning up the stripes. They're better, but not perfect. About as good as I can do, though. I also started adding highlights to the jacket. It's pretty subtle, can you see it?
I also continued on the tower, getting the framing on the top and the clock faces all in place.
