I have completed zodiac part. I made these out of insulation foam. For the above test pics, I added some moss around. When I put the whole set together, I will add dirt all around besides carefully placed mosses, some dead brances and maybe some roots coming from the tree of life.

Process is pretty much the same with previous making of the stairs. Only difference is that I used regular wood glue instead of foam glue. I carved those zodiac symbols over the insulation foam so, I did not want to loose details with thick foam glue. On the left top, the test stone I made before starting the whole process. On the left bottom; me with respirator… I like using it but one problem… if your nose itches, you have to take out gloves swamped with paint and then take out the respirator to reach your nose…

This is what happens when you have a 2 yearsold curious girl… -hey mum, I want to draw too.. - dad take my picture She also helped me to paint one of the pieces in white acrylic this time!

Stairs and clock face together…

Using insulaton foam again. Nice, soft enough to cut and hard enough to sand…

You see white boxes on the left top pic above. Those are the boxes of our lunch Those made very nice numerals…

After cutting, sanding and glueing process is done, I covered whole thing with foam glue and left it dry.  Base layer of painting was dark brown. I then applied blue antique powder paint leaving the highest spots cleaner. The last step was adding european gold wax metalic finish. Just small amounts to the highest spots while rubbing with my finger and a piece of soft fabric. Result…

Last week I bought some new paints and a nice decorative painting book. I was not totally happy with the previous result and wanted to give another try. Especially the texture bothered me a lot. So, this time I used pink insulation foam.

The process is pretty much the same as before. Because the insulation foam is harder, I was able to use a sandpaper to shape the edges.

I fisrt covered the whole piece with foam glue. I then painted with white acrylic paint. After white is totally dry, here is what I did: I mixed “black colored relief paste” with “wooden furniture polish” 50% paste and 50% polish. The furniture polish I put is the one has been sitting on the shelf in our house for 3 years. It has a lot of wax and resin inside. I painted the whole thing with this mixture and right after painting (before it is dry) I rub all around the piece with a soft fabric. Where I needed lighter spots; I rubbed more and where I needed very dark spots; I did not touch. Here is the result:

It looks too clean but I will add moss, dirt, broken stones (which are also ready) when I put everything together on the set.

Note: I have my respirator Shelley I bhought one and using. I will post the pic next time I use…

After my previous post, Shelley suggested me to try using Walnut Ink to get a better aged look. It seems like walnut ink is such a nice paint to use for aging but unfortunately, I could not find it here… So, I wanted to try shoe polish.

I first painted with a brown shoe polish. On my other hand, I had a piece of paper towel  and wiped spots where there was too much paint. Before brown is dried, I painted with black shoe polish only the parts I wanted to be darker. Then I took a large, clean, dry paint brush and brushed all around to get a more natural look. The last thing was taking a small amount of white acrylic paint and rubbing the parts with a piece of foam where I wanted highlights .  Here is the result… what do you think?

After a day of unsuccessful painting, I decided to really “think” and find a way to get the right look. I went out for a walk and found a piece of stone which was in the right color I wanted for my ruins. Besides color, there was also a problem with the edges of the blocks. Those were too sharp for ruins. So, I started with melting the edges with the candle.

Then painted whole model with a light grey spray paint. After it was dry, I drybrushed several layers referring to the real stone I have. First light grey undercoat, second a light burnt sienna then burnt umber with a lot of white, some red, yelow,… Just mixed acrylics to get the right color each time.

I drybrushed very very light almost a white color at the end to get a better contrust. Here is the end result:

Not perfect but this is very closed to what I had in mind. It will also look better when it is placed inside the rocky surface with the right lighting.

Next comes working on the actual clock part.. Tomorrow?? Yes, starting tomorrow..

My first try was not successful. This is what happens when you do not think and just follow what the tutorial says I was trying to make polystyrene stairs look like ruins; aged stones. I ended up having nice & dark castle blocks. If you want to make a castle, you can try the following painting process:

I first gave the whole a black undercoat (acrylic paint). Carefully done this to not to leave any white spot. After undercoat was dry; I drybrushed the model with dark grey; not covering the black details.

After each color is dry, I drybrushed several times from darker grays to lighter grays hoping that I could get a better lighter look… But nope… I even added a gray blue at the end. Nothing helped… I decided to leave this alone for the day continue the other day starting all over from the beginning to the painting. http://www.thelastalliance.com/index.php?pid=article&articlefilename=terrainweathertop&catid=12&subid=92&artilceid=14 Here is the tutorial if you like to check out.

I am working on the ancient clock which will be on the ground over a rocky surface. Mr puppet will walk around this clock. There are stairs which he will use to walk over the clock. There will be a mosaic of ancient greek zodiac on the outher edge, outside.

This is the original clock. This is a second-hand clock I bhought. I am using its clock mechanism.

Referance images for stone texture, zodiac symbols, clock design.

Got a foam sheet and cut the clock shape and stairs. Added details of the each stone block at the end.

Glued all round the clock with foam glue. (Make sure to not to loose details of the blocks)

You see pieces of stones on the right bottom. Those are the broken stones which will be placed around the clock after it is done. This is a fun way to let those dry and later paint without touching anything. I have left all to dry. Tomorrow I will start painting. A lot of fun

Yes, it is time to start working on the clock which will be placed inside rocky surface. This time I may start posting the process here before it is all completed. Lets see.. There is a long way to go baby…