Painting Models Again! (Finally.)

It's taken a while, but I'm back baby (with brushes)!

Huzzah! I've Summoned the Gaul...

Getting back into painting models again shouldn't have taken this long, but I'll be frank... I was scared. 😗

Above: First touch of brush to model! A bit of a milestone...

There were three elements to my reticence; worry about my manual dexterity (intermittent wobbly hands), loss of confidence after the stroke and - finally - the complete  chaos my old man-cave is, with my stuff now scattered all over the house in various boxes.

The first two - physical - hurdles just needed a matter of time for me to get my head around and despite my painfully slow approach to getting back into modelling I did have a plan. Me being me, it was a excruciatingly methodical plan made up of lots of tiny stages, working up - eventually - to this point. And this has taken something like a year.

In my defence, I had a few knock backs and false starts... But we are where we are.

Anyhoo, Moving On...

I have made a start. Boy, it's a bit nerve wracking. I fobbed off the idea of using my 'new' (nearly 2 years old now) airbrush, because I'd have to relearn the whole airbrushing process again, and decided to stick to the basics...Brush painting.

Luckily, my past experiences of painting houses - I'm starting with my N Gauge Railway Station model - was (and I had to look this up) a set of 28mm war-gaming buildings I did for the local gaming club...

Above: Several years ago I did a set of 28mm war game houses for a local club.
All brush painted with dry brushing effects.

These were done using flat painting and dry brushing. The simplest of processes and perhaps the most friendly given my condition. Dry brushing, in particular, can be a nice sloppy techniques that will be great for hiding my inadequacies! 😅

This is how it went...

SO... A good start? Actually, I am quite pleased, and it has done the job, broke the ice and it wasn't the disaster I though it would be.

Dry brushing saved me a bit, but I did - predictably - have trouble when I started to move in for some 'neat and precise' brush work. That WAS hard, it seemed like the more steady I had to be and the more I tried to concentrate the more wobbly my hands got.

Above: I couldn't escape having to do more precise brush work. Here the station
inner doors tested my ability to remain steady...Not altogether successfully!

Still, hurdle No. 1 overcome... We are on our way! 😀

Above: Luckily, I am going for a certain dilapidated shabbiness to my model
buildings, so a certain sloppiness in painting is actually fitting!