Yeah, it has that gnarly old oil paint pealing look that I remember all too well from my youth … when my dad used to make me scrape that crap off the fence!

—mike

Yes I concur J, really nice color callout on the bldg/shutters. Love those hinges dude.

Regards Dave

Jim,Mike and Dave,
Thanks for te kind words of encouragement fellas ! Yes,I also had a few times in my youth when I had to scrape paint,etc and use those old paint removers that could melt hardened steel if left on it long enough ! They really worked though and I have never found a good one lately.
Here are all the window shutters and the door now in place plus a few details. More bits and pieces to add but it is shaping up. This is all conjecture as the original building isn't there any more of course.


And a close up. You can see I used Frenchies' excellent sign he posted as a ref. I did omit a few words though.



Thanks for looking and lurking !
J

That last shot looks perfect dude! The ceramic #7 plate is a nice lil' touch. Euro style baby !

Regards Dave

Jerry...
Lurking yes, but I've actually been advancing on a few different dios too.
(...and your excellence here has been my main inspiration for returning to the bench!)
...sooo thanks for that brother!

Hi Jerry - I lurk no more! Great work as always. Really nice subtle variations in colors and textures - looking pretty darned real! I'll second the note on the tile building number - really nice touch -

Nick

Love those hinges - not over-rusted & the sign’s perfect. Doubtless unintentional but that blue light through the door reminds me of disreputable basement dives

Dave,Nick and Tim !
Thanks for breaking radio silence and typing some very nice words in here guys. I hope you all are enjoying a very nice holiday today and have many more.
J

It may not look like a lot of progress but I struggled with this telephone/power stanchion for hours trying to match the period examples Sean so helpfully posted. I believe I failed miserably but I am calling it done. This is before paint. I also added the drain and gutter.



Maybe after paint it will blend into the background.
J

Looks fine to me Jer, no worries! The look before the final finish can be deceiving, especially when it becomes tedious.
You're on a roll kid, keep it comin'!

Regards Dave

Thanks for the kind words of support Dave ! At least I can say I did my best ! It was the only solution I could think of that was still strong enough to last more than a few days ! LoL
J

Hello Jerry

Looks great!

I don't know if you've painted the insulators yet (the ones the cables run to, not the discs), but I think green glass would be the way to go rather than white ceramic. The latter for the discs maybe?? Just thoughts...

Anyway, looking good

Cheers

Sean

Uh-oh hope Sean didn’t mean transparent green glass...? Whatever the structure looks perfectly fine to me, let the pigments fly

I did but it's not a problem. In 1/35 I think with paint you can recreate the effect. At least, I reckon it's well within Jerry's capabilities. Light green base, very dark green wash then couple or three coats of gloss, something like that.

Example of a real one:

Thanks guys and yes Sean,I think you are correct and those things need to be green. I went back and looked at the ones on the last page and they look green as well. Nothing has been painted on the stanchion thing yet so no problems there. Thanks guys for the feedback and interest as always,
J

Hi Jerry,
For your comfort: I asked a friend who’s a project manager at a large international grid company.
In Europe both glass and ceramic was used during most of the 20th century for those isolators! So, whatever you decide, it is allright.
Hope it helps.

Regards.

Thanks,that is a big help and puts my mind at rest a bit. I may search for some green plastic sprue and see if I can make some translucent ones though. I think I have beer bottles that are green.
J

I had the opportunity to stumble upon a horde of green and blue glass AND white ceramic insulators (probably more than 400) when I was stationed in Germany 1995-98. They had been tossed into the foundation of an abandoned building at Geissen AD that had since flooded, so they were under about two feet of water when I found them (I was the area CO, so I had access to all the facilities) many were broken, but a few were intact. They were probably ditched sometime in the 1980s, when the WWII era wiring was being replaced, but they all had dates from 1935-1946 at various locations on the insulator. The green and blue ones were all made in the US, but the German ones were ceramic and had a thin, very pale blue band near the bottom, and a faint Siemens trademark with a faint eagle/swastika impressed in the ceramic. When I asked one of my civilian workers about them he told me the US insulators were used to replace the white insulators beginning about 1950 during reconstruction. He'd been at Geissen since 1975, but his father had worked there since before WWII as a heating plant operator, and the white insulators were very common, and found all over Germany, so I don't think you'd be wrong using them even in France. The shape though was more like an elongated cylinder, with a groove around the middle. My understanding is the ceramic insulators were cheaper and easier to manufature than the glass insulators.
VR, Russ

Thanks Russ,for the personal intel about this. So I may go with the green glass for the thing I just built and maybe the white ceramic for the pole I am about to build.
J

A Wiki page for you.... in French but with some nice illustrations.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolateur_en_verre

Cheers

Sean

Thanks Sean,
Once again a very very helpful post !!

J

I am easing back into modeling slowly after the loss of my dear dear buddy "Hunter". My best buddy of 9 years. I miss his spaniel eyes looking up from under my workbench every time I am sitting there now and of course,the big greeting every time I came home(even after being gone 20 minutes).
Life goes on.
Here is my modified Alpine fig now about 98% finished. I see here the MP40 magazine has gone missing and so will be replaced.
Also am almost done with the carpenters' shop. Please have a look,
J




Hope all are doing well !

Sorry to hear about Hunter
Nice to see you back at it.
looking good as ever

Sorry about your dog, Jerry.
I know what you mean. It's crap but indeed, life goes on.

Which brings me to this...
It's looking great and once again you've got "him" to look lifelike and natural, in terms of pose, painting and positioning.

Keep your chin up

Cheers

Sean

Hi Jerry,
I'm sorry to hear of the loss of your dog - while they can't speak, they are great and loyal friends.

The photo you posted looks real - the quality of the build, but moreso the "dynamic" look you have achieved with a static figure - really great work. Even the placement of the figure in the context - spot on!

Glad to see you're posting again - work I always look forward to seeing - both in terms of general interest and inspiration -

Cheers
Nick

Hi Jerry ,

i know since a while that you've lost your dog , i am so sorry for that my friend . To cheer you up , i must say that i know no one that can put so much expression of emotions in those figures but you and i mean this sincerely. So come on buddy , head up and entertain us with your excellent work of art .

Kurt