The Base Day Four

Gosh, it's going to take me forever to build this whole house, since it looks like it's going to take me a week just to build the foundations, lol.

This morning I finished gluing most of the rocks onto the foundations, with the exception of the porch area. I couldn't decide what to do there for a while - either continue around with the stonework, add some latticework, or add some piers with stonework or lattice between them!

I decided in the end that I would add some rock piers, but since I doubt my ability to construct the lattice sections, I will continue around with the rockwork. If I don't like it I can cover it with a hedge when it's done!

So, I cut out some 2cm (w) x 2.4cm (h) pieces from leftover kit board, and I've glued and clamped them evenly spaced around under the porch, to mimic piers.

Piers clamped and drying

While I was waiting for the glue on the remaining rockwork and the piers to dry, I started doing a paint wash on the rocks I glued last night. I diluted some Stone Grey acrylic (which is actually more of a beige), brushed it on and then dabbed it off immediately with some paper towel so that the egg cartons didn't get too wet and come unstuck.

I read many faux stone painting tutorials last night and they seemed to contradict each other - some said always start with the lightest colour wash and work up to the darkest, and others said to always do the opposite! I want my rocks to look old and mossy though, rather than dusty, so I figured I'd start with the lightest colour and work up to the darkest.

First paint wash with Stone Grey

I quite like the first coat. I think with the next wash I will use the same colour but add a little mid grey to it.  This afternoon when the rest of the rocks have dried a little more, I will paint them with the wash too. I'm not sure how long I can wait between paint coats, lol, but I guess I should wait at least a day when it is over cast outside and cold inside today. I think the wood glue should have dried sufficiently to finish off the rocks under the porch this afternoon though - it will be nice to have that done.




Later:  I painted the new piers in Dark Grey, and then finished gluing all the rocks around the porch foundations. I'm not sure that the piers stand out and make any difference at all, especially without any piers for the porch posts, but perhaps once they are painted and aged they will show up more.

I also did a Stone Grey wash on the rocks I glued on this morning. It was darker than the original wash I did, so I washed a little more over the section I did previously.  Once the porch rocks have dried tomorrow, and I can do the first wash on them, I can do the whole foundation with a wash in one go which should eliminate the potential problem of different colours.