“Slum’blocks of the Universe” (Season of Scenery)

Well I’ve got the “Slum’blocks” finished, and though it seemed to be taking ages to get them done, once I set about the painting it was relatively quick (and mostly painless). As with the other I’d done previously I used PVA (wood glue), to fix them together, though this time I didn’t assemble any of the remaining rooves (though I did find one with the side barriers that I must has put together last time and then lost it down the back of my painting table) as I don’t know if I need all the rooves as they will be “stacked up” to a point, so I might see it I can make these into something else, or I might just paint them up as they are anyway at a later date. Anyway again as before I stuck a load of random cr*p on them here and there along with covering up the “dovetails” at the corners with some lengths of the obligatory coffee stirrers, and while I was at it I also ran a length along the bottoms too to hide the slot to located one block to the next when you stack them up. I also took pieces of the remaining sprue to build door frames, I had to be a bit more “creative” this time with these as most of the more suitable lengths had already been used on the last lot, but I think they came out OK.

So next it was out for a spraying with some matt black and I could get on with painting them, luckily I still had some paint left in the emulsion “tester pots” from when I painted up the last one, so I took some “Warm Pewter” and added a little black to darken it a bit and slapped this all over the pieces, this was followed by dry-brushes of “Chic Shadow” and “Frosted Steel”, a few places I also painted in blue grey (The light blue I used last time has sadly gone to that great evaporated heaven in the shy!) or pink burgundy, and the doors, window bars, tread-plate rooves, and awnings I just dry-brushed chainmail over the black. I’d added a couple of GW lights to a couple of the façades so I added the “light” in these with some citrus orange with lemon yellow highlights, the other “strip” style lights I did the same as last time with vert green, with “dayglow” light green over this, I also used dots of these colours to do the odd “control” button on some of the door frames too.  I also added some “chevrons” here and there in orange mixed with citrus orange, with just citrus orange highlights (nothing says Sci/Fi like the odd chevron!). I had some of the industrial signs I’d printed off the internet left so I cut a few of these out and stuck them on with more PVA glue, I also painted more of the PVA over the top of the paper signs to seal them, before I attacked the edges with some chestnut brown (the closest thing I still have to rust!), and gave everything a coat of thinned matt black in the form of a wash. Once this was dry I went back over the rusty areas this time with orange to signify fresh rust. Lastly I lightly flicked a little khaki and coffee up the bottom and top edges for a bit of weathering, and they were done.

So next it was out into the garden to take some photo’s, I dug out my Dead Zone figures that I’ve got painted thus far to add a little set dressing to the “boxes”, and before anyone asks no I haven’t taken pictures of all the “Slum’blocks” I’ve built to date as I might try and get the other “bits” done before the end of the month, and if so I’ll try and do some then with everything done then. So that’s it, all the “actual” blocks are done, with nearly a whole month left of “Dave Stone’s Season of Scenery”. Now Dave has said previously that vehicles count in this challenge so I might try and get a couple of them done by months end too, but next? Well I have a bit of  a personal challenge on the go as well, so next it’ll be the latest figures from my “Advent Challenge”, and that’s all a little bit “fishy” 🦈

So till next time stay safe, and enjoy the scenery.

Cheers Roger.

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