My model of Thaxted water tower is coming on nicely. As I commented in my last blog I cut a base for the tank from 3mm acrylic (an alarming orange colour) and a pair of formers from transparent acrylic. A piece of brass the right height was then folded around the formers and stuck on with epoxy.

I think the painting was much more successful than previous attempts. I had sealed the MDF with an MDF sealing paint and then sprayed on two coats of red oxide primer, leaving a good bit of drying time between the two coats. The first coat was still absorbed into the MDF in spite of the sealer but then the second actually dried to a decent surface. When really dry I used ModelMates Brick Joint Filler, leaving this to dry as per the instructions before wiping it off with a damp kitchen towel. The resulting mortar is way too white so I toned the whole thing down with some black water colour washes. I have since experimented and you can add a touch of water colour to the ModelMates paint prior to painting it on which takes the bright white look off quite well.

I improved the corners slightly after this photograph by using some filler to fill some of the slight gabs which were present where the sides mated. This improved the fit of the corners and makes them look better. Again a wash of black/brown water colour paint was applied. The tank was primed, then sanded and filled before a second coat of primer and finally a grey enamel sprayed on. I also primed and sprayed the windows and door in what I hope is a suitable colour.

The photo shows the tank placed on the base, the two long pieces of wire will get chopped off once I have fitted a piece of of transparent acrylic as the water. I think I going to paint the underside of this a dark colour rather than have you being able to see the bottom of the tank. I've also bought some plastruct angle and T section (the tiny ones ~1mm in section) which I plane to use to make some kind of internal supports around the top of the tank. If nothing else it need some kind of tie structure to stop the sides from bowing out with the weight of the water.

To be honest I'm really rather pleased with the way this is looking, All I need now is the spare room to recover from the smell of the bottle of thinners I knocked over while painting!

David