Soyokaze Bridge - Painted!

The big Soyokaze Bridge paint up is DONE! Whoo hoo! :)

I was slightly scared to go in and paint this. I didn't want to have to go back in and RE-paint it if I messed it up. However, I thought it through, planned it out and went into it calmly and slowly. That really helped. I didn't have grand lighting for the photos, but you get the point. :)

Figure 01

 I had painted the main structure of the bridge brown as a base, leaving the walkway bare styrene. I thought about keeping the brown for the whole of the bridge, but thought that it would fade the bridge back and into the scene too much. So, I decided to go with the traditional, Japanese red look for the bridge.
I started with a base of an almost "salmon" red. I wanted to get something that would make the red pop more than the brown would have as a base. (Figure 01)

Figure 02

 Figure 02 shows the Model Master Clear Red  I used for the popping red color. I had it left over from my 1/6th scale figure building days and it worked like a charm, giving me the popping, bright red I really wanted. The clears are an interesting way to add color to things. I recommend experimentation with them if you're using acrylic paints. They give some cool looks. 

Figure 03

 I went in and hit the walkway area with a grey stone with some green in it. I'll end up going in for touch ups on the whole bridge for areas that need some more attention. It's hard to see in these photos, but I also did a dark green trim in the area just under the bottom red area. A thin line of green that I've seen in many of the reference photos I've collected.

Figure 04

I weathered the whole bridge up a bit as well, adding some grime and drip areas and making sure there was some wear on the edges and the like. (Figures 03 & 04)

The Soyokaze Bridge will go over the lake area. I had thought about putting in pillars to support the bridge, but I'm going to use styrene to create support struts that will build into the gray block seen in Figure 04. they will drop into the hillside. I think this will add to the overall look and feel of the bridge curves.

I'll post photos of the paint bridge in place.

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