Now that the roof is mostly finished ,it is time to break out the weathering materials,the acrylics and pastels.
I washed on very thin coats of raw umber over all the previously painted nimbus grey wood areas.I then took out my trusty toothbrush and flicked raw umber spots on the black as well as the white checkerboard pattern.You can add a little of the nimbus grey to the mix if you want the weathering of black areas to be more visable.
I then took some medium grey pastels and shaded the areas between the battens and the sandpaper roof.If you make a mistake and lighten an area too much remember you can always go back over the area with black pastels again to darken the area if need be.Experiment with different shades of grey with black to get a nice blended-shaded transition.
Each nail(or pin) is then given a dot of burnt umber gesso followed by a coat of burnt sienna.I used to paint around each nail hole with watery burnt sienna but I find a better method is to take a small brush and a tiny amount of burnt sienna pastels and shade the wood around the nail holes so that they look rusty.You can even have some of the rust run down onto the black and white roof for greater effect.It is really worthwhile working to weather the roof properly as this is a very noticable part of the diorama besides its lots of fun and very rewarding to look at when finished.Cheers! John.
