Monday, May 23, 2016

Biting half the bullet

After putting it off as long as I can, I’ve at last got to the hard bit of repainting  our second Buckby can.  The original looked like this

old can

but the paint didn’t take to well to the weather and big flakes of paint eventually came off, the same as the smaller can did earlier. I repainted the smaller can in 2014

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and it’s kind of OK if you don’t look too closely. 

The second can has been stripped back to the galvanising, had three coats of etching primer (nasty stuff that I sprayed on whilst holding my breath), a couple of undercoats and three top coats in four colours, and I can’t think of any way now to delay the inevitable painting of the roses.  Of course I had forgotten how to do it, so it was back to the practice board for quite a few hours, experimenting with different techniques and designs. 

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This time I’m going to try to do them a little differently and probably less strictly traditionally in form.  You’ll have to wait to see, ‘cos this (below) is as far as I’ve got today using the traditional background prep (the easy bit).

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And of course it’s only for the first two bunches of roses.  This can is going to have more than the other one I did, and I’m still thinking of having a go at a castle somewhere on it.  The next few brush strokes are going to be terrifying, but .  .  .

.  .  .no more terrifying than next Saturday morning when we have been invited to join the Indigo Dreamers on their trip down the Thames estuary and into the Medway.  That’s virtually going to sea. Wind, tide, waves, big ships, – scary stuff in a little narrowboat. The Thames Estuary there is five miles wide! We’re more used to a width of thirty feet. Stay tuned for reports on that one.

6 comments:

Oakie said...
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Oakie said...

Looking good so far Neil. I do like your practice roses. Do have a go at a castle scene; great fun to do. Blimey - how many coats on that can now? I will B @ Crick on Sunday & will phone U 4 beer when the sun crosses the yardarm. Oakie

Oakie said...

Looking good so far Neil. I do like your practice roses. Do have a go at a castle scene; great fun to do. Blimey - how many coats on that can now? I will B @ Crick on Sunday & will phone U 4 beer when the sun crosses the yardarm. Oakie

Vallypee said...

It's looking great so far, Neil. I wish I had more time to do this too. I painted a bucket years ago with roses (a narrowboating friend taught me) but it desperately needs re-painting. I'd love to do some more as well. I like your 'how to' plates. I remember the building up process and somewhere I've got a similar piece of metal with all the stages. Maybe I'll get round to it this summer. I'm looking forward to your finished product!

Halfie said...

Have a great Thames trip - hope the weather's decent for you!

Herbie Neil said...

Sorry Ray/Oakie, we won't be at Crick this year a) 'cos we've moved to Cropredy and b) 'cos we'll be risking our necks cruising down the Thames estuary on Indigo Dream.