It Doesn't Have To Be Black!

First, I apologize for the fact that my posts lately have been so Chrysnbon-centric.  I don't have access to my full studio at the moment.  Well, "studio" is a generous term.  Second, I apologize for the terrible backdrop--if you can even call it that--in these pictures.  As I've mentioned before, we're not currently living in our house.  In fact, we're hopefully building a house!  I say "hopefully," because until I'm staring at its fully finished form, I'm not making any assumptions.  I'll have more of my craft stuff in October, so I'll be able to work on the actual dollhouse--and use my woodworking tools!  And, if all goes well, we should be living in our new house within the year.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Another exciting feature of the (as yet imaginary) new house is that, since we'll have quite a bit more land, we'll also have a barn.  The upper floor of which will be my woodworking area.  Hooray!

Finally, the reason I've been quite so productive is that, for the past couple of weeks, I've been having procedures, waiting for test results, etc.  It's been extremely stressful, and having my hands busy kept my mind off of everything.  I'm pleased to report that--so far, keep your fingers crossed--I've gotten some very good news.

Anyway, moving on...

All of these paint jobs were inspired by real stoves.  Some of them I found for sale here in Maine, some I saw online, and one is owned by some neighbors of ours.  It graces one of the rooms at their farm.  I'm thinking of doing a tutorial on the stove, if anyone's interested; let me know!  It's a fairly hard kit, I think--at least for me--and, having made so many of them now, I like to think I've learned, at least, what not to do.

You can make your stove look like this:

The "cast iron" parts are sprayed with Testors flat black, and the shiny bits are Testors aluminum plate "metalizer."

But you can also make it look like this:

This is inspired by our neighbor's stove; the green bits are my creative addition.  Again, it's Testors flat black, Testors aluminum plate "metalizer," and Floquil NYC jade (over a couple coats of gray sandable primer).

Or it can look like this:

This color combination was my husband's pick.  In real life, it looks a lot more tomato and a lot less fire engine red.  Hopefully I'll be able to take a better picture later.  The stove body is Model Master insignia red, and the shiny bits are Testors stainless steel metalizer.

This stove is inspired by one I saw for sale in Burlington, ME.  New is fun, but sometimes old is a lot more interesting.  In fact, I had so much fun doing this stove--and was so happy with how it came out--that I decided to give myself an excuse to make more aged, ratty, generally bizarre things and make a haunted house.  Hm, my project list seems to keep growing...Lord, please bring us that barn, soon!

This is the one I was thinking of doing a tutorial on; interested?

I painted a bunch of ratty-looking cookware as well...

And then I ended up doing another aged stove, although I really hadn't intended for this one to be aged.  It just sort of happened that way; I thought the "modern" looking version was boring.  Instead of Testors flat black, I used Testors gunmetal "metalizer," Testors light ivory, and Floquil NYC jade.  I'm not really sure what type of setting it would work in; it ended up coming out a little Christmas-y to me, and one themed house is enough.

Finally, I thought I was done with this one...but I wasn't.  It turned out to need a little patching, and one of the seams looked weak.  This is inspired by a picture I saw online, of a slightly later-age wood burning stove.  The colors are, appropriately, Testors flat black, Testors 50's aqua, Testors light ivory, and Testors metallic gold.

Thoughts?

Also, too if anyone else has had any Chrysnbon (or other plastic kit) successes, I'd love to hear about it, because I'm still fooling around with a few other ideas...and I'm still stymied as far as what to do with the wood to get rid of that awful grain without obscuring any detail.