thought I'd share a few pics of my alterations thus far!
So I have painted the overcoat with some fabric paints into a more accurate (to my eye) grey colour (with the tiniest hint of blue - it comes across more blue in the photos than real life where its more a pewter grey tone) and I also painted the lapels and cuffs into the different charcoal grey-black colour.
I've darkened off the waistcoat by leaving it in a very strong pot of coffee for a few hours and then I went over it in a diluted orange fabric paint wash to slightly pick up those colours from the waistcoat as I felt this was more accurate to the film.
I also painted its buttons (originally black) into a muted silver like they are in the movie.
I also darkened the gold trim to make it more an antique gold colour rather than a bright yellow-gold.
I then stained the sash lightly with a cup of tea.
The trousers and boots were likewise stained with a strong pot of coffee, mixed with a small amount of black fabric paint. What I liked about this method is that it didn't stain them both a flat colour and there are different tones in both pieces. Despite how it may look in these photos they are clearly differentiated from one another by tone, with the boots being a deeper black-brown and the trousers coming across as an aged very dark brown-blue-grey.
My plan is to find some black emroidery cotton to add to the coat in order to make the embroidered raised black loops around the button areas and attach it - I will also add these loops to the wrist cuffs and I have some small 1/6 metal shank buttons on the way to add to the cuffs - which ought to make it all a lot more accurate!
I am of two minds regarding the outer coat - the original plan was to try painting the coat then drawing on the dots using a stencil and seeing how it turns out (with the idea being that if it looks bad I would commit to the covering the coat in a better choice of fabric) as the "cheap and cheerful" solution - but to my surprise I actually like how the coat is looking so far and I'm worried I might ruin it by adding the dots - what do you all think?
As for the base, I thought it looked a little bare/plain so I'm going to stick on some preserved moss on the top to replicate a type of seaweed and then my plan is to add some gold coins and coat it all in a clear glazing resin to mimic water - what do you think?
