The next phase of the bugle beer sign is to sculpt the scroll. While much of the work on our signs is done on a computerized machine I don't want them to appear that way. I just want the machine to do the bulk of the grunt work for me.
The air powered die grinder with a large cone bit makes an awesome carving tool. Once again I am using the most efficient way I can to create our signs. It only took about ten minutes to add a texture to the face of the scroll and to round the ends to shape in a gentle curve. The tool marks are left in place, making the sign look as if it were hand carved with old fashioned chisels.
Then the scroll received a quick coat of primer similar to the one I described in my last post. Once this had been under the fan a couple of hours I applied a base coat of white to the bulk of the sign. The scroll received a blending of three shades of cream/tan. All paint was acrylic house paint.
Then using the sharp raised edges to assist me the base colors were added to the sign. The blue is a metallic acrylic from Modern Masters.
The raised border and 'BEER' lettering also got a coat of the blue metallic paint.
The last stage of the background painting was to add a glaze to the borders to make everything jump nicely. I used our the custom glaze we call plumb crazy - a mix of clear base with black, chocolate and metallic cherry red.
Now I'll let this cure up good before I add the gold. The bugle will be sculpted and added as a last step.
Stay tuned...
-dan