NAME 50TH Anniversary
NAME is celebrating 50 years this whole year long. One activity is kits each month.
January’s kit is yellow roses. The kit is offered in 3 scales by sdk miniatures and I choose my preferred scale 1:48. To be honest I really ordered them because they are the kit of the month and I am into doing the group stuff for once.
Coloring the roses
The kit recommended using markers. But I don’t have any I use on miniatures. I have avoided buying those type due to cost and because I have so many other markers already. I understand the concept of the alcohol markers. They allow one to blend colors or have variations which are typically more natural.
The instructions do say you can paint instead so that is what I do. Thinking about the concept of variation and blending, I attempt to do so by adding extender to my paint. I had much better success with just water in my brush.
I painted both the leaves and petals while still on the sheet. Then let dry per instructions.
My Mistake
The instructions clearly say to use the top row of petals for the first layer of the roses. Since I didn’t read far enough ahead, I happily shaped all the petals together. Then when I read the instructions, I was sad. I was able to find them, but I could have saved myself some time.
I did mine an assembly line style process. I dipped each stem in the yellow paint and then used a scrap piece of foam to stick them in for drying. Next was applying the smaller (top row) petals to each stem. I let these dry.
Tip
Next I added the 3-4 petals to the stems at once and then used glue to put them each in place. The adding the petals to the stem shortens the time by allowing to glue several at once. Meaning I didn’t add a petal to the stem and then glue. Then repeat for each of the remaining petals. I know it is a minor time saver, just it helps me feel more efficient when I am so slow about other things.
Next was adding 2 leaves to each stem.
Arrangement
I decided not to use anything to shine/gloss up my vase. I like the frosted look. I do not use nail polish on my minis anymore.
I cut them stems down and put some tacky glue inside. I just started sticking them in. I didn’t try to arrange them in any order.
Vase decoration
I chose to use some gold string for tying around my vase. The string I used was a cord, so I separated it down to just one strand. I tried to tie a bow, but the vase and the strand wouldn’t cooperate even with help.
Instead I decided to tape one strand to a dowel long wise (A). Then wrap over it a longer strand (B) and tie that off. Then I un-taped the long wise strand (A) and tied that around the wrapped strand (B). Then I slid this off the dowel. Next I wrapped (A) around the vase. I used super glue gel to glue it in place in the back. Next I cut the looped strands of (B) some of which was curly, which I wanted and others just stuck out. In the end I was satisfied with the look I got.
A much easier way to do this would have been to wrap the strand around the vase – glue. Then cut up the curls and glue the ones I like to the front until I had a curly bow. But I am not changing it.
The color variations of the roses is mostly due to the cream edges of the paper.
After looking more at the arrangement, I decided it needed more leaves added.
For the leaves, I made sure to touch up the edges, but not spots in the body of a leaf.
I have purchased a set of alcohol markers and look forward to trying them in the future especially for the flowers.
I really truly enjoyed making these. They turned out so much better than I imagined from the photo. Highly recommend – 10/10.
Happy miniaturing!
Preble
If you enjoy my website, please consider making a small donation via PayPal.me/minismallpackages. Thank you!
