The Toy Canoe

[Beano Boy]

Taking a short break from painting white horses,I decided to restore my little Toy Canoe and the Blackfoot Indians that are part and parcel of it,because it is looking rather beat up at this present time. So I placed it in a river that, blow me down has just frozen over and them without even a blanket or Bearskin to cover themselves in.................... The canoe was set in a clay base,and stuff added. So it`s early days yet and I will have to wait till spring before the river begins to flow again. BB

[Kekso]

This might be really good when finished... looking forward to see some progress

[Beano Boy]

The small oval base was made of clay with the canoe set into it.To avoid getting rather muddy clay onto my old 1950`s toy canoe I wrapped it up in a plastic bag.When the clay was hard I surrounded it by using some of my old plastercine and added a thick glob of glue all over the base and just poured lots of small stones onto the glue.As you see it was filled right up with this heavy stuff.The next day the stones were tipped out and stored away.So what I had then was a very nice riverbed of stones.The white patch was where the glue had not dried clear like the rest did. Above is the base and the first two layers of glue have been added by simply brushing it on. I decided to remove the plasticine after these layers of glue had set. a couple of days later I stuck the canoe into the base,and globbed all over the water area with a thick layer of PVA Glue. This is the point that I had reached when I decided to post this little scene on the Forum. Now it is going to take a while before the glue clears somewhat cloudy like. When it reaches that stage I finish it off with a couple of layers of clear gloss Varnish. Then hopefully it will look like a good depth of water is beneath the canoe in spite of the fact that it will only be about 7mm thick . Then the canoe can be removed from the base and repainted. The figures are very old,and are part of my Toy Collection, and are a bit ugly looking,but I made the tiny bow`s and arrows and other stuff too ,and now after having them for year`s and year`s this base and their very own piece of river will make them look a bit more presentable. Update soon BB

[Beano Boy]

Day three,as the glue dehydrates it causes shrinkage which in turn splits the surface creating its own natural design and pattern. So this will result hopefully in some good reflections when completely finished. I expect it to split even more in the next few days. Then the whiteness will gradually disappear from view,and then it won`t look like an iced over cake. This is one of my reflective pond`s made this year,it too was very, very white at the beginning. BB

[Beano Boy]

Day five,and it is clearing nicely. Yes I added the other figure too.......The Canoe and all three figures make up this Toy,and as they are rather crude in style must not be seen as Model`s. Hope you are liking the changing water in this photo shoot way. BB

[Beano Boy]

Not as perfect as I would have liked,but as a toy sitting in the river it is fine. So this topic is at an end. BB