Painting the horn

Horn

Completion of the horn was nearly finished, except for the paint job. We decided to color it light ivory, as that's what nature must have had in mind. And it definitely looked more natural than bright white. We know for sure, as the laminate was painted with a thick white primer to get a smooth finish. It didn't look natural.
The primer really covered the texture of the glassfabric very well, but was still too thin to be sanded to get every etch out. We decided to drop the perfection.,as some 8m above ground, no one would notice anyway.
Next picture shows the freshly painted horn being presented to the world for the first time. Actually we had to put it out, because the primer smelled like hell.

As a last step, we added the phosphorescent pigment mixed in epoxy resin into the helical groves. Inside the rather dark room, the effect was quite cool. But that was a different story.

mounting platform

The mounting platform was a different story. We wanted it to perfectly blend in in it's new environment. It should be virtually invisible. Only apparent, if you look carefully. We had to get it's color match the greenish, weather worn bronze.

Did you know, that green patina nowadays is not common for new bronze or cooper objects exposed to weather? Acid rain is not what it used to be any more. Over a hundred years ago, when the statue was first on display it was a sweet bronze brown, as you can see the picture here.

Focus! As weather proof colors weren't available in our price range and we didn't have experience mixing them, we stayed with ordinary acrylic color. Some green, blue, white and black was all we needed. Most of the mixing was done right in place on the target.

In fact, we had a session in sight of the statue to get the color and aging effects right. Some black in the grooves, some more white and blue at the edges. As you can see we spared the part, where the horn would be attached later. The only minor bump is, that due to different reflection characteristics of the actual statue and the platform, the colors didn't match in both sunny and cloudy conditions. It was only accurate if the amount of ambient light was high, as you might remember from the Day 1 discussion.