M_S_Statues

Hello friends and community!

I hope you’re all doing well!

This week, I dedicated almost all of my time to one of the biggest parts of the project—the cabinet. It turned out to be far more work than I originally expected. Between all the drain holes, the cleanup, and the heavily damaged back panel, there was a lot of filling, sanding, priming, and refining before I was finally happy with the surface.

The lower cabinet section is now complete, and I was finally able to glue the two main sections together. After that came probably the biggest artistic decision of the week: Which wood color should I choose?

I spent quite a while looking through reference photos because I honestly wasn’t sure which direction to take. At first, I considered a more traditional brown wood finish, and even an ebony-style cabinet. But the more I looked at the overall composition, the more I realized neither option really fit the atmosphere I was trying to create.

Since I’m keeping this entire project heavily desaturated—with the visor being the only real focal point of color—a brown cabinet behind the already brown leather chair would simply blend together. The contrast between those two elements would be too weak, and both would lose visual impact.

That’s why I ultimately chose a black cabinet. But rather than making it look like freshly painted furniture, I wanted it to tell a story. My vision was an old cabinet that has been repainted several times over the years—a piece of furniture with worn edges, scratches, and years of use showing through the finish.

To achieve that effect, I first primed the cabinet black. Then, using a makeup sponge, I carefully stippled several different brown tones onto all the edges and areas where natural wear would occur. After that, I applied Liquid Mask with a small sponge over those areas before spraying the cabinet black once again. Once the paint had cured, I rubbed away the masking fluid to reveal the worn edges underneath, creating realistic chipped paint. Finally, I worked over the entire cabinet with brown ink to blend everything together and add even more depth and age to the finish.

To complete the look, I sealed everything with Mr. Hobby Super Clear Semi-Gloss. The satin finish gives the cabinet just enough sheen to resemble aged painted wood while preserving the subtle, worn character I was aiming for.

Looking at it now, I’m really happy with the decision to go with black instead of brown. It creates a much stronger contrast against the leather chair while perfectly supporting the dark, moody atmosphere that has been my goal since the beginning of this project.

That’s it for this week’s update!

I’ll see you all next week, and as always, if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Peace out!