Hey guys, I’ve been dwelling on a project a guy asked me to do, to name a memorial area on the Naptown for his grandfather. I’ve bee dragging my feet, mostly due to a lack of ideas. I want something that looks right. Not so fancy that I can’t make it, but soimething better than just ye olde cardstock or decal on styrene, like every other sign on the layout.
And I say “Sign” it just needs to read Richard McClellend Simpson Memorial Park" someplace logical so we know who it commemorates. I’ve toyed with tracing something into foamboard or similar like an etching, not sure what I;d use. Plaster maybe, but I’m not sure I’m a good enough hand to do it without a stencil, and paper on a plaster that’s soft enough to work with but won’t stick to it forever?
I’ve also thought about the metal wire signs, like what’s over Central Park, but I’m darned sure that’s out of my league.
And yes, I am aware that is a long name, that’a what the Customer wants, but if you know of a good way to shorten it, I’m all ears.
Yes yesm it could be, but I’ve done cardstock signs, and I don’t thinkl I could get th elighting/colorong/reflecting to get a good enough looking sign. I’ve made a few that I’ve gone back through and said “No, I don’t like that anymore. The colros are too blatently paper sign-y”
As for the memorial itself, it started off as a flag stand, a star shaped pediment with the American flag dead center, and a series of flaga saround it. What they were, I don’t recall, someone’s pluvcked the other flags. I’ve thought about a pewter fig, I’ve seen a few good memorials done that way. Mostly, I need the sign, or if the sign is incorporated into the border/fencing, that too.
If the memorial is built, ` In the round,’ a stone wall with raised wings at the entrance, black raised lettering attached to the light-colored stone. Or you might try coloring the letters to resemble bronze that’s had a while in the weather. Inside the stone wall, a pedestal of some kind with an appropriate statue on top, again colored to resemble weathered bronze (and probably with a cap and shoulderboards of pigeon droppings.)
I have seen small memorials with a life-size statue inside a 20 foot circle of wall. On the other extreme, the WWI memorial near Pelham Bay Station in Da Bronx had a high wall (with, IIRC, the names of the honored dead from New York City) and a central pylon at least fifty feet high topped by a heroic statue of Winged Victory.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with shrines, one honoring the Pacific War dead)
It may not be exactly what you’re looking for, but I did this one for laughs:
I made the decal myself on an inkjet printer, using yellow letters on a brown background. I made the sign with dowels and a thin sheet of balsa wood. I painted the wood white on the facing side, so that when I applied the decal the yellow would have the right color balance.
Decal-on-wood gives a nice painted-on look that you can’t get with flat styrene.
I have seem memorial areas that had a large arch type gateway as the enterance. A simple sign hanging at the top of the opening said what it was. Some were engraved signs, but others were either painted wood or metal signs. The thing that comes to mind that doesn’t require making decals or the like, would be a strip of styrene with adhesive letters attached.
There’s a memorial (design?) on Google for Las Vegas that matches your description, and was an idea I was leaning towards. The question was, how to do it?
Hmm. Hadn;t thought of adhesives, might be able to find something more “rasied” looking than a decal or straight sticker.
And re: wooden signs, I do like the look of a decal on wood, it does give it a much needed texture.
