It's good being retired!(part one)

I don't know if I've mentioned this before,but I'm retired(9 years and still loving it!) and being retired means that you have a lot of spare time on your hands to tackle important "projects"
I've been working on two particular projects this week,and keeping a pictorial record,so here goes for the first one..............
I decided that I needed(?) a gateway to add to my existing Asian-type buildings,and this is the project..................

Top photo indicates the old adage of "fail to plan,and you plan to fail!"-bottom is the wooden former (wood recycled from next doors skip!) I used.

Top shows the packet of air-drying clay that I used for the gateway(no instructions provided-more of that later!) and bottom shows the carefully measured "lump" of clay that was to form the gateway.

Top shows the highly professional tools needed for the masterpiece,and bottom shows what I achieved in just a few minutes of finger moulding!

Looking a bit better,just needs leaving overnight in a warm room to dry out.

Aaarg!!-disaster-what a set of instructions would have told me is that the clay shrinks by about 10%-this caused me to have to reconstruct the wooden former,by sawing off 1/2 inch,and then I discovered that it had also "bellied",as shown in the bottom photo!!!-where's the filler?

Having found the filler,and filled the gap,I have painted the whole lot black,and waited for it to thoroughly dry,before dry-brushing it silver to match the existing buildings.

Silver applied,and it looks okay to me,now to try it beside the other buildings................

I am aware of my lack of modelling skills,but I'm quite pleased with the result,one final shot to show 25mm figures next to the completed gateway..............

We won't be playing this Sunday,as we are going down to Vapnartak show in York.
I will post part two of my on-going projects next week.