Precut and finish the panels: 3.5 hours The letters were cut from the leftmost panel of ¾-in. HDU, board which has the blend already painted on it. The middle panel of 3/4-in. HDU board was used to make the top and bottom banner panels. The main sign panel, at right, was 1½-in. HDU board. I masked the panels with Oramask before routing.
Rout the main panel and all components: 4 hours The router cut a pocket for each of the letters and left the border raised while cutting down the background. It also cut down the background in the illustration, leaving the silhouette in the foreground. The pocket for the letters is .015 larger on all sides, which is usually taken up by the paint, so the letters almost snap in.
Hand carve illustration details: 2 hours With a chisel, I carved the texture in the mountains in the illustration.
Hand carve the antlers: 1.5 hours The antlers were cut out then hand carved, and texture was added by hand with a wire brush.
Here the components are dry fit and ready for finishing.
Finish the antlers: 1.5 hours After finishing the antlers with two coats of beige exterior enamel, I antiqued them by putting on a glaze coat of brown and wiping most of it off. It stayed in the textured areas, creating a nice effect.
Airbrush the illustration: 1 hour I masked off the illustration and used the airbrush to paint it and add blends.
Paint the panel: 2 hours I masked off the illustration, then primed and painted the panel with exterior satin acrylic paint. Oil-based enamel was used on the rest of the sign.
Finish the letters: 1 hour The letters were prefinished with a blend. When I cut them out on the router, I had it bevel the edges. I painted the bevel the same color as the light color of the blend.
Assemble and clean up: 2 hours Wherever two unfinished HDU surfaces were bonded, the assembly was done with Gorilla Glue. If one or both surfaces were painted, I used Gorilla Construction Adhesive to bond them. Along with the adhesives, I used screws through the back of the sign.
