I honestly don't know how many unfinished scenery projects that I have laying around, but one in particular recently caught my eye again as I was going through some old photos. So I've decided to revisit the old project.
This is one of the photos from the original post.
The original piece that started the inspiration for this project was a diorama I found on Cool Mini called Welcome To The Jungle by paulvalenx.
When I first started this project, as with a lot of my projects, I had a fairly clear idea of what I wanted to achieve, but where it started to fall apart was in having a clearer picture of how I was going to get there and a better understanding of the mechanics of assembling the scene.
To give you an example of what I'm talking about, the basis of this tree is a frame made of wire and then coated in Daas modeling clay (as can be seen in the next image). This is a good way to start, but next time I do a tree this size I think I'll start with a piece of wooden dowel and just model branches and roots in wire.
I think the wooden core will give me a stronger starting point and cut down the time I have to spend on filling out the body of the tree. This should make working on the roots and branches of the tree a little less tiring as I can put more focus into them without having to worry too much about the overall look and filler.
This little project is mounted on 3mm thick MDF that is 300mm x 300mm. As I want to use it as a piece of battlefield terrain I don't like the idea of the base being perfectly square. I don't know how you feel about these things, but it's a bit of a battlefield aesthetic thing for me.
Now cutting at the scene with a saw is probably going to tear at or damage the existing work and while there are certain things that will be torn at to add other elements, I want to be able to control what I'm going to tear up. So what I'll do is draw my outline in pencil on where I'll be trimming and then take to it with a Dremel cutting disk. Once the trimming's finished I'll give the edges a light sanding by hand.
Now cutting at the scene with a saw is probably going to tear at or damage the existing work and while there are certain things that will be torn at to add other elements, I want to be able to control what I'm going to tear up. So what I'll do is draw my outline in pencil on where I'll be trimming and then take to it with a Dremel cutting disk. Once the trimming's finished I'll give the edges a light sanding by hand.
Another effect I'm going to use when I'm painting the tree is to mix myself some texture paint to do the base coat. I'll just mix some fine sand in with some cheap acrylic paint that I bought from the local discount store. I've always got a ready supply of the primary colours and a few more for when I couldn't be bothered mixing my own colours. Sometimes I'll mix them with an alcohol base of some kind, like methylated spirits which can help take some of the gloss off the artists acrylics, sometimes. It's a bit of trial and error.
The one thing that I would suggest to anyone, and that you'd think I would have learned by now, is that a little planning goes a long way.
I don't remember where I found this image.
But if you know where they came from please let me know so I can give their creator the credit they're due.
Simple sketches like the ones above can really help you get the idea of what you want to achieve in a piece of scenery. Also giving your scenery a dry run can help. What this means is that you put all the major elements in place, without glue, so that you can start to get a better idea of what you're dealing with. This will also allow you to trim the base the way you want and start to plan out some of the finer details as well as wrap your head around the mechanics of what you want to achieve.
You might also find that a little careful planning helps you see your project through to the end rather than, in my case, get frustrated by the complexity and think "I'll get back to that later", only to have a couple of years go by before you look at it again.
You local hobby centre should have some good books on scenery to help build on your own techniques. My all time favourite book is still How to Build Realistic Model Railroad Scenery by Dave Frary. I got my first copy of this back in the mid 80's and it helped redefine the way I look at materials and the way I work with some materials. Don't forget you local library either. Shocking, I know, but over the years I've taken many photocopies of things from the library. (For those that don't know, a library is an almost forgotten building containing the knowledge of mankind in a paperback format. Not for the faint hearted.)
I'll be sure to add more photos and explanations on what I've done as things progress with this old monster, including what materials I might use for specific applications.
Posts in this series:
- Reviving old projects.
- Trimming the base.
Posts in this series:
- Reviving old projects.
- Trimming the base.