After much procrastination and shaking of head I have made an attempt at doing some scenery. You will remember from my layout thread the initial stage ….





The following is a brief description of what I have done …..

Taking Jeff's advice I mixed some brown colour with the tile cement that I was going to use (Jeff had suggested emulsion but I used poster paint as an alternative — both water based) and went for it slapping it on with gay abandon doing it in two sections the upper and lower. This was the first mistake as I know that one must build it up in layers to allow it to dry but unfortunately the exuberance of youth took over. Needless to say it took about a week for each "slap" to go off.

While slapping on the lower level I pressed some bits of rock into the cement, the rock being some hardcore left over form when the patio was laid last year.

Once it had all gone off I covered it in PVA and scattered Woodland Scenics grass over the whole area. I wanted to break up the area somewhat so I have tried to make some gorse bushes using Woodland Scenics clump, dipped it in yellow acrylic and attached to the hill

I also broke up some more of the hardcore (you can do a lot of damage with a lump hammer) and spread it around at the bottom … as yet not fixed permamently

The following is the result ……











As a first attempt I am reasonably happy with it but really would appreciate critique from the those on the forum who are masters at the scenery.

All comments will be received in the manner they are given and if thought that I should go away and try again so be it … I have no qualms about starting again

I look forward to reading your responses

Happy Modelling

Matt

 

Hey Matt - you must be really proud of that. thumbs

Sorry I'm not what you asked for -  I'm no "master scenery builder" but that certainly doesn't look like a first attempt and I'm sure those more qualified than me will tell you the same thing.  Well done. :cheers

I'd  add the odd bit of "clump" foliage to make a bush here or there to break up the grass, a tree at some stage and you're away.

Looking pretty good to me Matt!

Perhaps some longer grasses and stuff around some of the boulders?  I like the colour of the rocks though.

 

 I would say that looks pretty good Matt, a couple more clumps of grass and some sheep and you will be set :thumbs Nice touch with the stones

Good effort Matt, especially for a first time. Love the rock outcrops, definitely on the right track there but I'm not so keen on the bright yellow on the top of your bushes. I know gorse is a beautiful yellow if you want a prototype from real life but somehow it doesn't look right on your model

nothing wrong with that matt.:doublethumb

You're on your way, Matt.  You'll soon become obsessed like the rest of us.:cool wink

You can't get much more realistic looking rocks than actually using real rocks!!! they look the business.As the lads say,some tufts of longer grass here and there,(especially around the rocks),some bushes and a tree or two,then just fill in the white gap between hill and track…and you're away.
   Bang on for a first effort IMHO!:thumbs

Cheers,John.B.:pathead

they have said it all Matt, a really good first.

:doublethumb:cool:

Nice work Matt!
 I really like the idea of having gorse - I wish I had some - but I agree with Bob about the yellow. Not that I've seen any for ages, but I've seen loads of photos and from them I'm gauging that it ought to be a bit darker than that, and with just a hint of orange in the mix - I'm not saying it should be orange! Also I think for modelling purposes the intensity of that colour needs to be subdued a bit.
 

Gorse

 maybe more like this? But perhaps not so strong.
You may well have to start with a different yellow. It wouldn't be easy to alter the one you've used.

 I reckon if you add some finer grade crumbled rock more like coarse sand and some very fine dusty stuff and scatter it in and around the others, as well as adopting the other suggestions you've received it will look very good.  
  Maybe some small pathways made by people or animals too, to break up the big area. I made some in my little cow paddock by repeatedly ramming a paintbrush handle [I think] through and along the ground. When I got through to the base it was the wrong colour so I had to paint it to suit.

 Mike

OK Matt, here's my two pennyworth.

I think you have made an excellent first attempt and already your scenery looks a hell of a lot better than some I've seen :exclam

I like Mike's idea of adding some finer stuff to the small rocks ( / talus) at the bottom of your slope, you could also add some different scatter such as Woodland Scenics "Fine Turf - Earth", to give the lower slope the effect of a rough, almost bare scree. It needs to be "fused together" by one or two of these non-green materials that have been mentioned.

The other important addition to make is some differing height grasses and patches on your hillside. At the moment you could imagine that hillside having been cut twice a week all summer, so now you need some tufts, some long grass patches, some bare earth patches (as per my Woodland Scenics suggested earth above) make sure these additions are of slightly different shades of green to your initial scatter and the variation of tone and grass length will make a huge improvement for little effort.

Good work, now to add that little bit of extra "lift".  thumbs:thumbs

Matt,  as a fellow new starter in the scenery stakes I think this is an impressive effort and with some detailing along the lines suggested by our more experienced colleagues it will look great - certainly no need to start again.  I particularly like your use of the rocks.

One thing I found was that adding colour to the tile cement seemed to significantly lengthen its drying time and weaken its adhesion.  I found it better to use the cement sparingly to stick the polystyrene former together and let that set.  I then used ordinary finishing plaster which you can get in small bags from DIY stores adding in the required colour and a blob of PVA to keep it flexible.  This mix dries quickly and is easy to work during the drying out period.  It eventually dries hard and robust but can still be sanded, scraped and carved to introduce more detail as required.

For colouring my preference has been to use artists acrylics.  A small amount of the intense colour goes a long way and of course there is a superb range of colours available.  Also, the acrylic seem to give a plasticising effect to the plaster making it a creamy smooth consistency and again easier to work with.

Look forward to seeing further developments in your scenery.

Cheers

Mike

 

:thumbs Cool, Matt. I've only used paper mache before, years ago and have yet to give this form of scenery  a go …… so I just hope my first attempt is as successful as yours. Congrats :exclam:exclam:exclam

John

Guys … Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. I too feel that the yellow on the "gorse" is too bright but as SWMBO has said so often "You sit on your colour sense".

I will look at redoing the gorse and take on the comments that it looks too much like a lawn and will apply some different coloured scatter and get myself some longer grass (going to Glenrothes MRC show on Sunday) for fiddling around the rocks etc.

I also propose to build a cairn (translation for non Celts available) and possibly some sort of ruin at the back corner, some sheep and maybe a path running across

Again thanks for your supportive comments

Happy Modelling

Matt

If you do have another go at the gorse Matt it will pay to have a good look at the photograph that MikeC posted as you can see that the flowers can be on the shrub from almost ground level upwards and with a fairly uniform covering but not absolutely dense. Not easy to get right I know but well worth a little extra effort if you do have another go.

Matt

A really great start, I like the real stones at the base of the hill, that makes it look far more like the real thing, I agree that different heights of grass will help, for me you need to add height but this can be done by making bushes and or trees, all of which you would find by the lineside, and on a hill.
If this is something that you might like to try, I can show you some that I have done on Walnut End, but we all do these things different, and you will find a way thta suits you.

If you are not sure what colours to buy for gorse, buy a tube of artists acrylic in Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Orange.

Squueze about half an inch of orange out onto a saucer on one side and the yellow the other. Wet the 'sausages' with a drop of water on a brush until it turns to runny cream consistency, cleaning the sponge in between each colour. Don't worry if it runs down into the middle and makes a mixture, that's useful!

With a piece of damp torn sponge, take some orange cream and dab on, Allow to dry a little, then repeat over it with a dab of yellow cream.

You'll get there sooner than you think!

If you do it in the bottom of a small margarine tub or similar, you can put a bit of wet, screwed up kitchen roll in the tub, replace the lid and it will keep usable for days…..

The orange, mixed with Viridian will give exactly the colour of newly grown oak-tree leaves too, and with a cobalt blue a deep shade colour grey.

The yellow, mixed with the blue in various proportions will give a huge range of greens, so that you never need have a 'field' all the same colour all over!

If you use the cadmiums be very careful with them. They are highly toxic.

Mike

p.s. great suggestions though :doublethumb