king derelict

I was surprised when I measured it. Even in real life it seems to be imposing😄 Alan

I'm looking forward to seeing this take shape. Its going to be a great showcase for the Wimpy. Alan

Thanks OC I think washes will help pull some of the elements together. I'm also thinking that I need to work out when to stop. I see a terrible tendancy to keep piling additional bits on. Alan

Thank you for the reference Jack. He made some beautiful landscapes. And all without the extensive materials and supplies we now have available. I guess in a way most of the commercially available stuff is a convenience and time saving instead of sourcing / making the lanscape materials yourself. I'm gradually getting the hang of the WS products and learning to only work on a very small area at a time. Alan

Building up a really deep gloss. Beautiful alan

I’ve found the Vallejo putty to be not so easy to work with. I squeeze a bit out onto something like an old credit card and pick a small amount up on the point of a cocktail stick and work it into gaps. It limits the spread of the stuff great job on an old kit alan

The boats are lovely work - really crisp detail alan

Thank you very much Andy. This is a whole new world of products and some of the WS foliage and grass variants were a bit of a wrestle to get looking right. I'm pretty much staying with the fine turf, bushes, briars and fine leaf foliage with some foliage clumps and coarse turf acting as low scrub and small bushes. I am amazed at what can be done with a railway layout. Some beautiful work out there. Thanks for the encouragement Alan

I added some of the Woodland Scenics coarse turf and found it difficult to work with. It doesn't seem to shake out onto the model. It seems to need to be sprinkled between fingers and then there is a tendency to ball up. I wonder if it works better on larger scale models. For me it looks like small bushes rather than coarse turf. So I was happy enough with teh small amount that got added but I decided not to use any more and moved onto WS bushes and briars to build up the vegetation on the cliffs and rocks. Its quite fun to do this but I am nervous about overdoing it. This looks about right looking at photos of the real thing. To add the bushes I used full strength white glue and then a coat of the scenic glue once everything was in place The rocks at extreme left look a bit stark so they may get worked over. I moved off the model and started working on trees. The first ten have been made from WS pine armatures and initially dark green foliage clumps but I found them hard to work with to get a conifer shape so I moved onto conifer green fine leaf foliage. Its a bit unpredictable but there are some nice effects and its possible to get bare branches in amongst the foliage. The stands are temporary bases while the glue dries. They will be added to the base by punching a hole into the foam blocks. These will get a coat to scenic glue and then I'll start building up that side of the model Thanks for looking in, all the great comments and help. Alan

The base is 24 x 26 inches and 16 inches high

You are right about the price of plexiglass Craig. I don't trust myself to cut sheets of plexiglass accurately so I get them precut from TAP Plastics (a great resource and very efficient). I went to their website last night to check the price of a set of 3/16 sheets to build a case - $120 roughly! I'm going to do it though. Although my cats are pretty good I have invested too much time in this one to be happy about coming home to find someone has pulled all the foliage off the model. It seems that there are lot of people who can't look at something without using their fingers. Finding a place to display it is going to be interesting. I wandered around with the tape measure earlier and found that the two candidate spots are actually too small. I've seen photos showing display cases built into a thrift store coffee table which is interesting but my woodworing skills are horrible so I'm not sure I can pull that off.. Its getting close to needing an answer though Alan

Thank you EG A lot of the credit goes to all the help I've had from you all. Youtube is a great resource but this is a massive topic with so many ways of making a great landscape that its hard to navigate Many Thanks Alan

Thanks Andrew I'm replacing the stone dust all over the garage with bits of scenic foliage😄 Alan

Thank you OC. Still a lot of detail to work up but I think its getting there. Alan

Thank you Jack Your tips and suggestions help a lot Many Thanks Alan

Thank you very much Andy That is a very helpful tip. I'll try the diluted alcohol spray as I move onto the next layer of turf and weeds. Alan

After experimenting off the model I started with the grass. I used a bottle of Woodland Scenics scenic cement for the work so far. It dries matte and can be sprayed or painted. Working on a small area at a time I painted on a coat of it and then started adding grass. I found I didn't like the shaker bottle to dispense the grass. I was getting too much and over too large an area. What seems to work for me is taking an amount of the grass from the bottle on an appropriate artists palette knife and then adding it to the model by tapping the edge of the palette knife. That gave me far more control of how much and where I was placing the stuff. I started with WS fine yellow turf and when I was happy with what I had applied I gave it a sprayed coat of the WS scenic cement. Then I added WS fine blended turf using the palette knives again. They were great for getting the grass under the walls where it might be wetter and shadier. This shows the yellow and blended turf in the foreground and the yellow only further back\ The same treatment was given to the next section I have some WS light green coarse turf which will be the next layer. I think that will break up the texture a bit and also take some of the starkness out of the blended turf. Its a bit dark for my liking. I'm learning as I go here but so far its taking shape. Then bushes and trees and some gravelly areas I think I will run out of the WS glue before finishing so I will be switching to diluted white glue although I have also read that diluted matte medium works well too so I may try that both need a few drops of dish soap to aid dispersal. Thank you all for looking in, for the comments and likes. Alan

Thank you very much Ken - and you are exactly right Alan

I see what you mean about all those wheels. I look forward to seeing them building up the diorama alan

Beautiful work Jav. The paintwork is excellent Alan

I experimented with basic background colours for the grass areas. These will be predominantly covered in dry grass with greener shades where there is more shade or water. I decided on a green grey mix for the base and added some dry grass to assess the effect I think that is going to work so I painted in all the grass areas. Its dried a bit greener than I expected but from a distance it looks quite good without going further. At least its an indication of what the finished model may look like I added a few more rocks and found that I had forgotten the cliffs at the back corner so they were built up and painted. Trees and bushes get added to the back side so I kept the lower cliffs fairly simple. Ready to add grass I think Thanks for looking in, all the comments and helpful tips and likes Alan

Thank you very much Mike. The landscaping is a fun exercise after all the brickwork. The model is going to 26"L x 24" W and 16 " high. And its heavy. I'm rather puzzled wondering where to display it. Alan

Thank you very much OC. I was a bit nervous about the quantity of cliffs that needed to be worked but I'm really pleased with the result. Using Sculptamold as the material to glue all the cast cliffs into place worked much better than using straight plaster. I think I will need some bare patches amongst the grass. I'm thinking some of the Mig saand effect might be worth trying. It can be buried under the grass if it doesn't work. Alan

Thank you very much EG. I made some trials and ended up with green - grey. It seems to have dried a bit greener than I planned but I think it will still work under the grass. Alan

Great recovery Craig. Skill to obtain a deep gloss on a car intimidates me alan