"Easy Pickins"

[Stikpusher]

Want to make something look like real wood? Use real wood...

Man that is gonna be killer when finished! Great looking wood work so far.

[SteveSki]

I agree, Carlos. I never did like trying to make styrene look like real wood.

[LyleW]

So much fun to watch. That bike is mah-ve-lous

[SteveSki]

Thanks, Lyle

[SteveSki]

Slow Going.

Bunker time has been shortened a bit, but I’m still able to get a little time in daily. With Spring kicking in high gear that time will only get shorter, so I need to keep the momentum going without rushing the results.

I’ve finished the roof system with the weather damage in the mid-section. The evidence of neglect over time will add a bit of character to the structure and will be weathered accordingly. Man, that was a lot of shingles to make and ruff up.





After the structure was built, I moved on to making the veggies. Trying to make bushes in this larger scale takes a bit of pre-planning as there really isn’t any decent foliage on the market. But you can, however, always scratch build your veggies using whatever is on hand. As you can see from the photo below, I save a few tomato roots and other garden plants each fall. They dry over the winter in the green house and are always ready in the spring. Ya just never know when you’ll need them and it’s always a good idea to plan ahead.









I started by taking apart the root system and separating usable sections for my bushes and set aside the longer strands for ivy or crawling plants. Many times, I couldn’t find exactly what I would consider a decent clump, so I had to combine several portions to fabricate the plant bases and structures needed. There are quite a few YT vids on how to make realistic bushes that are very helpful. I watched more than a few of them before starting the veggie work and that saved me a lot of time.

I used fine and course flock and Super Leaf from Scenic Express on the bushes after applying small amounts of poly fiber, or pillow stuffing, on the branches. This really is too small for the scale I need, but I used it anyway. I won’t go over the process, but this video gives a good run down of the process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0wps1_K--M

When it comes to making veggies, I prefer to find as much foliage as possible from the hillsides and mountains in my area. The realism, imho, can’t be beat and the material is very cheap, just pick it.

Once the bushes were done, I started on the roof color tones and weathering. I added some moss on the shingles and a little bit on the top and bottom of the fence and gate. Ivy will be crawling all over this structure, so the wet and decaying wood needs this prep work to add realism to the effect.







There is still a lot to do before I can start the ground work, but progress is moving forward. Feel free to add suggestions or comments and thanks for watchin.

Cheers, Ski.

[keavdog]

The fence and roof turned out great!

[SteveSki]

Thanks, Brother, and I like your Avatar!!

[SteveSki]

There’s Got to Be a Better Way!

Progress report: Maybe I’m not looking hard enough, but placing these leaves one at a time is getting old real fast, hours actually, for this small area alone. I know, gluten for punishment, but I haven’t found anything else that would come close to the scale I need.

Belly Ache Alert!!! Pass the snivel wipes, if you please.

If there’s a better way to tackle this, I’m all ears. I thought the ivy plants were tough on “Early Mornin Dew”, but this is much more difficult. Getting in between these tiny twigs without breaking any of them is a real challenge. It’s not like I can use flock and poly fiber, or even a MiniNatur set, and get decent results.





If you are going to take this route in this scale, I don’t see any other choice but to grind through it and carry on. Like I said, maybe I didn’t look heard enough, but I have not found a better solution and using fish tank plastic won’t cut it, too fake, IMHO. I will be adding a lot of smaller punched leaves in the gaps to make this tree look as real as possible and not so much like a sparse cactus, or a cheap knock-off attempt.

Well, like you said Glenn, “Welcome to the nut house”, or better yet, welcome to the lunatic fringe! More to follow and please, if there are any suggestions out there, I’m all ears.

Cheers, Ski.

[Stuart]

superb base work there Steve - I love the tree!