Some ideas for ground cover

mikelhh Mar 16, 2011

  1. Shortround

    Shortround TrainBoard Member

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    Some great ideas. The winter scene gave me the chills. We're just getting over winter here in Milwaukee. I've getting started with polymer clay and am ancious to see what I can do with it.

    Now I just need to find a mortor & pestel thingy.
     
  2. screen48

    screen48 TrainBoard Member

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    Fine work - very fine work - I want more!
     
  3. mikelhh

    mikelhh TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks for the kind replies.

    I've been working on installing a dual track plate girder bridge - a Central Valley Models kit. I've had to redesign the river to accommodate it.

    Started off with water putty with small rocks embedded

    [​IMG]

    The white strip is wet PVA where I'm having a gravel bank. After seeing that photo I added more rocks to make the water's edge less regular.

    I painted it with acrylics, picking out some of the bigger rocks with paler greys.

    [​IMG]

    I added some vegetation - unpainted jute twine tufts and painted cleaning cloth, and I dragged pale paint over the gravels to help them stand out.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    I made the bridge abutments with artists texture paste over balsa sheet.

    Next step will be to add some resin water.

    Mike
     
  4. mikelhh

    mikelhh TrainBoard Member

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  5. traingeekboy

    traingeekboy TrainBoard Member

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    your techniques are really impressive. Your descriptions of how you did it, though obvious to you, leave some questions for me. Can you please tell us how you got those realistic looking water erosions on the surface. Did you use water to do it the natural way, or are you extremely talented at making natural looking washed out areas?

    Thanks for the posts.
     
  6. mikelhh

    mikelhh TrainBoard Member

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    Hi Geeky.
    On this occasion I had to carve away a lot of landscaped riverbank to fit in the new abutments. I ended up with quite a drop in the ground level, and it seemed to me to be the logical place to show some erosion. I made a point of poking rocks into the face of the higher bit, as if they'd been exposed when the land had slumped. Then it was just a matter of running a stick down through the wet putty to show where the rain might have flowed.


    The sloping bank right alongside the abutment was made with sand that I poured on so it found its own shape, Firstly I mist sprayed it thoroughly, then I pressed the little washaways into it while it was still wet, then I glued it with slightly diluted PVA.
    While it's true that grasses could grow in hollows like that, it's also true that they could be unable to gain much of a foothold because of the flow of the water. I tend to leave mine grass-free.

    [​IMG]
     
  7. mikelhh

    mikelhh TrainBoard Member

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    after pouring the water [posted in the Inspection Pit] I set about landscaping the opposite bank. I poured plaster over it to build it up to somewhere near track level, and before it set I embedded rocks and sprinkled it with rock dust and crushed shellgrit, and I created a couple or rainwater runs

    [​IMG]

    Once it had set I painted it with acrylics - mixes of raw umber, red oxide, deep plum, chestnut, blue, black and white

    [​IMG]

    Then I brushed on PVA for more patches of grit

    [​IMG]
     
  8. mikelhh

    mikelhh TrainBoard Member

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    The shellgrit is now glued on, and grasses [tufts of painted fine fibre cleaning cloth] have been added

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    I'll paint the shellgrit to better match the surrounds.
     
  9. mikelhh

    mikelhh TrainBoard Member

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    A view of a painted cloth. I vary the colours as much as I can while still trying to keep the dried out winter look

    I use a wire pet-grooming brush to fluff it up again once it's dry. This cloth was vivid canary yellow.

    [​IMG]
     
  10. traingeekboy

    traingeekboy TrainBoard Member

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    Is this cloth a cotton cloth? What does it look like new?

    The results are spectacular. I wonder if I can find this brand here?
     
  11. traingeekboy

    traingeekboy TrainBoard Member

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    It was this shot with the water channels in the water putty that I was most curious about. Hand carved while wet?
     
  12. mikelhh

    mikelhh TrainBoard Member

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    Yes, Geeky. Carved just as the putty is starting to set - maybe 30 mins after pouring. Or actually maybe a little less than 30 mins because the putty isn't thick here. If you try to shape it too soon it collapses back into itself.

    Mike
     
  13. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    Stirring up an older thread..... Mikel, where did you buy the dried tea leaves? I've checked out the local grocers and haven't had much luck.
     
  14. RBrodzinsky

    RBrodzinsky November 18, 2022 Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter In Memoriam

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    After seeing what Mike did with tea leaves, I just started saving used tea bags. When I had about a dozen, I cut them open, and spread the tea on a baking sheet and put them in the oven at about 180F until dry. I've put them into an old medicine bottle, and use them under trees and shrubs on the layout. I suppose you can also just cut open new tea bags, if you don't drink tea.
     
  15. mikelhh

    mikelhh TrainBoard Member

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    Hi Pat I just do what Rick does :thumbs_up:

    Mike
     
  16. ward kesic

    ward kesic TrainBoard Member

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    looks great! ive used on previous layouts, sifted dirt dried out from the backyard, coffee [instant], cut branches ,during the winter from bushes and shrubs great for making low cost ho scale trees. ALWAYS KEEP WIRE CUTTERS AND EMPTY COFFEE CANS IN SUV. also borrowed stones from unpaved parking lots great fo different size rocks................Can always get ideas when going along during my travels
     
  17. Candy_Streeter

    Candy_Streeter TrainBoard Member

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    i just learned some good stuff !
     
  18. mikelhh

    mikelhh TrainBoard Member

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    Geeky Just checking back through this thread I realised I had missed this one.
    New cloths:

    [​IMG]

    There are several different brands , all cheap, and they all work.

    Mike
     
  19. mikelhh

    mikelhh TrainBoard Member

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    Time for a little update.

    Here are some tree roots made with DAS clay

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    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 22, 2012
  20. mikelhh

    mikelhh TrainBoard Member

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    Another water putty dirt road

    [​IMG]

    with fine sand sprinkled around, and coarser shellgrit along the edges.

    Ruts worked in with the back of a razor saw

    [​IMG]

    Acrylic paint brushed on, with darket tones in the ruts

    [​IMG]
     

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