Kinross: Evergreen and growth...

I find the weekends are offering me the chance to unwind on a very personal modelling project, one that is compact, achievable, motivating and a great chance to hone my scenery techniques further...

I find I never stop learning, and one thing as I’ve said recently on this project before, has been trees... in the past I’ve been put off this aspect of scenic modelling as it can be perceived as easier to buy them (or in my case reuse old ones). However the variety and style required for this layout, combined with the limited number required, meant I felt it was a worthwhile and mindful use of my time to read, research practice and attempt to master this skill. That last point is still some way away, but it has been a great learning journey so far and wonderful to see the scene on the layout develop exactly as I had envisaged...

Last time I talked about the deciduous trees on the layout, well excluding the Poplar, but they were made the same way with a wire armature. This time I’ve tried another of Gordon Gravett’s techniques for some generic coniferous trees to hide the exit in the right hand of the cameo. A barbecue skewer is coloured in with a black Sharpie, and then I tore up some rubberised horsehair in to thin clumps. This was threaded on and glued in place on the skewer. Once dry the next stage is to cut it neater, give it a haircut, tidy up the loops and curls so it looks more natural. Once reasonably happy with the shape (it can be adjusted later) I sprayed it with layering glue from Peco, and sprinkled on some dark green ground foam from Greenscenes. This didn’t look green, or dense enough, and so Gordon suggested using some static grass to puff into the dense matting to give a more needled effect. 

More layering glue was applied and a puffer bottle with 4.5mm summer mini-natur fibres, a medium rich green, were puffed on. I want to recreate more of a summers day, as such all the colours I’m using are lighter and warmer than perhaps you’d expect.

The results speak for themselves, ground foam only (left) compared with foam and fibres (right). This simple technique didn’t take longer to practice or achieve good results. Yes they need tidying up, and they’re not fine enough to stand muster alone, but as a cluster they work well and soften the exit (see top) so the fiddle yard will be disguised from normal viewing. 

What is more, working on these smaller projects, taking time to read and practice, quietly, in my own time, is something I’d recommend to us all in the current world Covid pandemic. My mental health has been battered these past few months, virtual friendships and model making are a great tonic when all we can do in the real world is shuffle past each other anonymously masked in the supermarket for our weekly essential shop. Stay healthy, more soon...