Easton, Isle of Portland

[Mick Bonwick]

It seems that more than one person expresses interest! Whoa!

 

One of the more interesting (and messy) exercises I tried was the creation of some small flowers. Having found that it's necessary to think about scale before you start (!), I set about sourcing some fine and fiddly stuff to work with.

 

There used to be a wide variety of colours of a product called Flower Soft on the market. This was basically ground foam that had been coloured, not dissimilar to the familiar scatters that we use for rough ground. It was aimed at what has become known as crafting and was packaged in handy screw-top containers. There was a finer version (simply ground up more) with a smaller selection of colours, as well. I have just tried searching for some and discovered that it's gone out of fashion, although you can still get black, red and white. One of the colours I bought was called 'Citrus Crush' and the pot had yellow, orange and green foam in it.

 

Woodland Scenics have four colours of Field Grass in their range, and this is useful for making into plant stems and getting up your nose if you sniff a lot. I decided to use the Medium Green shade.

 

Green Scene produce some very handy roughly cut coloured pieces of paper that is nattily called "The Little Leaf Company". Probably because at a distance the stuff looks like small leaves.

 

To make a start on this little lot, I cut a piece of polythene to work on and sourced some PVA (one of the three essential fluids that modellers need - what are the other two?) and hairspray.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 7, 2020 by Mick Bonwick

[Mick Bonwick]

2 hours ago, Mick Bonwick said:

 some PVA (one of the three essential fluids that modellers need - what are the other two?)

 

 

Answers on a postcard. Or here in this topic. It's a test!

[Tony Teague]

3 hours ago, Mick Bonwick said:

To make a start on this little lot, I cut a piece of polythene to work on and sourced some PVA (one of the three essential fluids that modellers need - what are the other two?) and hairspray.

 

 

Is it gin an' tonic?

[john new]

4 hours ago, Mick Bonwick said:

......and sourced some PVA (one of the three essential fluids that modellers need - what are the other two?) and hairspray.

 

My guess would be sewing machine (or similar light) oil and thinners/white spirit.

[KNP]

Tea and coffee?

 

Keep posting and we'll keep looking.....

[Mick Bonwick]

My idea was to create a selection of flower and shrub shaped clumps that could be planted into the scenery. This necessitated some sort of rigid base that would hold the clump together for when it was pushed into the ground, be it plaster bandage or expanded polystyrene.

 

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The starting point was the laying of a bead of PVA along the polythene. PVA dries clear but still retains an element of flexibity, so a strip of it can be rolled up to turn a line of stalks into a clump. You'll see what I mean later on.

 

 

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A bundle of Field Grass was separated from the main heap and thinned out along the length of the PVA, with more or less equal lengths above and below the PVA line. A cocktail stick was used to push the fibres into the PVA so that they were enclosed within it.

 

 

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I also found some Anita Decor coloured sisal and did the same with that, just to have some different sized stems to use. I'm not sure whether you can still get Anita Decor scenic materials, but they were cheap and cheerful aids to scenery construction.

 

 

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Now we wait for the PVA to dry clear . . . . . . . . . . .

 

 

 

 

[Mick Bonwick]

1 hour ago, KNP said:

Tea and coffee?

 

Keep posting and we'll keep looking.....

 

Keep thinking and I'll keep posting. . . . . . . .

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Mick Bonwick

[Godfrey Glyn]

That’s brilliant Mick, I particularly like the way you have represented the galvanised wire fence! The weathered electricity pole is impressive too. Not sure about the ivy, a bit too bright. 

all the very best

Godfrey

 

 

[Oldddudders]

Baker's Soldering Fluid?

[Tony Teague]

Is there a prize for getting this right?

 

How about IPA and white spirit? (neither is really any good with tonic!).

 

PS Don't try this at home - it's just a joke! Ha Ha

Edited May 8, 2020 by Tony Teague
To add health warning!

[Stubby47]

Light rum and dark rum ?

[Mick Bonwick]

3 minutes ago, Tony Teague said:

Is there a prize for getting this right?

 

How about IPA and white spirit? (neither is really any good with tonic!).

 

If there had been a prize, this man would have won it. There wasn't, so he didn't.

 

I'm assuming that you have tried them both with tonic, so your observation is based on fact. I wouldn't like to think that you're spreading rumours.

[Alister_G]

if we're going for liquid items, I would suggest few modellers could do much without paint.

 

Al.

[Mick Bonwick]

Isopropyl alcohol (IPA) can be used for:

 

Cleaning track

Cleaning wheels

Removing paint

Removing unwanted weathering

Removing the 'Bachmann Tidemark'

Making your own hand sanitizer

 

White spirit can be used for:

 

Thinning enamel paint

Cleaning airbrushes

Removing unwanted weathering

Mixing with tonic water

Cleaning bristle brushes

 

You really ought to have some of each.

 

Many other answers, some of them informative. If you took part, thank you. If you didn't, well . . . . .

 

[Tony Teague]

3 minutes ago, Mick Bonwick said:

 

If there had been a prize, this man would have won it. There wasn't, so he didn't.

 

I'm assuming that you have tried them both with tonic, so your observation is based on fact. I wouldn't like to think that you're spreading rumours.

 

....after all of the effort I put in......hopes dashed.....

 

[Stubby47]

So IPA is not a pale ale of some sort.

 

Amazing what you learn on here. 

[Mick Bonwick]

The PVA is dry now, so we can continue.

 

The strip of PVA was peeled away from the polythene once it was completely dry. If the bead of PVA was wide enough (hint) it can be cut down the centre to form two strips of plant stems.

 

 

 

Each strip was stuck, using masking tape, to a piece of wood with the top of the PVA just above the edge of the wood. The stems were trimmed to varying heights and the length written on the masking tape. This ensured that I was aware of the relative scale size once I got carried away with foliage application.

 

 

 

[sb67]

Another masterclass Mick, I'm enjoying this 

[Mick Bonwick]

15 hours ago, sb67 said:

Another masterclass Mick, I'm enjoying this 

 

Thanks, Steve. I'm enjoying doing it, too. So far!

[Mick Bonwick]

I found that it was possible to sort the paper leaves into two sizes by using a sieve with a large mesh. It took rather a long time, though. If I was to do it now it wouldn't be quite such a problem - I seem to have time on my hands.

 

There were two ways of getting the leaves and flowers to stick to the stems. The first that I tried was by using hairspray, but this proved to be rather messy, although quick. The second was by applying neat PVA using a cocktail stick, and I found this to be the better way. I could be quite precise about where the adhesive went and there was plenty of time to adjust the position of components before the adhesive set.

 

After my time-consuming sieve work I had two piles of leaves of different sizes, some brightly coloured ground foam and a variety of plant stems to decorate. Scale is illustrated here by the appearance of my life's savings. . . .

 

 

The process involved (starting from the base of the stem) applying glue using a cocktail stick and positioning a group of larger leaves upon the blob. Working up the stem, smaller leaves were used and, finally, the coloured foam. A pair of tweezers was a handy aid! The photograph is a bit misleading because you could mistakenly think that those heaps of material are actually stuck to the stems. The only sticking that has been done is on the central group of stems.

 

 

Once all was dry, the strip of dried PVA was cut into sections and set aside ror later use. I 'planted' this group of flowers into some polystyrene to check that the idea was sound. You can just see the top edge of the dried PVArunning below the bottom line of leaves.

 

 

 

[Mick Bonwick]

Using the same technique for the construction of the plant, but varying the texture and colour of the leaves and scatter material, several different types of plant were created. The result of rolling up of the strip of PVA can be seen in these examples.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Different bright colours were used as well, to see if flowering shrubs could be represented, but I wasn't quite as pleased with these. They would look acceptable at a distance, but you'd need to wear sunglasses!

 

 

 

A lighter sprinkling of the coloured material would have been better, with a more muted tone. There are several to choose from.

 

 

 

Edited May 10, 2020 by Mick Bonwick

[Tony Teague]

You are a very pateint man!

(Not sure I am).

The results look excellent.

Best wishes

Tony

[bgman]

Excellent and dare I suggest an easy way to produce something which will definitely enhance your layout Mick.

 

Based on the ingredients I've put an order in this afternoon for similar pots of pretty coloured stuff, thank you for the incentive !

 

G

[Mick Bonwick]

57 minutes ago, bgman said:

 

Based on the ingredients I've put an order in this afternoon for similar pots of pretty coloured stuff, thank you for the incentive !

 

 

Brave man, Grahame (is that right?) The key seems to be to only use small quantities. I'm confident that you'll be happy with what they will allow you to produce, though.

[sb67]

Nice work Mick. Those shrubs are not unlike the shape of some Buddleia growing in my garden, I haven't got any of that flower soft stuff but used grated crayons, I'll have to see if I got a purple one