Blog- ANOTHER Challenge! - The Quaggy Ditch bridged.

RSS Fetcher · December 15, 2014

I've been waiting for a couple of items to arrive in the post... So rather than just twiddle my thumbs I've got on with the 'mini-scene' so I can finish the tracklaying...

First job is to lay down some basic paint -

in this case tube acrylic using a very limited palette - 'burnt umber' 'sap green' & 'yellow ochre'.

The stream-bed was suitably treated with a mixture of acrylic - 'mars black' and 'Vallejo' black ink... Wouldn't want to swim in THAT!

And as I had some mixture left over in the pot - I 'drearied-down' the visible ballast too -

Then it was out with the trusty 'Flock-It' for the basic ground cover -

and then some 'long grass'

The 'eagle-eyed' among you will have noticed that the ditch is now full of milk. Actually it's another 'Vallejo' product - 'water paste'. Whilst it looks like it might be wet, it has hardened off enough to be non-tacky.

The next layer of 'water' was used to hold the 'sedges' along the edge -

This is straight 'sisal' cut to suitable lengths and 'planted' in the 'water', and before it dried other 'plant material' was added by gently blowing it into the ditch and on to (suitably adhesived) banks..

Last job was to touch the stems of the 'sedges' to represent the lower stems. All in all I'm reasonably happy with the effect - and at least now I can get the bridge in place!

[attachment=510313:045- no Kingfishers here.jpg

However the 'twitchers' among you will understand there are no Kingfishers here (although in later years the bridge will become a SSSI ('Site of Special Scientific Interest') as it becomes the home of a colony of bats happily feasting on the midges & mosquitos that infest the ditch!

Thus, whilst the whole area was subsequently levelled for re-development, the bridge stood as a relic of our railway past - but that's another story!

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