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nickwood

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  1. nickwood
    This diorama will represent a small section of a lane with ditches both sides, one with standing water, and the other drier with a few puddles, hedgerows, trees, a meadow one side and a field with crops on the other. The meadow will also feature the access and entrance gate but I'm not sure what the crops will be yet, any suggestions appreciated.
     
    A piece of 50mm thick insulation board was again used as the base. It is 600mm x and the topograhy was formed with a hot wire cutter. Once I get my head down I am terrible at remembering to take photos so unfortunately the first photos I have to show are after a few basic preparations had been completed.
     

     
    The puddles are formed with clear plastic, old CD cases are good, painted with a muddy colour on one side. Two pieces of plastic tube were cut to represent the pipes carrying the ditch water under the access. The base was then given a coat or two of a muddy coloured mix of acrylic. The water, puddles and pipes were then placed in position and plaster of paris mixed with the same paint was used to bed these in, form the verges alongside the lane and generally create the topograhy required.
     
      
     
     
     

  2. nickwood
    There are lots of different plants, shrubs and bushes that tend to thrive on railway embankments, particularly in the years since steam ceased to operate. Embankments were managed in steam days to reduce the risk of fires, with the advent of diesel traction they were almost left to grow wild. Electrification has seen much of the wild growth being cut back presumably to give better access to install the gantries and maintain them. So taking none of this into account I decided to add a couple of very representative examples of flora often seen whatever the era i.e. brambles and rosebay willow herb.
     
    The brambles are the easiest. Good old rubberised horsehair, teased out gives a good impression of rambling bramble growth. Dabbed with pva in the fashion I described in my earlier blog (on making a tree for the rockface) scatter can be applied to represent the leaves. A good blob of pva onto the grass, place the bramble bush on top and apply a small weight on top until the glue has set, job done.
     

     
    Rosebay willow herb and other tall flowering plants are a bit more complex but not difficult, just a little patience is required.
     

     
    Unfortunately though I forgot to photograph the process so a description will have to suffice until I make another batch.
    1. The stems are soft brush bristles and I take between 2 - 5 bristles, pinch them near one end and apply a small blob of pva on the end. they are then placed on a piece of polythene to dry. For this project I made 10 of these bunches
    2. Once dry they are removed from the polythene, usually a finger nail will easily break any bond with the polythene.
    3. Get some green static grass of your choice ready and then with a small brush apply some pva from the base of each bristle to approx half the length.
    4. Take a pinch of static grass between your fingers and dab it gently onto the pva, the grass will stick at lots of different angles. Set aside to dry on the polythene again.
    5. Once dry, put some green scatter into a small pot. With the small brush dab some pva to the static grass and dip into the scatter. Set aside on the polythene again to dry.
    6. When dry put some red/purple scatter into a small pot. Apply a small blob of pva just above the green scatter and lightly brush pva along the rest of each bristle. Dip the bristles into the coloured scatter. Set aside once again to dry.
    7. Plant your Rosebay Willow Herb in clumps. In this instance I made a hole in the base with a cocktail stick for each plant and fixed it with a blob of, yes you've guessed it, pva.
     

     
    A view of the finished diorama
     

     
    Something a little more ambitious (and larger) next.
  3. nickwood
    I wanted the grass to be longer and thicker towards the bottom of the embankment. A spray over the grass with some Peco Layering Spray (other types are available) allows more grass fibres to be applied over the top. The problem with the layering sprays is that being an aerosol it is difficult to apply it exactly where you want it, it being more likely to go where you don't want it to.
     
    In my case the track and ballast area needs to be masked with a strip of paper to prevent spray getting on these areas. I used a strip of newspaper with a fairly straight torn edge where the ballast meets the grass. I tried to apply only a thin and patchy application of layering spray towards the top of the embankment to get the effect I was after. The Flockit was loaded with Greenscene 'Long Straw' fibres to represent the longer dying grasses. The first two photos show the application and hopefully it appears thicker towards the bottom .
     

     

     
    This was left to dry for approx 30minutes before poking the grass about with a cocktail stick to introduce clumping and flattening of some grass areas
     

     

     
    This process will inevitably loosen some fibres but once generally happy with the look it is left to fully dry before vacuuming the excess off. The result looks like this.
     

  4. nickwood
    The next diorama I'm preparing is a small section of an embankment.
     
    The base is again a piece of insulation foam approx 150mm square, shaped with a hot wire cutter and painted a brownish colour. The first photo shows the work done so far which includes a short length of Peco code 100 streamline glued into place and sprayed with Halfords grey primer. The code 100 track has been used simply because I happen to have lots of offcuts in a box and need to use them for something. The track was glued down with, yes you've guessed it, neat pva.
     

     

     
     
     

     
    Painting the track and sleepers in a suitable dirty track colour will follow in a few days time as I have to take a trip up to Lincolnshire tomorrow.
  5. nickwood
    The method of applying the grass fibres is exactly the same as described in my earlier blog "A rockface diorama" so I won't repeat it here. But.. because I wanted to represent rougher grass on the embankment the base layer differs somewhat.
     
    The fibres I have used are some recovered from various 'grassing' sessions and include many different lengths and shades and the odd bits of scatter and ash. Here's a pot full of the stuff. It all goes in the Flockit just the same.

     
    The base layer down and at first from above and it looks fairly uniform but look a bit closer and you can see the difference in the fibres both in colour and length.
     

     

     

     

     
    See you again when it is dry for the next stage.
  6. nickwood
    Apologies for the poor photo. A dark brown mix of acrylic paint to represent aged rust has been applied to the rail sides and chairs.
     

     
    A thin wash of the same colour was then applied to the sleepers before ballasting. There is nothing unusual about the method of ballasting. Ballast was applied dry and tidied with small brush. Once happy with how it looked it was wetted with water mixed with a small amount of either Isopropyl or a drop of washing up liquid added and applied with an atomiser spray bottle. A diluted mix of water and pva glue was then generously applied with a plastic pipette.
     
    The first photo below shows the ballast dry and the second after it has been wetted.
     


     
    Once the ballast had dried I added some more colour to simulate dirt and grime using weathering powders. Looking at the photo now it would probably benefit from a darker mix between the rails to simulate some oil and grease deposits and perhaps some more highlights on the chairs before I move on to the next stage.
     

     
    Some additional weathering added with MIG Track Brown used to darken the rust effect on the chairs and a dark slate grey pastel to add some oil and grease deposits to the area between the tracks.
     

     

     
    I'm much happier with the track now and can move on to adding some grass etc.
  7. nickwood
    With the first layer of grass fully dry the longer grass can be added using a layering spray adhesive. I've used Peco's offering but others are available. The grass fibres used are again from Greenscene and are medium length 'Straw'. The areas where the longer grass is wanted are sprayed with the layering spray. care needs to be taken as the spray does exactly that and will go everywhere, coating areas in adhesive where you may not want grass fibres to stick. The solution is to use a mask(s) of paper to prevent the overspray getting to where you don't want it to. Once the layering spray has been applied the static grass applicator can be loaded with the longer straw fibres and be applied liberally over those areas. It ends up looking like this.
     

     
     
     

     
    Not very realistic as it stands, or indeed doesn't stand. Many of the fibres are actually laying on top of others that are upright and have stuck to the layering spray adhesive. Much of the excess can be removed in this case by holding the diorama upside down and tapping or by giving it a gentle vacuum.  
     
     
     
     
     
     
  8. nickwood
    A few flower heads can be added, and I do mean a few. It is very easy to overdo. I load a small stiff bristled brush with pva and then wipe most of it off. I think touch the brush onto the tips of the longer grass fibres where I want the flower heads to be. The coloured scatter, some green can be added as well, is then sprinkled over the glue and left to dry. Once dry the excess can be vacuumed off.
     

     

     
    To finish off, the tree is planted into one of the rock fissures.
     

     
    The photos below show the finished diorama which will be used as a demonstration example.
     

     

     

     
    I have a couple more dioramas to make, so more entries to follow on my blog soon.
  9. nickwood
    The fun bit begins. After giving the areas I want to be grassed a generous but even coating of neat pva an initial layer of short static grass fibres is applied with a Greenscenes Flockit applicator. The fibres are Greenscenes Spring Green (short). These will be overlaid with longer fibres once dry.
     
     

     
    As you can see in this low angle shot, there are a few longer fibres mixed in with the short ones. These were probably a result of not cleaning the applicator thoroughly from its last use, oops! But it all helps to add variety. You can also see that fibres get into places you don't want them, such as on the edges of rocks and crevices. These will be cleaned up later once the rest has dried by vacuuming and scraping with a cocktail stick to tidy things up.

     
     
    Before moving onto the next stage a few tufts of long grasses are placed into crevices to add some interest.
     
     

     
    After waiting 24 hours for everything to thoroughly dry the whole scene will be given a good vacuuming and brushing to remove stray fibres ready for applying more.
  10. nickwood
    The diorama base is a piece of 50mm thick blue foam insulation board approximately 150mm square. Unfortunately I had already carved it to a rough shape and applied plaster of paris to form the basis of the rocks before I decided to do this blog and hadn't taken any photographs.
     
    The base was first given a coat of neat pva glue and plaster of paris was mixed with water and a dark grey acrylic paint to form a stiff mix. With the glue still wet the plaster of paris was them liberally trowelled into place with a palette knife and roughly shaped. Once the plaster of paris was nearly set. the rocks were smoothed by rubbing over with a wet finger. They were then left to dry thoroughly for 3 days.
     
    Some shrinking aand cracking is inevitable but this can be used to advantage.
     

     
     
    The cracks can be scraped with a sharp pointed tool such as a bradawl or in my case one of our meat scewers (shhhh! don't tell the wife) to form fissures, work in progress below.
     
     

     
    When happy with it the whole rockface was given a coat of dark grey, almost black, making sure this got deep into the fissures and cracks.  The rocks were then painted with a number of different shades of grey some with a touch of burnt umber to give an earthy tone. Finally they were given a dry brushing with a very light almost white shade to highlight and sharp edges and bumps.
     
     

     
    Next job will be to add the static grass.
     
     
     
     
     
     
  11. nickwood
    After removing the excess fibres most people would leave it at that but to my eye the grass is too uniform. In the real world rain and wind flattens longer grasses and paths form where by humans and animals pass regularly. So the next stage is to replicate this.
     
    The following needs to be carried out BEFORE the pva glue has fully set.
     
    Using a cocktail stick or similar the fibres can be manipulated to lay down, pushed into clumps or removed to reveal the shorter fibres underneath. This will inevitably remove some fibres and loosen others. Before starting the diorama I hadn't given any thought to showing how to incorporate a path. If I had, I would have prepared the path surface first before applying any grass fibres. However when undertaking scenery works things don't always turn out as you expect and this gives me the opportunity to show that it is relatively easy to adapt and change things as you go along. The first layer of short fibres applied earlier had dried thoroughly so something a little stronger than a cocktail stick was used to remove them in small patches to represent a path starting to form.
     

     
    To represent the surface where the path was starting to form, pva glue was carefully applied with a small brush into the areas where the grass has been removed and then a fine grit scatter applied by piching between two fingers and dropping into place. Once the pva is fully covered the grit can be tamped gently with a finger to make sure it is well and truly stuck to the glue. The diorama is now set aside to dry thoroughly for at least 24 hours.
     

     
    On close inspection it is fair to say that the path may have been a little more convincing if the surface had been applied before the grass fibres but from normal viewing distance it looks fine.
     
    Once everything is dry, a good brushing with say a half inch paintbrush, followed by vacuuming will remove all remaining loose fibres and grit.
     
    Is this diorama finished ?  Not quite.
     
     
     
     
     
  12. nickwood
    I thought it would be interesting to one of those small trees that seem to cling to life on rock faces. My preferred tree making method is forming the trunk and branches from twisted wire with two or three coatings of Greenscenes flexible bark. I have a pot of this that is now at least 6 years old and is still useable. When dry the bark is painted with an acrylic grey colour (think LMS wagon grey rather than GWR). I add the finer branches with rubberised horsehair glued in place in small clumps. When dry it is trimmed with scissors to cut the loops and remove the longer strand. If necessary more horsehair can be added and the trimming repeated. Once happy the foliage can be added.
     

     
    A layering spray or spray adhesive could be used to add the foliage but a disadvantage with this method is that the glue also gets onto the trunk and main branches and the scatter used for the leaves will stick everywhere, not what we want. I have used a small stiff brush to stipple neat pva onto the horsehair making sure that the brush is pushed well into and under the clumps. 
     

     
    The foliage scatter can then be liberally applied and the excess shaken off after a few minutes. I have used a mix of Javis mid green and dark green scatters for this tree.
     

     
    The final installment will detail the positioning of the tree and the addition of some summer flora.
     
     
     
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