Due to the amount of time I was down to, I
chose a different scenery method than I would usually use for the base.
I ended up using wood putty and just smeared it on by hand to create the
contours that I wanted. I knew where both paths would be, so I
built up around them a bit.
Here's the other side.
I thought I'd jazz up the walkway by
making it look as if there was an older brick path that had been covered
over as time went by. If I was using plaster for a base, I would
have carved the brick in so I could make it curvy. I used H+R
brick sheet, cut out little patches and oriented them as if they curved
around here and there. I glues the sheets down and then painted
them acrylic red. While the putty was still wet I pressed the
tombstones in a bit so that when I eventually glued them down, they
would look as if they were sunk into the ground.
Once the putty was dry, I took straight
white Elmers glue and coated the surface. On pathways I dusted
some fine dirt that I keep on hand. I take my rougher dirt
and sift it with old nylons, producing a very fine powder. This
looks great in HO Scale. Many times I've seen people use out of
scale large rocky dirt all over and it just doesn't look right.
After the paths are done I went back and used a more coarse grade of
dirt. Having more than one texture adds a lot and helps to suggest
that a path is actually used.
You can see my coarse grade of dirt near
the building. The path is partially covered with the finer
powdered dirt. The grass is fine Woodland Scenics turf. I
sprinkled it on and made sure to still leave some dirt showing through.
This is another great technique. Rarely will you see grass that
completely covers the ground (unless you're looking at someone's lawn.)
Most of the time something is left as dirt and grass ends up coming in
here and there. So next time you try adding turf, add dirt first
and then go back and sprinkle fine turf here and there in a thin layer.
I think you'll like the results!
This is about at the same stage as the
last photo. After the brick sections dried from their original
coat of red, I went back and painted them with diluted grey, which
flowed into the cracks. Once that dried, I dry brushed the bricks
with a little grimy black to tone down the grey and to vary the red of
the bricks a bit.
The grass in the front (blurry) is a
Sweetwater fiber product that I really like. Like the turf, I put
it lightly here and there and make sure the dirt can show through.
Here I've also added some weeds and flowers to the fountain area.
Though the Sweetwater grass is still
blurry, you can see the fountain here. The flowers were something
I picked up a Hobby Lobby. They are not to scale, but I used them
anyway because they looked good!
Finished. Here's the right side.
After the path dried I went back and added a bit of chalk to vary the
color. A little black, though hard to see in the pictures, really
adds a lot to a path. All the grass on this side is sweetwater.
The flowers over here are a bit closer to scale.
here are the two sage brush armatures
that I added. I may go back and add a bit of greenery to them, but
I thought they were perfect for a spooky haunted funeral home.
Here's a better overall view of this
side. The windy path and old stones remind me a lot of cemeteries
I've been to on the East coast. The stones came out great, in my
opinion, and I had fun doing them. Most are from a woodland
scenics kit. I repainted them all Floquil Concrete and then gave them a
bath in alcohol/India ink. Then I carefully dry brushed them until
they matched photos I'd taken of stones in Salem.
Well, I hoped you enjoyed going through
the build process! It was a fun kit to do and I actually have some
more additions that I plan to make (now that the contest deadline is
over.)
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