Last weekend I spent some time messing around with flock. I wanted to put the groundwork on the boards before doing the water effects as it's easier to clean loose flock off smooth resin than off textured waves! I did also do some test pieces for the water, none of which I am totally happy with yet... more to follow.
The majority of the grass is static grass mat from Noch, the closest I could find to match in with the original boards I made from the Citadel fabric mat (stupid boy!). These paper-backed grass mats are great at flowing over lumps and bumps (wet the paper thoroughly with PVA, apply more glue to the base board, let them sit for 5 minutes so the glue soaks in and goes tacky then smooth/stretch carefully over the contours) and covering big areas quickly with grass that won't come loose. However they are pretty uniform so don't look very natural by themselves. I like to overwork them with an assortment of scatter material that I can also blend into the tight areas I can't get matting into easily.
The bushes are important for creating places to hide without seriously reducing the amount of space to move around. I tried to place them in a way that could be used to make careful progress across the field. I've tried to be 'targeted' in my use of scatter materials so there are more dead leaves/mulch under the tree for example, bushes cling to rocks and the bank of the stream, there's a darker scatter directly below the bushes and rock faces to suggest shadow, the grass in the centre of the area is paler/browner to suggest it gets dried out by more sun and wind etc. Thinking about how the landscape forms and is affected by the elements is one of the keys to natural looking terrain. Of course, it helps to have a good library of scatter material to hand. I think I used seven different colours of sponge scatter, five different static grasses and four types of clump foliage on this board... and using such small amounts the materials last a good long time.
The majority of the grass is static grass mat from Noch, the closest I could find to match in with the original boards I made from the Citadel fabric mat (stupid boy!). These paper-backed grass mats are great at flowing over lumps and bumps (wet the paper thoroughly with PVA, apply more glue to the base board, let them sit for 5 minutes so the glue soaks in and goes tacky then smooth/stretch carefully over the contours) and covering big areas quickly with grass that won't come loose. However they are pretty uniform so don't look very natural by themselves. I like to overwork them with an assortment of scatter material that I can also blend into the tight areas I can't get matting into easily.
The pictures on the left show the mat with patches of sponge scatter and a mix of sand and cat litter for the path applied. I like sponge scatter as it soaks in the PVA and firms up, staying in place where sawdust flock would fall off. I also think it looks more natural and mossy than sawdust flock. Static grass is great but it can be easily compressed by bases where the sponge scatter either sets hard or springs back into place. The pictures on the right have clumps of foliage and bushes added. I debated buying commercially-available bushes but on investigation they are just coir/coconut fibres dipped into scatter material. I can do that. So I bought rubberised horsehair (£2 for more than I will ever want, also available cheaply in hanging basket liners), cut it into rounded shapes, brushed on PVA and dipped into one of three bags of sawdust scatter I bought for the purpose. The whole cost me less than a tenner and I have enough left to this five or six times over whereas this amount of commercially made bushes would cost be £15-20.
The bushes are important for creating places to hide without seriously reducing the amount of space to move around. I tried to place them in a way that could be used to make careful progress across the field. I've tried to be 'targeted' in my use of scatter materials so there are more dead leaves/mulch under the tree for example, bushes cling to rocks and the bank of the stream, there's a darker scatter directly below the bushes and rock faces to suggest shadow, the grass in the centre of the area is paler/browner to suggest it gets dried out by more sun and wind etc. Thinking about how the landscape forms and is affected by the elements is one of the keys to natural looking terrain. Of course, it helps to have a good library of scatter material to hand. I think I used seven different colours of sponge scatter, five different static grasses and four types of clump foliage on this board... and using such small amounts the materials last a good long time.
I gave the hut and tree a couple of liberal washes of ink. I wanted them to be more textural than painted and have added bits of moss etc. to blend them into the board. They shouldn't stand out as being 'placed' elements but look part of the whole. At this point everything is stuck down but still a bit loose. Before giving it a good shake off I sprayed the whole thing with isopropyl alcohol and ripped over heavily diluted PVA. This was the first time using the Isopropyl, normally I just add a bit of washing up liquid to the diluted glue. It did seem to increase the flow and firmness of the materials quite a lot so I intend to go back over my other boards and do the same. It is pretty smelly, spraying it is atomising nasty particles and combining the alcohol with PVA may be creating a nasty substance called Polyvinyl Acrylic which isn't fun to handle so open windows, wear gloves and put a properly fitted FFP2 mask on if you're going to do it. Close the room off from the rest of the house and leave it ventilated overnight whilst everything is drying and fumes are dissipating just to be sure. I did try flow aid as an alternative (as suggested by Mel the Terrain Tutor) because I was concerned about the alclohol on the foam even though it was covered up. I was using the airbrush reducer I used on the washes for the rocks and it wasn't working as well as the isopropyl so I stopped using it. Maybe Mel has a different/better flow aid.
very nice ^_^
ReplyDeleteWhile it should be fine with the Iso mixing with the PVA, yeah, probably best to be on the safer side
I think you're right, it's small quantities and I'm not really mixing the two, just dripping one into the other, but better safe than sorry. I find quite often with certain terrain makers they don't really understand the science of what they're playing with and can give out advice I know is bad.
Deletesame with everything ^_^ can't remember who said it about the internet being both the best and worst thing happened to mankind as it allows people to share information all around the world, even if alot of it is crap... I think I'm thinking of Harlan Ellison.. who is always a good person to think about at times.. always recommend his stuff.. anyway.. most advice in live, internet more so, think "Who is telling you this?" and "Can I check to confirm or deny it?". If a con-artist who is well known for poorly ripping off other peoples work says he has invented something, you should think how he is, what his track record is, and then see if it is something new, or just something from about 100 years ago in a Jules Verne Novel..
DeleteI like to experiment.. often fails but you learn from that ^_^
thanks ^_^ I'll look forward to it
DeleteVery useful report, once again full of suggestions and warnings. We absolutely agree on the need to know the natural environment to reproduce a realistic base or terrain in model making
ReplyDelete