Let me start by saying I think Pelle is a master of the craft, one that I admire. In his article in the April issue, Tip #9 titled ‘Blend The Scenery’ he states,
“Look at the world around you and you’ll notice how natural elements blend together. Capture the same effect on a layout by applying all ground covering, including ballast, before you wet or glue it in place. I normally work one square-foot section at a time and then repeat the procedure on an adjacent section of the layout.”
My question is does he mean to do the entire layout before applying any glue, or just a one square foot section?
I think Pelle does a “portion” of what he’s scenicking “one square-foot” at a time. If you have a large layout, it’s wise to keep those portions manageable. And, unless I’m an experienced modeler, I would prefer concentrating on area first before going onto the next. (That would include drying time, to make sure it was done right.) You can still “blend” to “finished” portions.
I think what he’s getting at is to avoid trying to scenic too big an area at once.
Once upon a time, when I scenicked my first layout, I did basic ground cover for the whole 4x8 in one afternoon. It looked thin, sloppy, and rushed.
My current layout was scenicked over the course of weeks; I worked some days in areas less than a square foot. Because I had roads, tracks, ridges, creeks, etc. it naturally divided up the layout into small areas.
Doing a broad area of exactly the same type of scenery (like the desert) might be challenging to do in small bits too, because you might be feeling more or les “generous” during each work session with the scenery materials, making the boundaries between the work areas obvious.
It must take discipline to do it Pelle’s way, but the results are clearly outstanding if done correctly.
I don’t know that you have to put all the ballast, soil and ground cover down in one swat. Nature doesn’t do that. Stuff happens in layers. Ballast is dumped and over the course of years dirt, grass and trees work thier way up into the ballast. I feel you can effectively model this by putting down the dirt, then putting down the ballast then applying the vegetation.
I do agree that things have to be blended. One way I do that is to put a little basic “dirt” color latex paint in the glue mix I use to hold down ground foam. That imparts a “dusty” look and ties in the colors so it all looks like it belongs together.
I always mix a little “dirt” pigment into my ballast glue; it gives a tone of age to my roadbed.
In regards to your comment about vegetation: I have encountered maintenance crews burning weeds away from the roadway; any suggestions as to how to model burnt vegetation?
There is always the prototypical way…[#oops][:-^][:-,] I would think the ground foam would burn, just controlling it might be a problem. Perhaps you could pre-burn some, outside in a safe manner, then add to the layout.
I don’t recall ever having seen it done on a layout but think it would make a good detail. I’ll give it some future consideration on my new/next layout.
I have never tried it, but I would think straight lichenpainted brown with black tinges might do it for bushes.
You might want to get hemp rope and stain it with a black, dark brown stain, then cut small short tufts (or plant tufts and then cut them short when it dries) and dust the area with ash from a charcoal briquet.
The DEA tends to frown upon burning hemp particularly if its first name is Mary.
Actually, Dave H. your idea of charcoal has considerable merit for creating burned over brush. May see about pulverizing this in a blender to give me a fine black powder which could then be sprinkled onto lichen and/or onto the ground and fixed somehow - will give that some thought.
I have to say personally the main reason why I like Pelle’s pictures is that they are western scenes. I’ve seen some masters at eastern scenes, like George Sellios and Paul Dolkos for excample, and many others in fact. But having grown up out west, western scenes are what I love. Pelle does them as good or better than anyone I have seen. Some of those low shots down the street in his morst recent article look extemely real life! Just amazing.