Friday, September 12, 2014

Roadside poplars 1


Bad weather and a number of computer problems have eaten into my free time, but I've made a bit more progress with the chaff scenery project.

Dunking the whole strip top-down into the latex household paint level with the upper part of the 'tree trunk' worked better than I hoped. I propped the strip on the can to let it drain for a minute or so before giving the foliage part a good dose of dried tealeaves. The paint is sticky: It absorbed the leaves quickly, and I kept applying more until it stopped. Hanging the strips upside down overnight let gravity pull the trees straight as the paint dried and stiffened the foliage. The top photo shows the result at this stage.

Next, I gave the bases a thin coat of latex paint, followed by a light dusting of fine sand for ground cover. Once this dried I sprayed the lot with khaki green/'avocado' Krylon-brand paint. Krylon gives good coverage and dries within ten minutes on average, but it stays smelly for some time so the trees will remain outside for another few hours. Results so far in the photo below. I think they're shaping up nicely. 

The next stage will be to paint the trunks and foliage and probably dry-brush the bases to bring out details.


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