Saturday 6 February 2016

Japanese Garden Themed Terrain Part 3




Hi folks,

A couple of weeks ago I had one of those days where every single thing that I did turned into a puddle of poop. One of those things was my Japanese Garden terrain piece. After taking even more care to do things by the book than I did during the test run, the resin I was using to provide the water effects didn't set properly and looked horrendous.  It reminded me of one of my Dad's favourite sayings, which was usually dispensed after I had broken some amazing Lego spaceship: "Well, if you did it once, you can do it again." 

After waiting for over a week I recovered the bridge (with a chisel!) and threw the rest in the bin. I have recently started rebuilding it, but it is a very long process. Tonight I managed to paint the little fish, which is a big milestone:





This time around I have built up the shores of the pond with modelling clay that has been sealed with PVA; I'll be putting the grit mixture over the top of this. It should make the pond deep enough to properly hold the water effect product I am going to use this time, Modellwasser from Noch. It cost six times as much as the two-part resin I had originally experimented with, but I can't trust that stuff anymore, it is too unreliable.





I also picked up some extra laser-cut plants for the piece; I figured that if I am going to re-do the whole thing, I may as well take the chance to improve the original concept.









It will be interesting to see if I can attach the reeds before pouring the water effects, so that they are embedded and more realistic. I'll have to do a test run before I potentially ruin the project for a second time! The water lilies will be put on last, when the water effects have completely set. I am particularly happy with scoring these, as I was dreading painting them on the surface by hand.

Tonight's job is to re-attach the bridge; wish me luck!

See you across the table,

M4cr0

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