Split rail fence and Forced Perspective

The split rail fence goes straight into the background, where other elements are about 3/4 size. So, to bring the two together, the fence diminishes in size as it recedes into the distance. To accomplish this forced perspective, I went through all the rails yet again and sorted them into three piles by size. The […]

Split rail fence proof of concept

Two sides of the pasture are demarked by a double-post split rail fence. I’ve been keeping an eye out for suitable twigs all summer, but they’re all either too curved or too difficult to split or otherwise unsuitable. Then I came up with the idea of using bamboo skewers: they’re straight and plentiful and they […]

Pasture Background in Place

I was almost surprised to find that my old staple gun packed enough oomph to blast right through a layer of aluminum flashing, another of laser board and into the plywood that forms the bottom layer of the pasture. It made quick work of the operation, and then all I had to do was come […]

Painting the pasture background

The Girl asked me to vacate the house on Thursday evening so she could have a friend over without “weird parent vibes” infecting the atmosphere. We compromised, and I decamped to the garage where I’d set up a little art studio. There I spent a pleasant evening discovering which 20-year old tubes of acrylic were […]

Pasture background cut out

Thanks to Rob Kirkham for pointing out that I never published this post on the weekend, and then referred to it on Monday evening. With the drawing matching the ground as modelled, I broke it into pieces so it would fit on the laser. The pieces follow the natural edges in the final scene, so […]

The Devil’s in the Details

I wasn’t deliberately putting off the final shaping of the pasture backdrop. At least I’m pretty sure I wasn’t. I knew it would be some work, and probably a little risky too when it came to adding all the details in the foreground trees. But, the rough shape took only an hour or two; how […]

First layer of colour for the pasture

The pasture is moving along about as quickly as the Laurentian Ice Sheet that carved this landscape in real life. Having modified the land forms for the “last time,” I repainted them with my recycled house paint, sprinkled with sanded grout of the same colour. In the depression that has today sprouted a well, in […]

Pasture Backdrop Rough-in

I’ve always planned to make the backdrops for Pembroke out of aluminum flashing. Styrene would probably be easier to work, but I feel it will get brittle and start to break with time. Also, aluminum is shiny, which might help to gather more of the horizon light and cast it up towards the sky. As […]

Pasture smoothing

The rough pasture matured long enough beside its prototype photo to gain hash marks where material needed to be added or removed. So, with the weather increasingly bucolic and locomotive projects winding down for now, I mixed up a batch of Celluclay in the hopes of making the model look a little more like its […]

Pasture gets more shapely

Armed with a utility knife and a Stanley Surform, I hacked great swaths of Styrofoam away from the hills. It’s curious that so many modellers like this material. It’s messy and the dust sticks to everything. While easy enough to form it into hemispherical lumps, dips and bowls are difficult to form. Then, what if […]