Monday, October 19, 2015

Calluna Reducere

So having decided that my approach to modelling heather didn't actually work I was pretty much resigned to the fact that I'd have to go without flowers on the heather, but then I had a flash of inspiration and decided it was worth having one more go.

When I first started thinking about modelling heather I'd looked at using the Woodland Scenics purple flowering foliage. I quickly ruled it out for two reasons. Firstly the strands that the flowers are attached to tend stick out at odd annoying angles no matter how much glue you use. More importantly while the purple looks bright and vibrant in a clump once teased out to cover a dark green bush it is actually quite dark. Obviously the first problem can be dealt with by removing the flowers from the strands but I still discounted it because of the colour.

My moment of inspiration came late on yesterday when I was using some dark earth weathering powder to slightly tone down a bright green grass tuft; if I can make a grass tuft darker using a weathering powder why couldn't I lighten the purple flowers in a similar way? So I took a small box, some white weathering powder, some purple flowers (removed from the strands) and made a martini!


Making heather was then a case of painting a small amount of glue onto a bush and sprinkling on some of the lightened flowers. I also added a few of the dark purple flowers to add a little variety. The excess was then blown of and voila we have heather. In real life it looks even better as the camera makes it look a lot bigger than it really is.

5 comments:

  1. A big improvement. Your blog is quite an inspiration, not just for the modelling but mainly because you show that experimentation and perseverence has an important place in our hobby, too many folk these days settle for second best or lacklustre results when a little more effort and thought can really lift a model.
    Keep up the good work!

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    1. Thanks Paul, glad you agree it's an improvement.

      I guess my approach to modelling is that I'm happy to experiment, but I'm also happy to admit when I'm wrong or when someone, such as yourself, offers a better alternative. Of course that means you should never trust any of my suggestions until I've made a follow up post!

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  2. I agree with Paul, you are very indefatigable and you will always win through because you won't be beaten. This heather is so much better and looks really convincing. It really is all about the "journey", which is as interesting as the final product- although that is going to be very impressive indeed!

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    1. I'm sure I'll eventually find something that beats me, but so far I think I've just been lucky both with the things I've tried and the suggestions you and everyone else reading has made.

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  3. Blooming heather. Now for Bell Heather..........Only kidding, it looks great and does lift the scene.

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