The Mountain / Water Falls Complete !

The Mountain and water falls are now complete.  Let's examine the  technique I employed which seems to be a bit of a hybrid including several different approaches.

The cliff area is comprised mostly of Sculptomold ( SCM) and smaller rock casting along the face. The two ledges near the bottom of the cliff are horizontal hot glued cardboard pieces covered with Sculptomold.  The stream bed is "leak proof" with plaster gauze covering pink foam board, and then  SCM used to build the landscape including the stream bed.

The Steam bed is colored with a green / blue mixture of pigments ( craft store) and then a little black wash to darken the base. Sorry about the tint of the pic...2700K lighting...

Recall that the season is late spring or early summer. The spring snow melt and "run off" are over and  now there is only a minimal gradual snow melt coming from the mountain, so one would not expect heavy water falls this time of year, only a gentle "bathing" of the cliff face with gentle, transparent sheets of soft and slow flowing water.   Further the color of the water during "run off" is more turquoise, but now it is more greenish blue.

Below are the "holding pools" just beneath the melting snow pack.

Note now that there are numerous small rocks sand which have washed into the outflow from the melting snow and from the spring run off.

Lower pool. The water from the upper pool softly flows over the slight rocky drop off into the lower pool, coating the rock face with a sheen of slowly flowing water.   Again note the abundant small rocks.  ( the rocks, and sand like debris were made from old rock castings which were placed in an old towel and beaten to smithereens with a hammer....then dyed with gray pigment ....don't forget to save "everything"..even the smallest bit if debris)

Upper pool.

Top of cliff face with two "drops" above the cliff.

Now pouring Woodland Scenics Realistic Water.  Drizzled down the face of the cliff into the base stream bed, starting to cover some of the stream bed rocks.

Lower part of steam ....

Note the "sheerness"--almost translucent ....nature of the sheets of gently flowing water.  Achieved with WS "Water Effects" paste,-- placed in strips of varying width and length on a glass pane and then " messaged" laterally and length wise to create a very thin, almost transparent sheet of water.   Best to allow the material to dry a lot longer than recommended ( 24 hrs) ..but better after 72 hrs. Dry brush with a light coating of white acrylic and "glue" in place with the Water Effects.

Interesting affect....illusion of very soft and minimal water falls.

Another view.

Lower stream. Note the more turbulent water around the boulder.  Created with Water Effects and brushed  / dabbed gently  on the surface, then white dry brushed.  Cute little "eddy line" downstream from the boulder.....

Ripples are achieved on the glossy hard "water surface" by dabbing GLOSSY Modpodge on the surface and "blowing" it around with an air brush ..empty of course. ...allow to dry....

End result.... quite a challenge but worth all the time invested.  Added lots of greenery to soften the scene....always lots of bushes growing next to water source and smaller trees as well. 

Thank you for viewing. ....blessings...

Helix Mountain nearing completion.

Hello, friends.

I've been working on scenery on the mountain for the last couple of days and thought I would update some photos.

This pic shows the added base of the mountain with a planned water fall on the Lt, and a catch basin below,  with an egress of small stream from Lt to Rt.  The amount of snow on the mountain would dictate that the water fall actually be small rivulets gently cascading down the face of the mountain, and not an outright "water fall" of high volume.

The Sculptomold was stained with "stone gray" and black leopard spotting technique with a charcoal mix as the last coat.  I thought the end result was a bit too "bright" so the trusty air brush was summoned for acton to tone down the rock faces.   Note that the base of the bench work was painted black. After the stains dried, white brush finish applied to bring out all the intricate rock detail of the Sculptomold.

Another view.  Hard to believe that a 2.5 turn helix lies beneath all this nylon mesh and plaster / Sculptomold.  The small stream exits the layout on the lower rt. Now we need to add greenery.

This is the ledge made initially of hot glued cardboard....finished well. The water fall rivulets will cascade onto these ledges.  Stream bed below.

Train ascending helix to the main part of the layout.  Greenery added.   I also added "moss" type vegetation to the faces.  Technique:  with a small paint brush apply dilute white glue or Mod Podge to a limited section of the mountain wall face, then "blow" a fine mist of WS "blended turf". ...I changed my technique a little. It's easier to place a little of the turf material in a small spoon and gently blow it onto the prepared rock face.  Seems to work well.  It softens the starkness of the rock faces.

Another view.

Added greenery around tunnel entrances....color not ideal...caused by 2800k lighting.

Train descending...

More later as the "water fall" develops. Thanks for viewing.....blessings...alan