hello lads!in an effort to avoid death by boredum during a hiatus period at Black Knight Racing,i decided to spruce up my "current project/photo shoot" shelf by adding a landscaped fore ground and back drop.this will also get the landscaping /creative juices flowing in preperation for my track project later on.these pix(which i hope will provide "inspormation"to those who aspire to wreck their lives and their family living spaces with a fully scaped' out track) show the early stages and some of the weaponry used in my werk.the wonder cutter is dirt cheap and probably still available at the floral/craft deptartment at most wally worlds.this i use for innitial shaping cuts.in the middle is simply a dowel with some 150 grit sandpaper spray mounted to it.for this small project i'll use it to form slopes and for smoothing/rounding over rocks.on larger deals,i'll use a large rasp or file. next is my trusty dremel woodburning/soldering pen with the stubby soldering tip which is for creating under cuts and interesting textures to rockfaces.this tool gets so hot that it will melt back the foam without direct contact,which will minimize if not elliminate harmfull foam smoke.(not my cup o' tea!)i also use the usual x-acto and a pair of tweezers to extract rolled up bits of melted foam and raw chunks .the techniques used are mastered with a little enjoyable practice!(i'm still practicing)the French Grand Prix is about to start so thats all fer now,but more to follow.....

carving and shaping continued and before too long i have this as a result.note how the soldering pen makes a nice hollowed out area (with little effort).i like foam because changes and additions are easily made;although this is a simple one piece job here,something like a large free-standing boulder could be added.or,maybe a big gouge reppresenting erosion can be made anything is possible during or after construction.also,the material is both tough and car friendly,in case of a shunt!no damage to the car and the faom wont chip off.next,using the kind of acrylic craft paint that is (again) found at wally world, i mixed up some dark gray and painted the rocks.i then painted the grassy area with a butter yellow color.the colors are kind of strange looking now,but these are just base coats.after this dried,i then mixed up some very light gray to bring out the main color of the rocks.this i kind of dry brushed on in order to allow the darker base to show through.a little of that butter yellow mixed with some lt.-gray gives me a highlight color to brush onto upper egdes and corners of the rocks.i also use it(LIGHTLY)to simmulate the differing layers of rock that you sometimes see along the face.at this time i would like to add that these are alternative methods long in use by our model railroading bretheren,and that different colors may be used to simmulate almost any type of envioronment:dessert,moutainous,flat,winter,fall etc.etc..once you have the shaping done the rest goes pretty fast!!only one more chapter,i promise!!

A little landscaping will showcase your cars nicely. Looks good so far, so keep us updated. I think a car show is in order when you finish it!!! :thumbsup: nd

first off thanx tjd!!:wave:now it's time to make this look like something!using that ugly butter yellow color(slightly thinned with water to make it "wetter")and working in small sections,i re- painted the grass area and sprinkled colored foam flocking(i used Woodland Scenic's blended turf green #t-49)onto the still wet paint.i made sure to over-apply so that i could press it in lightly to get a good bond.after shaking off the excess it's a good idea to then spray the area with some type of "matte medium";woodland scenics call it "scenic cement" and sell it in a pump type spray bottle,re-fills are available.you can also use other brands(modge podge?)found at art supply stores for less money,however you can also make your own using elmer's white glue,water from the faucet,and any 1$ spray bottle found at,,,,,you guessed it!!make sure yer rock colors are dry;that cheap Apple Barrel paint is real tough but only when it has dried,this does'nt take too long as the sanded foam will actually absorb some moisture.in pix #2 you can see that highlighting effect and the color banding on the rockface i mentioned before using that butt-yellow/lt.gray color.roger the shruber stopped by with wood scenics clump foilage(#fc-58)and we got to planting.securing these shrubs with white glue(rubber cement will also work).well,as the weekend ends and the work week begins,the fascia is done,next we will tackle the backdrop!!i hope that some of you fellas find some of that blue or pink foam lying about and have a go at this cause once you get comfy working with it, you will have yet another addicting hobby!!!keep it real(and cheap)!!

Dats cool!

Sweeett!! thats a awesome idea man.. :thumbsup:

Wes

May have to do something similar, but smaller, to help sell some of these cars on the pay. Always a plus for potential bidders see the car they're interested in displayed in a diorama of some type. :thumbsup::thumbsup: rr

thanx fer der thumbs up dudes!!i agree roadrner,had'nt thunk of it,but it's bound to make the temptation meter jump showing off a car in its' (un)natural envioronment!go for it!!anyhew,i spent this morning(i woik nights)sketching out ideas for the backdrop and i'll be taking shots of that as it progresses.good night all!!!

I've often thought about doing this to my track but do they make a similar foam in a more earthtone (green or brown) colour so when the cars hit it you don't see pink and blue through it?
Maybe florests or someone would have something that would work.
Nice work BTW!

hey nutz!thanx!woodland scenics has a browner earthtone available:blended turf -earthblend#t-50.they also make a fine turf in soil, earth, and yellow grass colors. they even make a more coarse product to simmulate taller grasses.however,the second(wetter) base coat of paint and the matte medium should retain the "grass" in the event of a wreck as the paint will soak into the foam grass.and even if it does not,the initial coat of this tough acrylic paint will show through as your earth color.part of the trick is to paint on sanded or carved foam,as raw untouched areas will not absorb the paint as well.you can layer your foam colors as i think you are suggesting,and it would add a very realistic texture to the layout the model r-roaders like.but i think that will increase the likelyhood of tearing loose foam that could make its' way onto a hot motor and cause unpleasantnesses therein.relying on(cheap)paint, i have built a track in this manner before and have never chipped or gouged color or foam from the rokfaces even with a full throttle impact of my heaviest magnum 440 car!across flat grassy areas the car is not likely to dig in and gouge out grass or color in a "prototypical" manner.hope this answered.

hey hey!back again!my backdrop is going to include a rockledge/shelf for my shelf queen cars and my daughter's batmobile.i cut a piece of foam to the right size(the wonder cutter using a rocking back and forth hand motion to avoid straight lines)and then added some rough pieces to the underside to prevent a flat unnatural appearance and add thickness;that piece up front was cut in half horrizontaly(and sloppily) to avoid a stacked foam look.pix#3 shows the werk progressing with the soldering pen,adding shape and texture.not shown here is a fave tool of mine for this sort of thing;a small worn out brass wire brush.i use it to get rid of the smooth lines left by the hot wire cutter.i also use it to make those horizontal crevices and divisions sometimes found in rocks.you can also use just about anything to gouge and pik out crevices in the foam,the broken edges they will leave are very convincing by the time they get painted.#4 shows how i sanded and melted the upper part of the shelf,i dont yet know how i'll treat or color the flat area where the cases will rest.#5 is the (un)finished product,now i'll move on to shaping the rest of the "scenery":wave:

the weekend werk continued and now looking forward to a shortened werweek for painting this mess!but first,the background piece was formed and a slot made to accomodate the rockshelf.pix#2 shows the shelf and the beginings of two outcropings.i will usually layout these stacks horizontally,but due to limited space on this shelf i figured on working with them vertically(also less cutting and less mess,or so i thought as it turned out i probably should have stuck to the script ).the next one shows how i sometimes will lay out the shapes of rocks with a marker prior to carving out and the smoothing of the piece into the background has started .in#4,i'm under cutting the ledge with the solder tool.for the other one,i wanted to make a rock with differing depths to it.

and so the work rolled on until we got to the point seen below.the background piece has reached it's final shape,and there's just a little more shaping to do on the outcoppings.going to take a break to hang with the misses(mrs.)for a while,watch some movies.i think i'm going to make her sit through Le Mans!!:wave:

well fellas,just about done mit this little project.rdrnr had suggested using it to display cars for sale so i found an alternative use for the top shelf(no i'm not selling my ford!!).i made the skyline out of posterboard and sprayed it with my trusty old badger airbrush,mixing a very light sky blue and darkening it as i sprayed the upper part.the only bad thing is now my teeth are gnashing to start a track!!