Continuing work on the landscaping. For a bit of non-grass vegetation, I have the Goldenrod Weeds “Silflorettes” by MiniNatur. These come all webbed together, and you cut the stalks off the web to apply individually. I have summer, late summer, and autumn colors. I will use the summer color here.
These are obviously not in-scale goldenrod stalks for 1:12 scale, but they do look like little flowering weeds. I used an awl to make holes in the ground to plant them. I left the awl in place while I prepped the individual flowers for planting, otherwise I’d lose track of the hole.
The landscaping here is spring/summer grass with a weed or two cropping up between mowing with the big riding mower.
Time to plant the bathtub! I didn’t glue it into place; it’s just wedged into the foam.
Looks like our weedy bush is proliferating. :D
Here is the gravel ramp as it was after the initial grass was added.
I added smaller bits of grass torn from the scraps to the gravel ramp to give it all a more realistic appearance.
Previously, I had brushed glue onto the foam landscape, pressed gravel and ballast into place and removed the excess. This time, I carefully added the same material to fill in any uneven areas around the grass mat using a spoon.
I didn’t worry about strays in the grass since that can be brushed away after the glue has set.
I used Scenic Cement to fix it all in place. Debora sent me some pipettes for application, and I had a cup of water on hand to rinse off the pipette in between sips from the bottle.
The Scenic Cement wanted to form droplets on top of the ballast materials, likely because they are smaller particles. I was able to break the surface tension and get the liquid to sink in by tapping the pipette along the surface. I didn’t want to use a sprayer since it wouldn’t be as easy to control.
I have learned that if you have something that sticks out and could be mistaken for sloppy work instead of a planned aesthetic, often the best solution is to draw more attention to it. Like this seam that didn’t go too well. If you have one of these, don’t overwork it. Just let it dry and address it after.
I added some dirt ballast and set it in place with Scenic Cement.
This seam on the other side is much more natural, so I left it as is. In fact, there are three seams here — only one can be readily seen but natural, one is faint and one is invisible. :]
Once the glue set, I vacuumed the strays.
Friedrich is pleased with his burrow. :]
So, there we have it! No more floating barn. :D
