Some Scenery Progress

Basic ground cover is almost complete in D'Estimauville, with the exception of the road near the staging area and a gravel parking lot near D'Estimauville Avenue crossing.

As expected, I'm getting used at the scenery steps and it took less time to apply ground cover than last time.

A new challenge was to paint the riverbed. I could have left the stones natural, but I felt it didn't look right. When I walked by the river this week, it was evident everything under water was covered by a fine layer of dark brown sediment.

A dirt brown paint wash was then mixed and applied to the rocks and shores of the river to blend everything together. A second darker wash was applied next to definie the riverbed itselft. Then, a third very dark wash was used to locate the river main channel. This was a good opportunity to fix a few issues about the location of the meanders all thanks to optical illusions.

Prior to apply any scenic material, I took time to paint the ditches with a muddy dark brown. These places hold water almost year long and pouring some water over the depression won't be enough to convey the actual look of the prototype. My trick was easy, I painted the ditch areas with my general purpose earth color then applied a generous coat of dark riverbed color  where I want water.

Next step was to spray the ditches with wet water used to glue scenic material. It naturally blended the dark color with the surrounding paint resulting in a subtile but realistic gradient.

 
Among others, I also added a small path running from the right of way to the woods just like the prototype.

Until the next session, I'll have to complete the street  and glue it in place. I'm also working on several other details like power poles, relay boxes, cement blocks, wild grass (cattails) and a definite version of the backdrop.