Clermont - Yet Again Terraforming

I apologize in advance for my lack of regularity in posting. As stated earlier this year, various reasons have conspired to shrink my hobby time and I can't foresee this situation changing in the course of the next few months. Last winter was quite tough and it took a toll on my old house so budget money will be redirected toward more pressing issues.

With that said, we continue to meet each week (or at least try) and work on the layout. Shaping Clermont is taking much more time than we expected and we often have to redo job done the previous week. Yes, errors are normal and trying to fix them is also a good way to be better modellers. Our mindset is toward quality and not quantity.

You probably recall I recently said I wasn't satisfied with the hills profile. Well, it has been taken care of. A layer of foam was removed and we widened the hill to get a more gentle slope toward the summit. The results are much better and it makes a difference. Interestingly enough, florist foam is a nice material that can be sanded down and smoothed in such a way you can create nicely flowing landforms.

In some area, it wasn't possible to widen the hills because it would interfere with the small creek. Thus, we elected to reuse old rock faces from the previous scenery. These faces are installed in a vertical position, giving more latitude for us to create a rounded top with less material.

While rock faces are somewhat ubiquitous in Charlevoix, they aren't in Clermont. For this reason, we buried them in floral foam to create the illusion of a gentler topography. When covered in dead leaves, twigs and trees, they should be barely noticeable while providing a practical mean to handle ingrate landforms.

We also started to create the creek, which cut its course through sediments in a flat and marshy valley. I'm not that much satisfied with the results. The creek is far to wide to be credible and we will probably have redo the job once again until we feel it is right.

This creek is too wide for its own good.

The lesson of the week is simple. When dealing with aesthetics and arts, you got to work again and again on your subject matter. Taking pauses as one moves forward is the best way to ensure you are indeed controlling your work and making sure it fits your vision. Rushing does no good.