johkaz
Company Commander
Hi,
I am working on a new kitbash for another Gebirgsjager figure, but this time i wanted it to be on a sort of mountain base.
As i have seen so many excellent bases made by my fellow modellers. So i went off looking around for ideas about what material i could use for the rock face, and it was then that i remembered about cork bark. So i got myself a large piece of it which had a curve in it, which has come in very handy for the idea i had for my diorama, and as shown below i have stuck it to the base and built up the sides at the back from balsa wood.
At the same time i decided to also make some ledges in the rock face, i also had to cut out some small pieces of cork to fill in the gaps at the side.
Once i was happy and had all the sides and bark in place i painted on a mix of plaster and PVA glue, making sure that i painted it along the edges of the cork bark so i had a rough edge.
Once i had sanded the plaster as flat as i could, which had to be repaired on the balsa wood joins and edges with some more plaster, and gently sanded flat again. I then painted the sides of the rock face with some artists black acrylic paint, which because the paint is so thick it helped to hide some of the small imperfections in the plaster.
I then gave the cork bark edges and the main rock face a drybrush of a mixture of various Tan, Khaki, Green Ochre Model Color acrylic paints to add depth and highlights to the cork. It was then that I realised that all I had done with the paint was to add various highlight colours to the rock face, and it just seemed to me to be too light and what was missing was some depth to the rock. So i gave the cork bark a wash of some very diluted Black acrylic paint to add the depth.
In the picture below i have shown the differences between the paint and the wash on the cork bark. A is the drybrushed cork rock face, and B is the same cork bark after I have given it a wash of the diluted paint. Which has helped to bring out the very fine detail of the cork.
I hope to have a better explanation about how i have done this on my website soon, and if anyone has any questions about this please feel free to ask questions.
Gary
I am working on a new kitbash for another Gebirgsjager figure, but this time i wanted it to be on a sort of mountain base.
As i have seen so many excellent bases made by my fellow modellers. So i went off looking around for ideas about what material i could use for the rock face, and it was then that i remembered about cork bark. So i got myself a large piece of it which had a curve in it, which has come in very handy for the idea i had for my diorama, and as shown below i have stuck it to the base and built up the sides at the back from balsa wood.
At the same time i decided to also make some ledges in the rock face, i also had to cut out some small pieces of cork to fill in the gaps at the side.
Once i was happy and had all the sides and bark in place i painted on a mix of plaster and PVA glue, making sure that i painted it along the edges of the cork bark so i had a rough edge.
Once i had sanded the plaster as flat as i could, which had to be repaired on the balsa wood joins and edges with some more plaster, and gently sanded flat again. I then painted the sides of the rock face with some artists black acrylic paint, which because the paint is so thick it helped to hide some of the small imperfections in the plaster.
I then gave the cork bark edges and the main rock face a drybrush of a mixture of various Tan, Khaki, Green Ochre Model Color acrylic paints to add depth and highlights to the cork. It was then that I realised that all I had done with the paint was to add various highlight colours to the rock face, and it just seemed to me to be too light and what was missing was some depth to the rock. So i gave the cork bark a wash of some very diluted Black acrylic paint to add the depth.
In the picture below i have shown the differences between the paint and the wash on the cork bark. A is the drybrushed cork rock face, and B is the same cork bark after I have given it a wash of the diluted paint. Which has helped to bring out the very fine detail of the cork.
I hope to have a better explanation about how i have done this on my website soon, and if anyone has any questions about this please feel free to ask questions.
Gary
