Whitewater creek Terrafoaming

Every plan of battle is only good until the first shot is fired.

When I started working on this scene I tried to plan everything I could so that I could quickly get the basic scenery in place and get the track and bridge back together, then work on the surrounding areas later.  Right…..dream on.

I got things tore out, built the bridge, got the land formed under the bridge.  Then I planned to get the creek painted and covered in water.  Because I wanted grass under the bridge I even made some grass sheets that I can into sections and slide in under the bridge between the piers.

Only thing left was to paint a small section of the creek under the bridge and then cover it with water, then set the bridge in place and Viola, done.  I was all set to do this until I got the water painted, then the light went on! 

“What happens if I don’t get an exact match for the water color?”  What would happen is I would see a definitive line of color change which would ruin the entire effect.  Crap!  So I moved onto plan “B”.

I got started terraforming the area around the bridge and lastly paint the water.  To do this I decided to try something a little different.  I’m not a big fan of sloping plaster around, but I liked the idea of using extruded foam to carve landscapes.  A While back I used some dry green florist foam to build up a crossing at the Gavilon facility and it worked very well.  I glued down a few pieces and then using my fingers I shaped them to fit the area, and then painted them and covered them in ground foam.   So I figured I’d give it a try in a larger area.

I cut several blocks to roughly fit the area using a steak knife with a serrated edge. Using the same knife I started to roughly carve and shape the foam and finished using my fingers to slowly shape and smooth it to the final shape.

Along the backdrop I used the standard brick shaped blocks, and in the front area I started with a sheet that I found at Hobby Lobby that was 12”x18”x2”.

I still have a bit of final shaping to do and none of the foam is glued in place so that I can make changes if needed.  The foam along the backdrop will get painted before gluing it in place so I don't mess up the backdrop.  The rest I'll glue into place and use some lightweight spackling to fill in the gaps and smooth out some of the transitions.   

Along some of the edges of the creek I'll fill in with tinted sculptamold to form an eroded edge then everything will get painted with the basic earth color.  Once to this point, I'll be able to paint ALL of the water surface.