Instructor: Kim McDonald

Email for questions: [email protected]

Materials/Tools Needed:

•  green, brown, and cream paint

• selection of landscaping products from train hobby supply stores (i.e. course turf, fine grass, autumn and summer foliage

•  dried flowers and weeds

•  Balsa wood

•  paper

•  colored foam

•  base

Quarter scale landscaping is mainly about creating an illusion, for me anyway.  To achieve this I use a myriad of items from dried flowers and weeds to landscaping supplies obtainable from train hobby shops.

Setting the Scene  

1.  For starters you will need a base. I buy cut MDF shapes from Lincraft or Spotlight. Paint the base green. Once it has dried spread pva glue all over the top where you want grass. I spread the glue with a piece of cardboard and throw it away when I have finished.  Sprinkle the base with Woodlands Scenic Fine Turf. You want it fairly thick. Leave until the glue dries. Once it has dried tip the base upside down to remove any excess turf. If there are gaps apply more glue and turf where necessary.

2.  Ok now you have your base prepared. Now we are going to create a garden wall. You will need to measure and cut thin balsa wood to fit your base. Height of wall is 1 to 1 1/2 inches depending on whether you want a 4 to 6 ft wall. Get some paint and add talcum powder until you have a toothpaste consistency. Using another piece of cardboard apply the paint mix to the balsa wall. You can add patterns to the stucco by varying the angle of the cardboard – circular, up/down. Don’t forget to do both sides. I prefer to stucco the wall before glueing it in place. 

3.  Now we are going to add brickwork to our wall. You need to buy or printout a very small brick pattern. Cut 4 pieces of square balsa wood– they need to be slightly taller than your wall. Measure and cut the brick paper to fit the balsa columns. Lightly score the non printed side so the brick paper fits snugly around each corner. Check for a tight fit. You want the brick paper to butt up not overlap at the end. Trim if necessary. Apply pva glue and wrap the brick paper around the square balsa wood. Using a thin flat balsawood cut 4 squares slightly larger than the top of brick columns. This will be your capping. Paint them and then glue each cap on top of each column. Now you can glue your wall in place.

Adding Flowers

There are many ways to create flowers for this scale ranging from expensive to free?  These include paper flower kits, dried flowers, potpourri, weeds etc. Woodland Scenics have a wonderful range of vines, summer and autumn foliage and of course colored foam.  If you want to just buy a little to see if you like it, you can get tiny amounts from websites such as MiniKitz. www.minikitz.com 

I like to add interest to my walls by applying a vine looking weed. Just drape it over the garden wall and glue into place. I use a toothpick to apply the glue in small dots.  Once you are happy with your arrangement leave it to dry. Then apply groups of random glue dots to your vines. Using tweezers apply colored foam onto the glue dots to create a flowering vine.

Another way to create a vine if you don’t want to hunt down weeds is to use a Woodland Scenic vine. It comes in a clump which you gently tease out with tweezers until it is quite thin. Again add random groups of pva glue dots and sprinkle or tweeze colored foam on top. I often mix up 2-3 colors together in one small bag for visual interest.

For garden beds I use Coarse Turf by Woodland Scenics – comes in 3-4 shades of green. Apply pva glue onto the base where the garden beds are going to be, then (using tweezers) place the Coarse Turf on top on the glue. Add random dots of glue on top of the Coarse Turf and then apply colored foam to your garden beds. Mix the colours up for interest.  Woodland Scenic also has a wonderful viney item which, when folded over, looks just like a lavender hedge.

I like using dried flowers for flowers also. Simply divide a dried flower head into lots of smaller flower parts. Lightly paint them if they are a bit pale. Look in a bag of potpourri and you will find ‘bits’ suitable for using as plants. 

Once you start looking with your ‘qs’ eye – you will be amazed what you will find!!

Topiaries  

The easiest way to make topiaries is to use a cotton bud. Take the cotton bud and paint the bit you put in your ear green. You may need to trim it to shape. Cut a trunk about ½ inch long from the handle – you will get a pair of topiaries from each cotton bud if you use both ends. Paint the trunk brown.  Apply glue all over the green part and dip into Woodland Scenic Fine Turf. If you want flowering topiaries just add dried flower heads or colored foam. 

Arbors

These are easy to make. You can buy sheets of lattice from any train hobby shop – the product is actually called ‘# 518 Grillage’ by SAI, or you can buy lattice from Grandts website. www.grandtline.com

Basically paint, cut and assemble to the size required. Add vines, foliage and flowers.

Garden Path

There are products available that look just like gravel which are available from hobby or craft shops. They come in a range of colours and are relatively inexpensive as a little goes such a long way. Alternatively you can use a small brick sheet as your base. Run your stylus or pen around the outlines to give depth to each brick. Then dry paint randomly over the top. You will need 2-3 shades of the colour of your choice – the trick is in not OVER APPLYING the paint. Less is more?

So now you know how to prepare your base, add grass, a garden wall, brick columns and pathways. Also create garden beds, flowering vines and topiaries.  Have fun!!

Mini hugs,

Kim