Rock on

Rocks, rocks, and more rocks, big, medium, and small were added to the shoreline. They were placed in several sessions, and glued down with a 50/50 mix of matte medium and water.

Once they were firmly stuck down I continued applying layers of thin paint on the landforms until I got the shades I was after. I wasn't concerned if the paint flowed onto the rock as I was attempting to blend the modelled and the real.

But I stopped painting just before I got to the cliff face and bridge. I needed to glue on some rocks, and then work them into the scene with Cell-U-Clay and coarse modelling paste. 

I thought this job would be somewhat laborious, but it turned out to be rather fun. It was sort of like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle, but in this situation I had to choose my own pieces - rather flat ones from my stash of pounded rocks - and then glue them down into some sort of interlocking pattern. Once that was done, the gaps and edges had to be blended into the overall landscape. Once the new rocks and scenery were dry, I continued painting.

It turns out the rock on the lower right of the rock face wasn't as flat as I thought, and had a corner that struck out dangerously close to the rail. I put a rock grinding tip in the Dremel and ground it back. Adds a nice touch of practical realism :-)

The floatplane is an HO scale Dehaviland of Canada DHC-2, Beaver. It's a laser cut wood kit from Osborn Model Kits. You may recall I built their Piper Cub kit back in 2016. The Beaver is awaiting paint, as is the balsa dock it's parked beside.

The dock measures 24' long by 8' wide, and is set in the water on 2, 8'x8' cribs. All the pieces of lumber are cut from balsa sized to be close to dimensional lumber. 

Neither the Beaver nor the dock are glued in place. I probably should have waited until later to build them, but I was curious to see how this scene was going to work. So far, so good. I think the bridge will be the next project.