Habitat ?

[SmallJawz]

I have a few carvings I have finished and need to put them in a scene.

1. How can I make a snow scene with snow on the ground as well as on the carving?

2. How about dirt and grass?

I dont just want to paint the wood white, green or brown. I want it to look good.

Thanks Brian

[Kenny_S]

Brian, Ther eis a textureing paint/glue that is called Snow textuer and it work great for snow scene.
A little glue and a little sand on the base then paint to color of dirt.
Deborah is the expert in scenes and could tell you her techniques but paper cut into grass size and paint also works. Seen some with thin metal cut and painted to represent leaves from trees. Wire covered in palable epoxy painted for trees or limbs.

[Donna_T]

Brian,
A quick easy way to make grassy-looking habitat, and it can be made to look like moss covered growth, too, is to use a small flame-tipped (pointed) bit with a power carver and drill down into the wood in close, sometimes overlapping pattern--but don't make rows--make them random pattern. The object is to not leave much/any flat wood in between. Paint with a darker green and when dry, drybrush with a lighter (more yellow) green to make it look like sunlight showing through the tops of the grass.

That's not a very good explanation, but I hope it makes sense. I especially like to do the moss look on a carving of a tree stump or natural outdoor scene.

Donna T

[AlArchie]

Check your local hardware or paint store for wall texturing agregate. It might be called "Agregate for Sand finish or Texturing" but I don't know the particular brand right off hand. I've used this, applied over a fresh coat of primer, and after it's dried spray paint to match either grass, sand, rough stone or even snow. a pearlescent white paint over this could give a good imitation of snow.

That agregate stuff is really light weight and easy to apply, yet course enough to hold definition when being overcoated.

Al

[Hugh]

I have to make a few apple blossoms for habitat, on a carving I'm going to do, anyone made such a thing.

[Thomp]

Grass,

sometimes grass can be produced in wood by using a dremel - power carver equipped with wire brush, test a piece of the stock to see if a harsh steel brush or just a brass or nylon brush will remove enough,
you wont remove hard grain in wood as easily as you will remove the softer grains,

Sometimes a heavy steel brush followed by light steel brush and then brass then nylon changing up pattern direction will produce rough and finer stems or clumps.. depending on the hardness of the wood and how long you leave the brush work on it.

not foolproof but will work in some cases..

works really nice to age wood like its been outside for years....

[AlArchie]

Hugh, I made some water lilys for a habitat, and I think by changing the petal pattern the idea would work just as well for apple blossoms.

First cut out of .005 brass sheet, the size petals you want. As this will be a flower with several layers of concentric petals, cut the number you want in slighlty decreasing diameter.

Next, take a ball pein hammer and gently tap the cut outs, till they take on a slight cup shape.

Next, in the center of each petal group, drill a small hole (1/16" or less)

Then taking a brass rod of the same diameter as the hole, peen over the end into a "rivet head" I used a hole drilled in a steel plate to hold the rod while I peened it over the first time. After that I just heated it up with a prpane torch till it formed a tiny ball on the end of the rod.

Now you'll have to get a 1" thick firebrick, the hard kind, and drill a slightly larger hole through that.

Put the rod with the "rivet head" down through the center of all the petals and then through the hole in the firebrick, and hold the rod tight from the bottom of the brick.

With that done, you can use either a soldering gun, iron or torch to apply solder to the center of the top petal and the top of the rod.

That should finish your flower off unless you want to add stamens to the center. I did that with a bead of epoxy holding about 8 .005" dia brass rods, cut off to a very short, about 3/16" lenght.

Paint the petals with pearlescent white with pink highlights, and a yellow or pink center.

If you want I'l see if I can dig out a photo of the finished flower. they really do look realistic.

Al

[AlArchie]

I found one picture of the brass water lilly. I think this could easily be adapted to make apple blossoms.

Al

[SmallJawz]

Thanks Everyone, I will experiment with all the suggestions.

Thanks Again,
Brian

[Hugh]

I couldn't remember where I posted the question on the apple blossoms. That is a great job on the lilly. I'm sure it will work with the apple blossoms. This a great place to get information. My old grandma would say, thanks until your better paid.