Terrain Showcase: The Tombs of Tithing

It's been a long journey, but the Tombs of Tithing are finished at last:

 

I've uploaded a video taking a detailed look at the tombs to my YouTube channel, and more photos below. I hope you enjoy them!

 

The biggest hurdle to overcome while painting the large tomb was going through the entire piece and painting all the dirt between the stonework and then basecoating, shading, and highlighting the bones. (Why did I add so many?!) Once that portion was complete, I could move on to the fun parts like painting the rusted metal and adding the grass and foliage.

 

 

I punched up the green wash in a few areas and painted some flock mixed with glue onto the surface to create a weathered, mossy texture. This, combined with the rust streaks help add a lot of variety to the stone walls.

 

 

I think I settled onto a solid technique for working with the Silflor leaf foliage– Foliage like this has a habit of shedding its leaves when you cut and handle it, leaving you with the bare fibers and netting that they were attached to. In Luke Towan's scenery videos (if you want to see some amazing model railroad-style scenery, check out his YouTube channel!), he uses a mixture of Mod Podge and water, sprayed onto his displays, along with isopropol alcohol so the glue soaks into all the recesses, and this works like a dream to fix everything in place. I put an entire sheet of Silflor foliage in a tray and sprayed it with the mixture (one spray bottle with a 3/1 ratio of water and matte Mod Podge with a drop of dish soap, and a separate spray bottle of alcohol). I really drenched it, let the excess drip off, and then set it outside in the sun to dry.

This stiffened up the foliage and secured the leaves much better. I was able to cut it without everything falling apart. I attached the foliage to the fence and stones with super glue. Then, I used some of the trimmed bits of leaf to cover any bare spots by dabbing them with straight Mod Podge and sprinkling some leaves onto it. Once this had dried, I dabbed more of the Mod Podge and water mix over the whole thing with a brush and let it dry. 

 

 

I think this is my favorite area on the whole piece. I make most of the grass tufts myself, but the brownish-yellow tufts are from Army Painter. They use a softer fiber, so the larger tufts can be cut into thin strips, perfect to fit in the gaps between the flagstones.

 

 

The interior turned out better than I had hoped. It was one of the first areas that I had built, and literally the last bit to get finished. I had painted the tomb cover and the metal rails months ago, and had nearly forgotten what they looked like. Gluing them in place, and adding the shelf really brings it all together. My initial plan was to glue the roof in place, but decided to keep it removable so the interior detail could be appreciated. 

 

 

I have already shown the smaller tomb in a previous post, but here it is again for completion (and with better quality photos).

 

 

Thanks for following along with this project. You can see the whole build under the "Project Log: Tombs of Tithing" label on the sidebar, or with this link.

'Til next time!