Distant hillsides

I’ve been busy working on the distant hillsides. They need to be done first because they won’t fit in under the valance and go behind dioramas etc after they are in. I am planning to use foam for the basic shapes – scraps mostly and then “trees” on top. I wasn’t sure of the best way to make the trees so I have been experimenting.

I started with the basic foam shape:

I then added a layer of glue:

I was hoping to find some black quilt wadding but they didn’t have any that was fluffy enough at the local quilt shop so I bought white instead:

More glue was drizzled on:

I scrunched up bits of the wadding to make “trees”. There’s no need for trunks as they are distant hills:

The trees went on really quickly until I had a whole hill side:

I sprayed black car paint on the hill side to fill in the shadows:

Next step was to sprinkle on dark green Woodlands Scenics Fine Turf and flick it in to the crevasses. I followed by a green ground foam:

I sprayed it with a mixture of Isoproyl Alcohol and water and then dilute PVA glue:

This is what it looks like dry. It’s a nice hill side but too “close” ie not blue enough:

I tried spraying it with a dilute powder blue emulsion. The first coat was a bit thick and looked really awful:

More ground foam and a finer spray later looked much better. I then sprayed it with loads of hair spray to keep it in place:

Here the hillside is in place on the layout:

And another view:

I’ve started the section of hill to the left but it has a weird shape and needs the Martin Machine diorama and river to fit in it. I tried using a green spray rather than black as well to see if it looked better.