Landscape, Scenery and Terrain modelling guide.

Nothing communicates the purpose and

function of a model better than the sense it belongs
in the environment in which it is seen.
Atmospheric model making is all about telling a story which
usually means setting our subjects into a relevant context which
helps explain their purpose. With this thought in mind very few
people actually model landscape, terrain or scenery as a subject
in its own right, but everybody from dolls house collectors to
railway modellers, taking in a wide range of other model making
enthusiasts in between must have encountered the occasional
need to model some sort of terrain or ground work as part of a
diorama or other project. Perhaps the only occasion on which
landscape is modelled in its own right as a central feature is for
the occasional topographical or aerial sketch model produced for
museums and architectural firms. In such instances these models
are normally made to much smaller scales than most hobbiest
model makers would think of using.
The illustration below is of one such model I was commissioned
to make in 1/500th scale. Although the materials and techniques
used in these smaller scales are very different to those I intend
discussing for more typical diorama projects, it is an excellent
introduction to the most important aspect of landscape modelling.
Three words sum up all you need to know about scenic modelling; Subtle colour variation. It doesnt matter what materials
or techniques you use, or what scale you model in, scenic modelling wont look believable until youve achieved subtle variations of colour. There are loads of different scenic modelling
materials on the market, and loads more things that can be found
around the house and garden that are useful. All of these may be
good, but none will look good on their own. You have to keep
mixing things up to achieve variation. The more subtle variation
you create the better looking the model will be. The ultimate goal
is to reach the point where no single product or colour stands out
in its own right. If you can reach the point where the variation
becomes so subtle you create the impression not of distinct or
independent hues and tones, but of one continual spectrum of
colour and texture, then you will have imitated nature.

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Page 1

It is very difficult to know where to start when producing a short

guide to such a large subject, but since convention is to begin
with a mention of materials then I can, at least, give a mention
to a few of the more commonly used. The basic foundations
of any model can be easily carved from expanded polystyrene
foam, a product which is freely available as it is used in the
packaging of all manner of goods. If you are actually buying
materials to carve the ground contours of your diorama, look
for the slightly tighter celled and more dense foam used as wall
insulation. These can be bought in sheets of varying sizes and
thicknesses, and are light and strong enough to not need additional bracing or support. Though you may wish to put a plinth
or frame around the edge for cosmetic purposes.

The surface of this foam will then need treating to seal and texture
it. Various types of plaster and filler are available from DIY stores
which can be spread thinly, or thickly sculpted over the foam.
This can be used to create anything from a basic muddy surface
to rocky outcrops. Two basic bits of advice if working this way
are to add a generous quantity of PVA glue to the plaster/filler,
and also add a dollop of grey, brown or green paint to the mix.
The glue gives a degree of flexibility to the brittle plaster coating
reducing the likelihood of chipping. The paint makes chips less
likely to show if they do occur. Nothing looks worse than beautifully modelled scenery with a bright white or pink scar across it
where bare plaster or foam have been exposed.

Miniature artist, sculptor and small scale model maker

Landscape, Scenery and Terrain modelling guide.

When it comes to scenically dressing our basic foundation, model
shops can provide us with all manner of chopped foam scatter
products, along with fine fibres and flocks. The supermarket is
often a good source of chopped herbs, whilst the garden centre or
florist can be a good source of dried plants, all of which can also be
useful. Ill make a point about colour here. Artists will commonly
tell you that green is a mix of blue and yellow, indeed this is how
most paints and dyes are made and most scenic modelling products
are therefore coloured in such a way. If we wish to be pedantic
about things then green is actually a small range of wavelengths of
light spanning from about 490nm (the bluer end of the spectrum)
through to about 570nm (the more yellow end). Natural greens of
plants tend to be the longer wavelengths and as such are far more
yellow than blue, indeed something such as olive green is, in effect
just a really dark yellow. What is more the foliage of many plants
actually includes a surprisingly large amount of red. Far too many
scenic modelling products look wrong because there is too much
blue pigment in the paints or dyes that colour them. Concentrate on
those which look like drab creams, yellows or red-browns in the
packet. If you buy the ones that look like lush verdant greens they
probably wont look believable on your model. What is more dont
just buy one packet, buy several different ones with variations of
colour and texture so that you can mix these up to avoid achieving
a uniform look. I have, over the years, acquired several huge boxes
full of hundreds of products produced by many different manufacturers which I will blend and re-bag for my own convenience.

When using these scatter products you must bear in mind the three
dimensional nature of plants. If glued directly to the basic carved
landscape they will do nothing but give a fuzzy pale green surface
to your sculpted plaster. In real life mature trees can easily grow
to well over 30m tall which is still going to be very large even
in a small scale. Depending upon the scale you are modelling in
generic undergrowth and bushes may need to be several cm tall
and you may still need more than 1cm depth for modelled grasses.
Flocking fibres can be applied to a coating of glue using an electrostatic applicator to make them all stand on end. Such effects can
give a remarkably convincing representation of individual blades
of grass in the smaller scales providing you are patient enough to
keep working in variations of colour, different lengths of fibres
and the occasional bald patch or clumps of clover or other weeds
to get a realistic effect.

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Page 2

For longer grasses and reeds, or for work in larger scales you may
have to resort to planting these by hand one tuft at a time. These
could be made from bristle or hair, and flax or hemp fibres can be
fine enough for model work. Fake fur fabric can be another good
source of long fine fibres. When it comes to building up depth for
deeper undergrowth and bushes we need a light and airy support
onto which to apply our scatters or flock. Rubberised horse hair is
an old traditional method though there are now lots of finer alternatives made from man made fibres. Theatrical wigging is available in various colours and thickness and can be teased out into
little balls or clumps and shaped to give the underlying structure
of our bushes or hedgerows. There are also many natural dried
plant products that have tiny rapidly branching stalks. The use of a
selection of these can also build up a bit of depth and busy texture
amongst modelled undergrowth. An aerosol adhesive can then be
sprayed over these and fine scatter materials can be sprinkled on
to build up colour and texture. Again try to build up each plant
from several similar colours of scatter to give subtle variation, and
try work in different shapes and height of bush for interest. Most
of all though keeping looking back to your reference material to
keep the variations in colour, texture and shape believable. We
might only require something generic for the background, but we
still want generic right, not generic wrong.
Many models may require character plants. These may be large
feature trees, or could just be something with a very distinctive
shape or colour of flower or foliage. The distinction is that whilst
the above was all about fairly quick effects for building up variations of colour and texture in a generic backdrop, character plants
may have to be more particular recreations that communicate
something specific about the environment we are modelling. In
many respects modelling plants should be easier than vehicles,
buildings or other commonly modelled subjects, this is because
we arent obliged to achieve technical precision. Even within
a single species of plant, the exact heights colours or shapes
vary. All we need do is capture the basic character of the plant.
However if you are used to an engineering approach to model
making, then the lack of anything obvious to measure means you
have to rely solely on observation and artistic judgement, so keep
good reference photographs close to hand. Whats more although
the techniques used in modelling plants arent difficult, they do
rely on endless repetition and few people are willing or able to put
in the time needed to do this convincingly.

Miniature artist, sculptor and small scale model maker

Landscape, Scenery and Terrain modelling guide.

The pictures here are of a project produced in 1/48th scale. Modelling a jungle called for numerous character plants. With large
leaves up to 80mm long for the biggest palms, there was no way
that the shapes I wanted could be created with generic scatters.
Many of these leaves were cut or punched from paper and many
more came from dried seed pods, ferns and other natural materials. Leaves on their own dont make plants and many of the stalks
and tree trunks were twisted up from wire to from a skeletal tree.
Surface textures could then be built up over these armatures using
a variety of materials, from sculpting in epoxy putty to sponge,
string and thick glue. Applying leaves to a model tree one by one
takes patience and thankfully most of the palms with big leaves
only required around twelve or fifteen leaves each. Nevertheless
I did need a lot of palms and ferns to fill out this diorama and
create the impression of dense impenetrable jungle.
If you are dealing with some of the more common European trees
in the smaller scales, then it might not be the shapes of individual
leaves that are important. It might be the basic shape of the trunk
and branches that gives the tree its character or identity, or it
could be how the leaves form distinctive clumps of foliage. Oak
can be a very a broad, irregular and seemingly unstructured tree,
whilst elm can be taller and more elegant, willow is obviously
noted for its long drooping limbs. If you put the same level of
research and work into a model tree as you do any other aspect
of your modelling there is no reason why you shouldnt get the
same quality of end result.

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Page 3
Looking back at the previous
couple of pages I kind of feel
Ive said nothing and everything about modelling plants.
The techniques of foliage
modelling arent difficult, just
time consuming, and have
been endlessly described by
others in much greater detail
elsewhere. The distinction
between good foliage modelling and bad foliage modelling is
solely down to the observational skills of the individual, and
having the patience required to keep working away at achieving
more and more subtle variations of colour and texture. Experience with the airbrush may also be useful as this can be used
to both tone down contrasts and variations that are felt to be
too strong, as well as introduce subtle variations into those
areas which are felt too uniform. Many people are amazed at
how quickly seemingly gaudy and unrealistic modelling can
be transformed into something quite acceptable with nothing
more than a thinly sprayed mist of pale creamy yellowy or grey
brown paint applied gently over everything (including the main
feature vehicles or subjects) thereby harmonising all the colours
and contrasts. If youve never tried this do so! The improvement
in results belies any notion of the simplicity and speed of such a
technique. Anyway, as theres much more to terrain modelling
than just plants Im going to move on to other subjects.

Miniature artist, sculptor and small scale model maker

Landscape, Scenery and Terrain modelling guide.

Page 4

Water can be one of the most notoriously difficult things to

model. Subconsciously we all know exactly what it looks like
as we see it in so many different places and in so many different forms on a daily basis. Unfortunately we never really pay it
enough attention to become consciously aware of what gives it
its character and makes it what it is. It is said that the sea never
looks the same twice, and it is obviously going to be very different from a lake, a stream or a puddle. All of which will look very
different from snow or ice and how often do you see anybody
convincingly model fog, mist or steam?
Maritime modellers are perhaps those with the greatest need to
convincingly model water. If modelling the sea around a ship
you have to reproduce several factors; waves caused by wind,
underlying waves due to tidal movement along with wash and
wake patterns created by the ship. You also need to capture the
varied colours of the sea as well as communicating its translucency and depth. Achieving any one of those is slow, getting
them all right is a very time consuming challenge. I dont know
of any quick techniques that are convincing but I can describe
a painfully slow one I used for modelling the dirty swell of the
North sea. The surface of the water in the 1/400th scale diorama
below was created by individually sculpting each wave into a
rolled sheet of soft epoxy putty taking care to texture the spray
around the bow wave and crest of each little ripple. The colouring was applied with numerous washes of grey, blue, brown and
green paint to build up the subtlety of colouring. This process
was then repeated with inks and colourless acrylic wax to add
to the translucency, followed by finally dry brushing across the
crest of each wave and ripple to highlight the white spray.

Modelling the sea can be a big challenge but most modellers

tend to tackle something a little less demanding. Most of us may
require nothing grander than a gently flowing stream or a few
puddles for our dioramas and scenic bases. For small areas of
shallow water, believable effects can be achieved by simply
painting the underside of clear plastic or thin glass, along with
the possible application of a coat or two of varnish on top if you
want to apply the slightest suggestion of ripples. More often that
not the thing that identifies water is the reflections that form on
its surface. As such, it may not be necessary to physically model
the depth of any water, just achieve a good reflective surface and
dark coloration to imply depth. In instances where we wish to
model very clear water, or portray the things in the water then
we will need to model whatever is containing the water, be it a
river bed, the banks of a canal or maybe just a goldfish bowl. It is
occasionally possible to create an acceptable effect by just using
clear plastic or glass as an effective lid to form the surface of the
water, leaving a space below. However, in such circumstances
I prefer to work with clear embedding resin of the type used

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for making paperweights. This can be believably coloured with

touches of ink mixed into the resin, the resin can be poured to fill
unusual and irregular shapes, it is self levelling and as it starts
to cure and thicken it can be sculpted to work texture, ripples
or waves onto the surface of the water being modelled. The
down side to such an approach is that the area containing the
water does need to be totally sealed so the liquid resin doesnt
leak away before it cures and solidifies. Its high viscosity and
surface tension does also means it forms a prominent meniscus
creeping up the edges of whatever contains it. So you will need
to go back and disguise this once the resin has cured.
Winter scenes with snow and ice are popular with many
model makers because they can be very atmospheric. There is
a common misconception that snow is white and thats as far
as the story goes. Well snow might be white, but smothering
a model with bright white is going to look poor. What makes
model snow look believable is the subtle touches of colour used
to exaggerate shadows in its surface to bring out ground contours,
footprints, vehicle tracks or any other features. Snow itself can
be easily modelled with a simple plaster based filler, and there
are many products available from various model manufacturers that do the same job. How we enliven these is what will
make all the difference. Touches of pale blue or silver worked
into the snow can enhance the crispness and sparkle of a frosty
winters morning. Touches of brown and grey can play towards
the gloomy overcast and slushy nature of dirty snow. Thinly
sprinkling snow such that underlying scenic work still shows
through generally looks better than a thick blanket covering that
hides everything beneath.

Miniature artist, sculptor and small scale model maker

Landscape, Scenery and Terrain modelling guide.

Page 5

Well theres obviously much more I could have said about modelling water in its various forms but this is supposed to be a
brief guide so Ill move on. The list of other subjects that could
be covered under the basic heading of terrain modelling depends
largely on what you want the term to mean. I want to avoid
true architectural modelling of buildings as this is a large and
separate subject in its own right. Nevertheless, for the purposes
of dioramas and scenic bases many modellers may require bits
of stone or brick walls, concrete or Tarmac and many other
vaguely architectural features.

It may seem as if Im being endlessly repetitious but Im again

going to return to the subject of subtle variation of colour. Brick,
stone, concrete and Tarmac could easily be described as being
just one colour, and many model manufacturers supply paint with
these exact names. However, paint any of these features a single
uniform colour and they will look wrong. Whilst it is important
that each of these features give an impression of being basically
one colour, you must mix in many subtle variations of hue and
tone. It often doesnt matter exactly what touches of colour you
add into the basic finish, they just need to appear discoloured
and varied if they are to appear believable. Nor am I necessarily talking about weathering, which is another good excuse to
introduce even more variation of colour. A quick way of getting
variation into any of these finishes is to start by painting them
all wildly varied and blotchy colours, and then apply washes
of just one paint that closely matches the average colour you
are trying to achieve. Each wash applied will reduce the impact
of the colour contrasts and start to tone down and harmonise
the finish. After a few washes almost all trace of the original
blotchy finish will have gone. Almost but not quite, youll be left
with something that gives a first impression of being uniform but
which isnt quite. Working to tone down and harmonise excessive variation is generally easier than trying to work up subtle
variation into a totally uniform finish.

Many people make the common mistake of trying to paint or

photograph detailed and complex backdrops, which then distract
from the models in front of them. Backdrops need to be simple
and often slightly blurred or out of focus so as to suggest the
thing we are interested in is in front of the backdrop, not the
backdrop itself. In some instances, particularly aviation models,
we may require no traditional terrain modelling at all, just a
backdrop of clouds and sky. Other subjects may require a more
clever approach to subtly blending the three dimensional terrain
or landscape into the two dimensional backdrop without there
being an obvious or clumsy transition from one to the other.
Well thats very quickly raced through an enormous topic. I
know I wont have answered all the questions that people have
on this vast subject, but I hope you feel it was worth reading
nevertheless. Like all the artistic aspects of model making, the
important ideas have nothing to do with specialist materials or
techniques for manipulating them. Its all down to good old
fashioned observation, something that can only be improved
through practice.

The last topic I wish to very briefly discuss is back-scenes. When

a model is on display we dont want to be distracted by fussy
wallpaper or the beer-gut of the chap stood behind it. If we can
fill our field of view with a two dimensional pictorial representation of the rest of the environment in which the real thing would
operate or be seen it can vastly improve our judgment of both the
main feature model, and also our landscape or terrain modelling.
A model placed in isolation on a shelf or wooden plinth cannot
help but look like anything other than a model.

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Miniature artist, sculptor and small scale model maker