Saturday, June 06, 2015

Schrebergarten: Making the first garden


The paint + sand mix and fences I installed last weekend need more green around them. I started off with some vegetables: Lollo Rosso salad and Kohlrabi from the Busch Nr. 1222 vegetable kit. The planting beds are real sifted dirt from our backyard.


I made a small patio from an Evergreen styrene sheet, added a lawn, and bushes along the fence. The bushes are dark Woodland Scenics clumps topped with Scenic Express SuperTurf. In this photo the lawn is still drowning in glue...


Next I added JTT sun flowers and a path from fine Woodland Scenics ballast. I also glued in some Noch greens and flowers. The flower bushes are overscale for HO, but look reasonable when glued tight together so that it's not quite as obvious how high the supporting fibers are.


Moving on to the Zucchini from the Busch  Nr. 1222 vegetable kit. The plants look great when done, but getting there is a bit painful.


First, paint the zucchini on the sprue. I made them a different green than the sprue and added a hint of yellow. Once the paint has dried it's time to glue the zucchini flowers to the stalk.


I left the flowers on the sprue, and only cut them loose on one side. First glue the stalk to one flower, and cut off the other side of the flower from the sprue. Repeat for the other flower(s). It seems weird at first, but this way it's easy to ensure the tiny flowers go on the stalk instead of your fingers, tweezers, the floor, or you-don't-know-where-else.


The finished plant looks very nice, and almost in scale. I built and planted the plants one at a time, which was probably the most drawn out part of the day.


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