Back drop piece, How to! (1 Viewer)

[fishead19690]

I made another backdrop piece last night after I took a walk in a nature trail and found some various little things I thought might work out alright for a cheap backdrop! So while I was at it I snapped a few pics! So here we go! The pictures should pretty much do all the talking and this isn,t that hard to do and can make a diorama hopefully look a little better??? Remember I found most of this stuff for free in the woods!
Here we go!
Start out with some foam to stick all this stuff into. Floral foam works better for this because its much easier to stick your dried twiggs ect. into, but pink or blue foam will work also as you can see from the photos and I got the piece of blue foam for free. A bastard file rasp or even a wire brush will give you a nice tapered edge but make sure you do this outside or over a big barrel.

Then when you get the piece to the shape you like you can paint the piece an earth color brown in case your flocking falls off you won,t see blue foam underneath. A bigger brush then the one I have in the photo will do much better to cover the piece quick but I was in a rush to get this done and actually put the paint and glue on pretty much at the same time and wanted to use a cheap disposible brush for both as they would mix together.

When the paint dries use a cheap brush you don,t care about to add glue because the brush will be junk after this and using either wood or white glue cover the whole piece with glue and then flock the piece with some type of hobby grass or static grass or something? What I used was a type of moss that is used for floral settings found at most craft and floral shops and with my hands crushed it into a fine ground cover. This stuff crumbles pretty easy and at the bottom of the bag when you get it there should be a good amount already crumbled to the perfect size. Just use your hands and crumble some more till you get enough to do what you want. This also makes a great ground scatter to cover the bases of your figures in a diorama. I also mix in some of this reptile tank cover also thats made from Coconut fiber and the two make a really nice looking ground cover! Just spread this over the glue and pat it down a bit so it sticks good and shake off any extra.

Here they are mixed together

 

[fishead19690]

Here is the piece flocked!

Now we need to start adding in the pieces! Here are some of the things I dug up to stick in this thing.

You can also paint these to any color you like also if you find something in the woods you wish was a different color. These paints are made to do just that!

Now just start picking the pieces you want and stick them right into the foam but do this while the glue is still wet from the flocking or you,ll have a real hard time trying to get these in! You can add a bit of white glue to the bottoms of the stems to help them stick in but they should stay in without it if you get them deep into the foam without the glue. Just be creative with where you stick them and how much you add and let your eye be the judge and make the background piece YOU like.

 

[Shannon Reuss]

Thanks for posting this Fish! Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[Rob]

Superb work Tim,thanks very much for posting this.

Rob

 

[thebritfarmer]

Another brilliant how to from the fishmeister. Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[jomartvr]

Thanks Fish,
That was a great tutorial.
Whats next?
Benjamin

 

[fishead19690]

Thanks Fish,
That was a great tutorial.
Whats next?
Benjamin

????? Best ways to remove glue, paint and glued on flocking from your hands??? Maybe how to keep from tracking shaved pieces of blue foam into the house so you don,t have to listen to your old lady complain about the mess???

 

[Wraith]

????? Best ways to remove glue, paint and glued on flocking from your hands??? Maybe how to keep from tracking shaved pieces of blue foam into the house so you don,t have to listen to your old lady complain about the mess???

Yes please on the latter. I'm like a foam shaving magnet. Follows me everywhere I go.

Great job on the backdrop Tim, and very informative 'how to'

Cheers
Simon

 

[kilted vampire]

Nice to see you back at it. Love the free part. You are so right about the floral foam. Would like to do a winter one for some bulge stuff. thanks for the inspiration Tim.

 

[Desertkiwi]

Great step by step pic's and advice.....thanks heaps for taking the time to post some much info mate!!

 

[marco55]

Looks great Fish.
Mark

 

[davidroman]

I think it looks great. a suggestion on the blue sky in the background for photographic purposes. I would put the bluesky background far enough away so that when you light the trees/shrubs in the front, their shadow does not cast on the sky behind. And light the sky background independently so it looks like it has the same amount of light your tress/shrubs have. Does this make sense?
GREAT WORK and thanks for taking the time to show how to do it.
David