Home -> Reviews -> Woodland Scenics: The Scenery Kit

Woodland Scenics: The Scenery Kit

by Andy Slater
Although I've used a
number of Woodland
Scenics products over
the years I wanted to try
a few more, and have a
go a doing an entire
piece 'The Woodland
Scenics Way'. "The
Scenery Kit" presents an
opportunity to do this in
a single package as it
contains pretty much
everything you need,
except the locomotive
and figures, to create
the little scene show on
this page. I got mine from ecScenics (who also stock all of the various
materials separately).
In this review I'll concentrate my efforts on a few personal insights,
opinions and things I discovered along the way, rather than giving a
detailed step by step.

Instructions
Full instructions are included with the kit (and they're pretty good too)
however there are a few video tutorials on the Woodland Scenics website
that are also worth viewing. Don't rely on them entirely though because as
I will explain, I have my doubts about the usefulness of some of them.

Woodwork
Various wooden panels are supplied to make up the box and these are
easy to assemble. You'll need some PVA glue, sandpaper, and black paint.
Okay, so not everything is included in the kit but would you really want
the added cost of including stock items like that? Me neither.

Plaster Casts
Two components of the
kit come pre-cast in
plaster: the culvert and
some rock faces.
There's not much to say
about the culvert
however the rocks are a
bit more interesting: why
use plaster rock faces
when you could sculpt
them or use real rocks?
Surely it's just a way for
Woodland Scenics to
make more money by
selling lumps of plaster,
moulds, or at the very

least the materials to

make your own moulds
and casts?
Well actually, no it isn't.
There are a number of
reasons why these rock:
(pun intended)
1. Sculpting is great if
you can do it but
these have lots of
excellent rocky
detail with zero skill
required on your
part.
2. These are much lighter than real rocks.
3. You can stain these in different colours using the Woodland Scenics
Earth Color Liquid Pigments (more about them later), whereas you'd
have to paint real rocks.
Of course the down side is that if you use the same cast over and over
again it might be easy to spot the repetition on your terrain; but that's not
an issue here.

Plaster Cloth
There have been a number of occasions when I've used jute scrim (from a
builder's supplier), and plaster to make models and support jackets for
latex moulds, and it's a very messy job. I'd not used commercially
produced plaster impregnated bandage before and I have to say that
although it's more expensive than scrim and plaster, it's so much less
mess that it's well worth it and I can certainly see myself using it again.
The Woodland Scenics Plaster Cloth also comes in a nice 8" width that is

great for landscaping.

One thing to watch out
for is that when you dip
it in water, as instructed,
it goes from relatively
stiff to ultra-floppy in a
fraction of a second. If
you're prepared, you'll
be holding it by two
corners, so it doesn't
start getting folded up
and sticking to itself as
you lift it back out. The
kit contains a little more
than you need to make
the model but there's
not so much extra that
you can afford to be wasteful.

Lightweight Hydrocal Plaster

Once, years ago, I tried Lightweight Hydrocal for casting and didn't like it.
The normal procedure when mixing plaster is to add plaster to water, but
Lightweight Hydrocal floats making it a swine to mix without getting air
bubbles and lumps. On this project it's used for sticking the pre-cast
pieces in place, patching up, and for additional landscaping. Consequently,
bubbles are not really an issue (and if you're not worried about bubbles
you can beat the lumps out of it). It does the job, but it's still horrible
stuff to mix.

TrackBed
The kit includes a length
of HO gauge track and a
length of trackbed foam,
however you could use
another gauge of track
(if you have it), replace
the track with a road, or
simply omit it altogether
depending on what you
wanted to display on the
finished piece e.g. a
military vehicle. In fact
with a little sawing you
could easily change the
shape of the wooden
sides of the display
structure and create a
scene with very different
contours.

The locomotive that I

wanted to display was
HO guage so I used the
track however I omitted
the trackbed foam. The
foam is intended to
replace the traditional cork underlay used by railway modellers to reduce
noise and vibration. The instructions on using it were an addendum to the
kit's instructions and, having done a little more research on the web, I
concluded that proper use of it would have made the application of the
plaster bandage more complicated. Given that reducing vibration is not an
issue on a display piece such as this I decided not to bother.

Earth Color Liquid Pigments

These were one of the products that I had not used before and was
particularly interested to try. I'm pleased with the results and have since
gone on to obtain a Woodland Scenics Earth Colour Kit (a full set of the
pigments), so I can try them for other things.
The instructions talk of
mixing 1/4 teaspoon
(1/8 for black), of the
pigment with a number
of teaspoons of water. If
that makes sense to you
- fine. If like me you're
wondering "How on earth
am I going to measure a
1/4 teaspoon?" (never
mind how you'll get it
out of the little pot) then
just be aware that it

translates to diluting the

pigment 1:16 (1:32 for
black), and, having
realised that you can measure it out in drops, brushloads, or anything else
that comes to hand. I found those ratios too diluted, but better too weak
than too strong. You can always apply more but as this stuff works by
staining the plaster you'll have problems if you overdo it.
Another thing to bear in mind with this colouring technique is that you'll
need to be extra careful not to get glue or anything else that will affect
porosity onto the plaster... unless that's your intention. The technique for
doing the rocks is to use a couple of colours on the plaster (to stain it),
then seal it with Scenic Cement, and then apply a black wash. The black
wash gathers into the nooks and crannies much more than the initial
colours because of the sealing stage. The whole thing is then sealed with
more Scenic Cement.
Note that the model needs to be allowed to dry in between each stage so
patience is definitely a virtue if you're to do this stage properly.

Scenic Cement & Scenic Sprayer

I've already mentioned the use
of Scenic Cement for sealing the
Earth Color Liquid Pigments
however it is also used for fixing
various scatter material in place,
and for fixing clump foliage to
tree armatures. Scenic Cement
was in fact the main
product/technique that I was
interested to try because while
we TerraGenesists tend to
sprinkle scatter material onto
wet PVA, the Woodland Scenics
way is to apply your scatter
materials and then spray Scenic
Cement to fix them. The
advantage of tho Woodland
Scenics method is that you can

apply your various grades and

colours of scatter and, if it's not
going well, you can tip (or
vacuum) it all off and start
again. You don't fix it until you're happy with it.
Of course if you do need to start over then you waste some material but
in fact if you engage your brain and follow the guidance in the instructions
then you'll probably achieve a good result the first time around. It's
reassuring however to know that you can start over if you need to.
As for the product itself, the Scenic Cement works rather well, however I
have big issues with the applicator.

more.

I have to confess that initially, silly

me didn't notice the tiny symbols
moulded onto the nozzle of the
sprayer indicating that it has two off
positions, one for mist, and one for
squirt. Thus I assumed that it work
like a typical sprayer and the first
time I used the thing I blasted my
carefully applied ballast all over the
place. Having recovered from this I
performed a number of tests; whose
results baffled me until I finally
noticed the symbols. As a
consequence of this I used up all of
the supplied Scenic Cement before
finishing the kit and had to buy some

New bottle in hand I completed the model however my experience of the

sprayer is that it has a very inconvenient tendency to splatter when you
want it to mist.

Something I tried along the way was to put the Scenic Cement into an
ordinary sprayer that I obtained for a couple of quid from a garden centre.
This worked much better however my cries of "Eureka!" were fairly short
lived because when I came to use it again the following day it had clogged
up and was destined for the trash can. Perhaps another garden sprayer,
rinsed out between uses, is the answer. As I said, I now have another
bottle of Scenic Cement and will report back if/when I find a better way of
applying it.

Hob-e-Tac Adhesive
While we're an the subject of adhesives, I'll also say a few words about
Hob-e-Tac adhesive starting with: I don't like it.
I used it to stick the track down and sprinkled ballast onto it and it will
hold scatter materials that are so applied, but it's not great. It will of
course only grip the scatter material that comes into good contact with it
so you still need to apply Scenic Cement. It's also the case that while it's
easy enough to apply to large areas it's rather more difficult to apply in
smaller amounts. It's also used to attach clump foliage to tree armatures
and to attach field grass but as I'll explain later, I wasn't impressed with
it's ability to do either. In fact the only thing that it was any good for was
to stick down clump foliage that was being used as bushes.

Talus & Ballast

The
instructions
suggest that
you can apply
the scatter
materials in
any order and
if fact there's
probably some
mileage in
switching back
and forth. I
chose to apply
the talus first
as I was
concerned that
I might need
to add
additional Earth
Color pigment
to match it in
with the plaster
rocks. I didn't
because I'd
already
succeeded in

my effort to match my treatment of the rocks to the talus.

Ballast is one of those weird model making products that looks right even
though it's way out of scale. Given that I'd displaying a HO gauge train
each of these pieces of ballast would be as big as a man's fist in my scale
world; but it looks good, so who cares?
There's not really a much else I can say about these products; they do
what they're supposed to and look good. I said above that I manage to
blast them with the sprayer and my recommendation is to use a pipette (a
plastic drinking straw will do), to apply drops of the glue to things like
talus and ballast rather than spraying.

Turf
The kit contains six different colours and textures of turf. The suggested
technique is to apply Green Blend Blended Turf first (there is more of this
supplied than any of the others), and then use the other colours for
accenting. The image below shows the model at this stage i.e. after the
application of accenting colours but prior to the application of bushes and
scrub.

The kit has good quantities of each product and although I used most of
the Green Blended Turf, I have enough of the accenting colours left over
to do another half dozen models of this size. Various application
techniques are described and tips are given about what colours to use on
which areas. In a nutshell: you use darker greens in hollows and places

where you'd get a good amount of moisture and more yellowy colours
where it would tend to dry out. The "Woodland Scenics Way" is basically
to keep on sprinkling until you're happy with it and then spray it with glue
to fix it.
I have used Woodland Scenics Turf before and I like it. I really like the
Woodland Scenics method of applying the material and then spraying it. If
I can just find a decent reliable way of spraying the glue...

Trees - Armatures
The Woodland Scenics tree armatures were something of a surprise to me.
Of course I'd seen them before, looking all flat and kinda plasticy brown in
their packets, and wasn't at all inspired to give them a try, but they really
are a delight to use. The plastic is kind of weird in that when you bend
and twist it, it stays exactly where you put it. I'd also anticipated that I'd
probably want to paint them but found that, after bending them to shape,
they caught the light in an entirely different way to when they were flat,
such that they no longer looked like brown plastic and didn't need paint. I
did find that the Scenic Cement made them a bit glossy but a coat of matt
varnish soon sorted that out.

Trees - Clump Foliage

I've used this stuff before for bushes and scrub and it works great for that
purpose. Using it to make trees was a new and not entirely pleasant
experience. I love the end results, but not the method.

I mentioned before that there are some instructional videos on Woodland

Scenics own site and you might be interested to note the following points
about the one on making trees:
1. After applying the glue the guy sets it aside to dry while he proceeds
with one that he did earlier. At the top of the process it describes the
process as "Fast and Fun". I found that it takes a couple of hours for the
Hob-e-Tac adhesive to dry. I guess my definition of fast is different to
theirs.
2. The guy then dips the armature into a tray of clump foliage. Have a
guess whether or not that is likely to achieve even coverage. If you
guessed "not" then my experience agrees with you.
3. Observe how carefully he puts the trees down and take a guess whether
those little dabs of glue on the ends of the branches are going to hold the
foliage, or whether it'll all start falling off in a few minutes?
Now in fairness, with
relation to the last point,
the written instructions
do suggest to give it a
good spraying with
Scenic Cement to fix it
all in place. However the
image to the left shows
what it, in my
experience, a typical
morning after scene. As
you can see, quite a bit
of the foliage has fallen
off and there are ends of
branches showing.

Of course the wayward clumps can be reattached with more Hob-e-Tac

adhesive and I found that after 2 or 3 reattachment sessions and 3 or 4
applications of Scenic Cement the three trees that I used in the train
scene were pretty robust. Not sling 'em in a rucksack and haul them down
to your gaming venue kind of robust, but robust enough that they'll stand
being nudged when placing figures near them.
Fast? Fun? I thought not
so I asked on the
TerraGenesis forum,
scoured the Internet for
information, and bought
another pack of trees in
a bid to figure out a
better way of doing it,
and here, I think, is the
answer:
The tree in the image to
the right took about 15
minutes to make, and
that's from bending the
armature to having the
clump foliage SECURELY
in place. As you may
already have guessed, I did it by dabbing thick superglue onto the ends of
the branches and applying clumps of foliage one at a time. Additional
clumps can then be added by sticking one clump to another with more
dabs of superglue.

Poly Fiber
This was another surprise product because I really didn't like the look of it
in the pack and thought I might leave it off. However I figured that the
whole point of the kits was to give the things a try, and I'm glad I did.
In the pack it looks, well, how can I put this politely, erm, pants? It
doesn't look a whole lot better when you pull off a piece and tease it apart
as directed in the instructions. The situation improves somewhat after
applying it to the model, spraying it with glue, and pressing it down. As it
begins to hug the ground it starts to look rather interesting and after
sprinkling on some fine turf:

A pair of nail scissors came in very handy for snipping off wayward
strands and made it look much more plant like. I think the results speak
for themselves and I'll definitely be using this stuff again.

Field Grass
This was another surprise item. I've used it before and liked it however
that was with terrain that had a polystyrene substructure and only the
thinnest coating of plaster. The Woodland Scenics instructions say to get a
bunch of hairs, dip them into glue, and apply them to the model. That

doesn't really work for me because I think that the clumps end up looking
too tightly packed. I had been used to laying a few hairs onto the surface
and punching them into it using a specially shaped needle (made by
cutting a sewing needle across the eye to make a forked end). While this
punching method works great on polystyrene, it clearly wasn't going to
work with a layer of plaster as thick as that created here. In the end I
resorted to 'planting' the hairs one at a time by dipping them into a drop
of superglue and placing them where I wanted them to go. Laborious, but
worth it I think.
Another aspect of this stuff were I disagree with Woodland Scenics is that
they suggest cutting the hairs to length before adding them to the model.
In my experience this makes them hard to handle so I applied longer
lengths and trimmed them down with nail scissors when the glue had
dried.

Additional Details
The loco and figures are not
part of the kit of course but
just in case you are
wondering:
The body of the Loco was an
eBay bargain and I mounted it
on a chassis and bogies that I
made up using a Dapol kit of
a Deltic. I had to shorten the
chassis by about an inch and
mess about with a few other
things; so it's not accurate
however it satisfies my
memories of these things
thundering past on the train
line near where I grew up.
The figures (shepherd, dog,
sheep, deer, fox, and hare are
from two Noch kits which I
also obtained from ecScenics.
I repainted them because
although they come ready
painted they were not quite to
my liking (the shepherd had
buttons on his waistcoat that stood out like sore thumbs and the sheep
were a bit too 'yellow' for my liking. Much better though than the
alternative of having an ork herding squigs.

Conclusion
If you've read all of the above rather than just skipping down to the
conclusion you'll already be aware that I liked pretty much all of the
materials with the exception of the Lightweight Hydrocal and the spray

bottle. The kit is a great way to try them all and could easily be converted
to depict anything from a military diorama to a band of dwarves and
hobbits setting out on a quest for dragon's gold.

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