Been a productive week, I planted almost 70 Supertrees (made from the Scenic Express kits) and have painted and ground-foamed almost 20 linear feet of backdrop. Yes, you read that right, ground foam on the backdrop.
I elected to use Woodland Scenics coarse turf in three colors to yield some 3-D texture to my backdrops. First I painted a silhouette of the mountains in the area I'm modeling using Google Streetview as a guide.....drafted a light pencil line to serve as a ridgeline and then used Apple Barrel acrylic Hunter Green craft paint available at Wal-Mart to paint the lower half of the backdrop up to the line. I then allowed this to dry overnight.
I buy the large shaker cans of Woodland Scenics Dark Green, Medium Green, and Light Green Coarse Turf, mix them in equal parts in a Tupperware bowl, and then use my thumb and fingers to apply it straight onto the backdrop a pinch at a time.. As an adhesive I use Elmer's white glue applied full strength with a 2-inch paintbrush. I apply about 12 to 14 linear inches of glue at a time over the mountain silhouette I painted the day before and proceed only when I have covered that with ground foam mix. It goes more quickly than you would think and you can do 3 to 4 feet in a session and then take a break. Once the glue has dried for a few hours I go back and apply Scenic Express ready-prepared Matte Medium with a small hairspray bottle (also available at Walmart for a whopping 99 cents each). The matte medium seals the ground foam and bonds it to itself, making it more resilient, and also serves to tone down the brightness of the colors somewhat.
It bears mentioning that I am modeling late Spring, if you wish to do this with another season, you will need to change the colors...darker greens for Summer, and Fall mix over a brownish grey silhouette for Autumn.
The pros to this approach is that it is easy, and you do not need to be an artist to have a good backdrop. Also, you can be guaranteed that your backdrop will match your foreground scenery provided you use the same ground foam on both. Cons: it is a bit slow, and requires a lot of ground foam. I expect to use 5 shaker cans worth total by the time I have completed my 10 x 15 foot layout. It also is not a good option if you like a lot of depth of field and/or detail in your backdrop.
All things considered, I am pleased with the effect.
