I Went Down To The River …

… Studying about that good ol’ way …

The ancient Boltorr Brook is now reduced to an overflow from the Boltorr Reservoir. Consequently, at this point it’s fairly deep in the middle, but otherwise pretty lazy.

After passing over the dam and other water works it progresses under the Boltorr embankment and eventually, one assumes, well, at least in my universe, becomes a minor tributary of the Tamar.

Dartmoor streams generally cut themselves through the layer of peaty soil, sometimes exposing an underlying granite pavement, and are often bordered by an honour guard of weathered, grey boulders.

This is a characteristic I hope to render on my little bit of Devon in the United States.

At the moment I’m just trialling the application of static grass and other meadow-like features.

I was very pleased with my initial experiments on the embankment and just couldn’t stop myself seeing what could be done on the river bank.

I used a mixture of sizes of Woodland Scenics’ Talus rocks. Grey seems to work well representing granite, the rock of Dartmoor, although I’ll probably add a bit of definition – lichen, moss, strata, inclusions – with weathering powders later on.

I spread some PVA glue on the banks of the river course and arranged a random selection of “boulders” bearing in mind some are going to be submerged when “water” is eventually added to the scene. I find that Elmer’s Glue-All is a useful adhesive for landscaping. It’s virtually invisible when it’s set and dilutes well for delicate work.

I then prepared the ground behind the river bank with wet-water and spread a thin layer of Noch’s Grass-glue over the area I wanted to treat.

I used the static applicator to apply a sparse layer of 6mm grass concentrating around the boulders . Then I followed it up with a more concentrated application of 2mm fibres.

I think the images show the results well, although the adhesives are still showing up white. The glues clarify and become virtually invisible as they dry.

The images show the area before I cleaned up any loose fibres lying around. I placed a couple of grass tufts in the scene, but they’re a bit too spring season like, so they’ll be replaced with some more appropriate toned back colour soon.