Forest pond

Well, well, well. Guess who's discovered the joys of resin?

Actually, I did my first resin pour last month as part of the cavern terrain I made for my goblins. And I still need to post those pics. But this was a bit more involved, what with actually having to paint it more than three colours and use lichen to simulate weeds.

Please excuse the crap photos. I had a hell of a time taking pics of this thing thanks to the resin reflecting the kitchen lights all over the shop.

I forgot to take a pic of the bare resin model, so here's a render nicked from the Etsy shop. Asgard Rising does a lot of really good fantasy stuff and this pond caught my attention. It's actually a base, not a piece of terrain, but it looks good painted up as a mysterious forest pond.

Here's the only WIP photo I took. I kicked off with a spray prime of black and once dry I hit the whole thing with a heavy overbrush of Rhinox Hide. I decided to focus on the stones first, giving them another heavy overbrush with Stone Grey and a wash with Nuln Oil. As stones in ponds and rivers tend to be different colours, I then had fun and games painting random stones with Blue Grey, Orange Brown, Eshin Grey and Khaki.

All the stones were given another wash with thinned Agrax Earthshade to define them a bit better and tone down their colours, and then they were given a light drybrush with Beige to tie them all together. A final wash with Athonian Camoshade and they were finished.

With the bed of the pond done it was time to hit the trees. More overbrushing, this time with Dryad Bark and then Dryad Bark and Mahogany Brown brought out all the gnarly details, and a much lighter drybrush with a mix of Khaki and Ash Grey finished them off nicely. All the wood was then given a once-over with some Seraphim Sepia to tie the colours together and I added some random splotches of Athonian Camoshade and Biel-Tan Green here and there to break up all the browns.

After giving the whole model a coat of matte varnish it was time to add some vegetation. I daubed on PVA glue and sprinkled my usual flock mix over it to add moss, and used some small tufts for plants. 

I wanted something sticking out of the water to add some more visual interest, so I used bits of lichen which were first painted with matte Mod Podge to stiffen them and then superglued in place on the pond floor. All the flock was sealed with thinned Mod Podge and left overnight to dry.

OK, time for the resin. This is the stuff I use:

It's just Michaels own-brand two-part resin and costs $20, which makes it one of the cheaper ones in the store. I bought a load of small plastic containers (the kind you get in delis) to mix the resin and it was pretty easy to do. I had to eyeball the amounts of resin and hardener I poured into the cup, and then I added a couple of drops of Coelia Greenshade wash and spent a good couple of minutes stirring it together with a lollipop stick. 

Pausing to promise the Dark Gods a suitable sacrifice if things went well, I began to pour the resin into the pond. It flows evenly and after filling the model at the left end I tilted the whole thing to let the resin run down into the right end and get into all the nooks and crannies. Once the resin had flattened out I poured in more, again moving the model around to make sure I got it where it needed to go. It looked just right, so I put it on my desk and placed a plastic bowl over it to keep off the dust and dog hairs.

The resin is supposed to dry in 24 hours and be fully cured in 72, so I just left it for three days. When I checked it the resin had dried solid and looked great. The Coelia Greenshade added just enough of a tint to give a slight blue-green look to the water, the lichen was sticking up nicely and the whole thing was, I have to say, awesome. There are a couple of small bubbles in the resin but I'm not too bothered as they just add more realism to the piece.

There were a few more details I wanted to add, so I got out some tiny mushrooms I bought a while back and painted them Corax White, Soft Tone and Off-White. The dragonfly is pretty much the smallest mini I've ever painted and it looks great. I painted it White and then used Wild Rider Red on its body and the world's gentlest drybrush with Fire Dragon Bright over its wings. Gluing it in place was fun and games, but happily it finally stuck where I wanted it to go. The mushrooms were stuck on and it was done. 

I don't like the leaves that are part of the 3D print as they're out of scale and why there's one maple leafe is beyond me, unless the modeler is from Canada. I'll use more flock to cover them over at some point.

Public service announcement

If your pot of Vallejo Gunmetal ever jams up, whatever you do get off your arse and find something to unblock it. Do not do what I did and just squeeze the bloody bottle until the above disaster happens. We live and learn.