Malayan Emergency 1/35 scale.

[JR]

Thanks John, I hope the experiment works out. According to SWMBO it's a Calathea. She has the other broader leaf of the family as well. Regarding the rambutans yes you have the texture of the flesh right. The Cantonese call it Hong Mo Tan or red hairy egg but if you say it quickly it can be mistaken for English egg or white man's egg...go figure that out.


I hope so too Jim, trying to vary the look of the fall of the water is tricky. They're beautiful when they all bloom in th hundreds in a pond or lake.

Cheers,
Richard

Will you thanks the Good Lady please Richard, it is indeed a ,member of the same family of plants, I bet shes has great success with your climate . We have to grow then indoors. Funny after all those years I still remember the texture.

 

[rtfoe]

Will you thanks the Good Lady please Richard, it is indeed a ,member of the same family of plants, I bet shes has great success with your climate . We have to grow then indoors. Funny after all those years I still remember the texture.

I'll pass on the thank you via a text message later...she got me to replant the Calathea and move pots again when I asked her about it. Venturing into the garden while she's there is a boobytrap.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[JR]

I'll pass on the thank you via a text message later...she got me to replant the Calathea and move pots again when I asked her about it. Venturing into the garden while she's there is a boobytrap.

Cheers,
Richard

Oh dear sorry I asked

 

[rtfoe]

No worries John, I have ways to avoid gardening. Anyways, as I said once the Olympics is over I have time to work on the dio so this is what was done today. Sorry no pouring yet but more painting and adding bits to the stream bed...

I added some more longer water weeds leading from under the bridge and twisted and turned them to follow the currents... I'm hoping those masks for the bridge legs will be easy to remove after the pouring as they look stuck solid.



Besides the weeds at the waterfall I added more stones...



Comparison of it after coloring...the shadows and highlights are painted in and not from lighting.



Unfortunately the camera didn't capture the added tones to the stones and sand. I varnished the stones where water would have splashed on and soaked the whole bed in white glue and left it to dry. I took the opportunity to dip the clear sheets in Future to get rid of scratches from the drill bit.



So while the stream bed dries I worked on the four corners of the stone heads for the bridge using dense polystyrene, cut, measured and carved out the brick work with a sharp needled tool.



This is the result I got from the first stone head. Later I used rough stone to press rough detail onto the brick work surface and then I will coat it with household white emulsion paint as a primer and to waterproof it.



That's as far as I got and still scribing the other three stone heads.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[scottie3158]

Richard,
All looking very nice mate.

 

[rtfoe]

Thanks Scottie, I'm just about to turn in. G night.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Jim R]

Hi Richard
Stream bed just gets better and better. I hope you're right about those masks for the bridge supports. I imagine a new blade in a scalpel could sort it anyway. Good forward planning to "splash the rocks".
Jim

 

[rtfoe]

Thank Jim, good thing I used balsa as part of the masking so that would easily be carved out with a sharp blade as you mentioned. Still can't pour as I'm finding suitable roots that will overhang the banks including tall grass and bushes. Appreciate you spending time to comment.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[rtfoe]

Hi,
This is how it's gonna be. I've actually glued the ends down and will paint in situ.



The polycraft glue I bought at the Japanese pound shop is pretty strong and will get some more once the lockdown is relaxed.
The bridge is crying out for paint and weathering. We'll see if I get to add oyster mushrooms growing out of the woodwork...nah won't go that detailed.



Not much done today, still sorting out the roots.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[rtfoe]

Hi, this one's for John...

Doing some scrounging in the little garden and saw that my passion fruit plant has sprouted some flowers so decided to take some shots to see if you recognise any of the other plants as well.

Here is the satellite dish looking passion fruit flowers... The rest of the plants are in thumbnails.

This ones a special cat plant...
Oops...hit the twentieth file...next page.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[rtfoe]

Just four more plants...

Apparently SWMBO like air plants...

Hope you can name some of them as I don't know what the heck they are apart from the passion fruit.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[Jim R]

Hi Richard
Bridge is looking good. Living in the tropics certainly provides a lot of very exotic looking plants.
Jim

 

[rtfoe]

Hi Richard
Bridge is looking good. Living in the tropics certainly provides a lot of very exotic looking plants.
Jim

Thanks Jim, apparently some of these tropical plants can be exotically poisonous.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[JR]

Hi Richard, liking the work on the river bed, as to removing those plugs for the bridge have you one of those extremely small Tamiya Chisels. Ive got a really small one and its great for cutting down into sections of timber like balsa.
As to the plants, I can see a Prayer Plant, Air roots plant, a variegated what looks to be a Geranium, its there a Chinese Good Fortune plant as well.

This remined me of the white flower of one of the jasminoides . But there are so many its hard to pin it down. The good lady has a great collection and i'm full of admiration .

 

[rtfoe]

Thanks John, you've named so many I have no idea which one you're referring to. you have a good eye for plants and yes you spotted the Good Fortune plant but not so good fortune if you are in contact with the sap...very exotic results will happen and we've tied it up so the cats don't get at it through the mesh. Ya SWMBO will point out occasionally that this one is hard to get and that one is hard to grow until she swears that it's so dead and they miracuosly perk up. She's into leafy plants and slowly is venturing to those that flower.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[rtfoe]

Hi all,
To keep my mind off the recent Victor tragedy I've spent the day adding more weed to the stream and sealed up the gate dams for the resin pour...

I secured the clear biscuit waterfall units with Uhu then made the ruddy mistake of using Gesso to fill up the gaps. It didn't dry fully clear so add more rocks and used white glue this time to plug up the gaps...



Some tall grass or reeds were added sparingly...



...as were the water weeds along the sides of the waterfall.



Using polymer plastic strips cut to size I proceeded to glue the gate dams with white glue and strengthen the joint with Tamiya masking tape.



The extra glue that oozed out was left to dry on the reverse side but touched up on the inside.



Same application for the other three spots.



Once the glue has set I'll mix up a batch of the resin for pouring with a little tinting of food colouring. The clear resin that I have takes about 24 hours to cure which will give time for all bubbles to rise and I can burst them with my lighter(...down John down...)

Fingers crossed.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[minitnkr]

Fantastic work.

 

[rtfoe]

Thanks Paul, hope it turns out the way I want it to.

Cheers,
Richard

 

[BigGreg]

Awaiting impatiently......

 

[JR]

Thanks John, you've named so many I have no idea which one you're referring to. you have a good eye for plants and yes you spotted the Good Fortune plant but not so good fortune if you are in contact with the sap...very exotic results will happen and we've tied it up so the cats don't get at it through the mesh. Ya SWMBO will point out occasionally that this one is hard to get and that one is hard to grow until she swears that it's so dead and they miracuosly perk up. She's into leafy plants and slowly is venturing to those that flower.

Cheers,
Richard

Top left very similar if not a prayer plant, next a Coleus with the coloured leaves.Thought the lower left was a Geranium, but know now its not.

Air plant.

And the good old

Monstera.

Your wife has a great collection Richard, having your climate for these is great, but don't envy you the humidity.

It would be nice to have more flowering types I agree.