Whitesands Quay Customs House rocks

A peek at the rockface.

Whilst most of the Whitesands Quay layout has been planned for many years the details don't actually get sorted out until I turn my attention to them. An example is the area behind the Customs House. It is in the curved corner on the right of the layout and will not be seen that well - but that is not an excuse for me to neglect it.

Using fir tree bark to model a rock face on Whitesands Quay

This week I had a small epiphany whilst out putting rubbish in the bins.. When I made the log store. I had to move a pile of larger trunk logs and put them next to what was to become the bin store (and had to move a couple again when I built the bin store...). These fir logs have an interesting bark on them and I could see they might make a good rock face. I have no idea what type of fir tree it was, before you ask.

I removed a chunk of the fir bark and took it inside to my modelling bench. After a bit of sawing and cutting I was able to fashion several pieces together to make a reasonably convincing rock race on the end of the section with the four back cottages. I had to cut back the foam a little, undercoated it and then I glued the pieces in.

The rock face at the end of the back row of cottages.

A few more pieces were fashioned and glued to the Customs House base to fill some gaps and more pieces were added to the right hand side of the module.

I also added a different type of bark, this time from pieces that had been shed by a nearby Douglas Fir. They are much thinner and look like shale rock strata and were placed behind and to the side of the Customs House.

Customs House base without the Customs House showing the new rock face on the left. Additionally another rock formation has been added to the right hand side.

Small walls

I constructed a couple of small walls using 3mm foam card and Scale Model Scenery TX220-OO Old Stone Wall Texture Paper. and added one at the end of the back cottage row and one to the small bluff to the right of the Customs House.

Small 3ft wall in the distance at the end of the back row of cottages alley.

Small 3ft wall to the right of the Customs House.

Painting the rock faces

I redid the undercoat, as I was not terribly happy with it, using black Mig One Shot primer applied with the airbrush. I then brush painted a medium grey followed with a sponge application of light grey. Then I applied an enamel dark wash over all areas to bring out details. Lastly I worked over certain areas with a variety of AK weathering pencils to add a few highlights and a small amount of lichen.

Rock surfaces painted and weathered.

Adding to the Whitesands Quay backscene

I like to add depth to certain views on this model and there are several gaps and alleyways between buildings leading to parts of the village further back. To provide a hint of what could be back there I have used vintage images of Cornwall. I go for the older ones so as not to date them which means they are in black and white. However with modern technologies now available I am able to colourise these4 quite quickly - though I also do a bit of retouching where needed.

Image of old Cornwall coloured and used as backscene.

This gives tantalising glimpses between the buildings in certain viewing positions.

A glimpse of the village between the buildings.

What next on Whitesands Quay?

Good question! No idea what part I am going to work on next. There is still some work to do in this area but for now I am pleased with progress.

By Simon Cox | | Modelling

Next post: Resin printed figures for Whitesands Quay

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