A Simple Container of Flowers

2003-6-19

Tools And Materials
Fine paint brush
Paint (several bright colours eg. red, yellow, white, orange)
Nut (Look in that old box of nuts and bolts)
Small amout of children's modelling clay (I use green to simulate foliage)












1. First select a suitably sized nut for your scale. I model in OO gauge (1ft = 4mm). My nut is about 10mm diameter, that is 2ft 6in full size. That's just about perfect. See fig1

















2. Paint the nut an appropiate colour. I have chosen white, but you could use grey, terracota, green etc. Allow to dry. See fig2

















3. Take a small piece of modelling clay and fill your nut. Allow it to overflow over the sides to copy trailing plants. See fig3 Using the pointed end of your paint brush handle, gently scuff the surface of the clay. This gives a textured effect to the smooth surface.















5. Finally choose you flower colours and apply them to the clay. Load your brush with a small amount of paint. Apply as dots of various sizes at random. The same with the next colour and so on, until you have a blaze of colour. If the colours run into each other don't worry that adds to the effect. See fig4














The same method can be applied to any object you want to use as a container. I used some old plastic off cuts glued together and painted to make the long box container. If you come up with any ingenious ideas for containers let me know in the forum.









Don't forget, if you're looking for mor erailway tips and advice, pay a visit to David's website.