Basic Scenery Making Guides
Here I will just go through a few tips regarding making scenery pieces. This information comes mainly from my own experience of model making and will hopefully help you make your own pieces.
1) Use of Knives
First of all I would like to remind all of you to be careful using knives when crafting and cutting. It is easy to forget that they are dangerous and can hurt you when you become accustomed to using them so do try not cut your fingers off.
2) Priming Wood and Polstyrene
When making scenery with wood or polystyrene it is a good idea to prime them. Priming wood with mixture of PVA glue and water before gluing helps it to stick to the surface you are gluing it to, it also helps paint stick to it later on. Prime polystyrene with PVA and water before you cover it in papier mache as this helps the kitchen/toilet paper stick to the polystyrene.
3) Before you Papier Mache your model
Before covering your model with papier mache but after you have assembled it, it helps sometimes to sand down the rough edges with some fine grit sandpaper to help the papier mache stick to it better, and to remove any odd lumps of polystyrene that shouldn't be there.
4) Once the model is painted
Once the model has been made assembled and painted you can help protect your work by using a sealant. I tend to use a very slightly watered down bit of PVA glue and coat the while thing. Do note that this may make the surface a little shiny.
5) Imagination
Do not feel that your models must abide by the ordinary laws of nature or look like they would in real life. You can create something truly unreal and as long as you stick to what you want and focus on doing a good job of it then there is a good chance that it will turn out fine. The Dark Stone that I made was not originally intended to be red/purple but rather a more sandstone colour, but at the last minute I changed my mind because it 'felt' right to use Crimson.