This is the final part.

With the rocks and tree completed, now it’s time to coat the rest of the floral foam with celluclay. Mix up a batch of Celluclay paste using a little water, some matte medium and an earth color acrylic paint. Thoroughly mix this paste until there isn’t any white Celluclay showing. Do not add too much water; mix it to the consistency of oatmeal.

Figure 48 Celluclay paste tinted earth color with acrylic paint
At this point you should have already completed the tree. If not, you should go to the tree making session and complete the adding of tree limbs and painting of the tree now. When your tree is ready, position it on the base and secure it with Super Glue. Now spread the Celluclay paste over whatever green floral foam is still showing. Let the paste cover the edges of the rocks. Coat the sides and back of the base also. Let dry.

Figure 49 Spreading the celluclay paste over the base is like frosting a cake

Figure 50 base covered with Celluclay and tree roots added

If you find any white spots showing in the paste, or it is not the earth color you want, paint over the paste with a coat of the desired earth tone if necessary, and let this dry.
Once the Celluclay and any additional painting has dried, then dry brush the Celluclay with yellow ochre.

Figure 51 Celluclay drybrushed with yellow ochre

Figure 52 Back side of drybrushed base
Add the finishing touches with more groundwork items. Now it’s time to add dead leaves, greenery, grass, flowers, moss, etc. You can add moss going up the side of the tree and on the rocks. Deer hair makes nice shoots of tall grass. Some clumps of roots make nice small bushes. Add small amounts of these items all over as you would expect to find it in nature.
To add the dead leaf material, mix up a solution of water and matte medium. Add it to the leaves, getting the leaves completely covered with the solution, then using tweezers, add the leaves to the base in areas where leaves would gather.

Figure 53 birch seeds as dead leaves in matte medium paste

Figure 54 leaf litter added around base of tree

Figure 55 bring the leaf litter around to the back of the tree
Depending on the desired season, add flora to represent grass, flowers, bushes, moss and other items. I use a pointed tool to punch holes in the celluclay for the plant stems. I dip the ends of the plant into the matte medium solution and put it on the base. For moss growing on the rocks or up the tree trunk, paint some of the matte medium solution on the area then press the finely shredded green foam onto the wet solution.

Figure 56 green foam added to the tree to simulate moss

Figure 57 bringing the moss down onto the rocks and roots

Figure 58 adding more moss to the roots, and a little green oil paint wash to the rocks
Last add roots, extra limbs and last of all, the tree foliage. These need to be put on last so the additional limbs don't break.


Figure 59 deer hair added for tall grass, small bushes added, tufts of grass stuck next to rocks

Figure 60 small clump of azalea root added as bush behind tree, and additional roots added to fill out the tree branches

Figure 61 Silfor leaves added to tree. In this project, I used brown leaves for late fall. Silfor leaves come in many colors to represent the different seasons
With everything added, you can remove the tape. For me, it is now time to paint the figure who will stand under the tree.

Figure 62 the finished groundwork


For more samples of groundwork made with this method, please visit my facepage photo album.
I hope that you have learned something from this SBS that you can use in your modeling. If you ever get the chance to take a class from John Long, I highly recommend it. Not only is there more to learn in his class than I have presented here, but you will get many ideas from the other students because everyone will have a unique groundwork at the end of the class.
Thanks for looking at this SBS.

Nice (Although you nearly had me fooled by posting the parts of the SBS separately)

Thanks for taking the time to do a series of pictures as you went along too - really helpful

Please contact me if you have any questions.

This is the part I most wanted to see, to see how you use Celluclay. I've used it once, to make groundwork on a small wooden plaque base. As the Celluclay dried, it pulled away from the base, around the edges. If I were to use it again in that specific application--applied relatively thickly, for the actual piece of terrain--I think I'd add some white glue to the mix. But you've used it in the same way I use Elmer's wood putty--as a coating over a foam core, a coating that can be textured. I never thought about using Celluclay that way, and I'll have to try it myself.

Thanks for taking the time to put this whole series together, prosit!
Brad

Many thanks for an excellently descriptive set of tutorials.

Andrew

Following along Pete. Very nice job.

Thanks a lot for this great tutorial.

Thank you for putting together such an informative, well written and comprehensive tutorial. I learned a lot and will be coming back to this again to get inspiration.

Pete, I think this is the best SBS I've seen in a long,long time.

I am grateful - and will shamelessly copy it......