# New photobase being built...



## agentsmith (Mar 27, 2005)

Here are two pics of my new photobase I am building.

This is some of the cheap ''bottle brush'' style of trees I bought earlier this year, I was not going to use these trees but have no choice now due to lack of funds so I tried brushing on some white glue on the trees and sprinkled some fine turf on them and it made a big improvement on how they look. 
Below on the left side is how the trees look after the fine turf has been added, the trees on the right are how they look out of the bag.









Below is the actual photobase as it looked after the groundwork was added and some dark brown spots painted on. In this pic you can see the size of this thing.








The green fine turf has now been glued on and is drying, I will start putting the trees in tomorrow. About 30-40 trees will be added to one side of the photobase. My plan is to be able to use this photobase from three different angles to have some variety in the pics of my models.

Agentsmith


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## machgo (Feb 10, 2010)

You did a very nice job on the trees--I always dig your cool dioramas!


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## agentsmith (Mar 27, 2005)

Thanks machgo!

I did a mock up of how the photobase might look after the trees will be put in place and took a few test pics, the trees themselves will look okay but the fine turf I used for the grass looks very fake, its too uniform looking. It was getting dark when I took the test pics of the mock-up so maybe it is not as bad as I first thought, I will try again tomorrow.

Agentsmith


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## roadrner (Jul 21, 1999)

Great start! Bring on the vehicle. :thumbsup: rr


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## agentsmith (Mar 27, 2005)

Thank you roadrner!

This thing is now finished and here are some test pics. These pics were taken on a very dark overcast day and are not that good but gives you an idea what this new photobase looks like.
I added about 40 trees on one side to represent the edge of a small forest, the other sides were left open, my plan is to be able to use this photobase for taking pics from different angles to give more variety to my model pics.

This first test pic was taken from the front of the photobase looking straight on at the tree line. Because there are only two rows of trees the space behind them looks to bright and empty to look like a forest, I plan to paint another backdrop to better match this new photobase, the new backdrop will have a solid line of trees airbrushed on it.









This pic was taken from the left side of the photobase, the Me 262 seen in this pic and the one above is the old Monogram 1/48 scale Me 262.









The pic below was also taken from the left side, the Me 262 in this pic is in 1/72 scale.









Agentsmith


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## gunn (Sep 30, 2002)

looks great.
i make the bottle brush trees. there really easy to make and alot of fun to do.
i had bought a model rail road book a couple years ago that had a how to in it. on making trees.


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## agentsmith (Mar 27, 2005)

Thank you gunn!

After I reworked the 'bottle brush' trees they actually looked better than the Heki ready made trees, one thing I liked about the Heki trees is their size, they were big enough for what I had in mind.
I may add more trees to this photobase later on, I will wait until I can get some test pics of it in sunlight to get a better idea what changes I want to make on it.

Agentsmith


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## Medic17 (Jul 25, 2010)

great job! I really like what you did with the trees !


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## agentsmith (Mar 27, 2005)

Thanks Medic17!

The sun will be out for a couple of days and I intend to get some pics of the photobase in sunlight for the first time, I might post a couple of them later this week.

Agentsmith


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## Jafo (Apr 22, 2005)

looks great!


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## agentsmith (Mar 27, 2005)

Thank you Jafo!

Once I airbrush a new backdrop to better match this photobase I will like how this one looks...without the new backdrop this new photobase is barely usable.
When I find another job and have some spending money I do plan to make one more photobase with a camouflaged field hanger in it.

Agentsmith


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## Dadvball (Feb 2, 2001)

Very nice job on your dio and the trees look great! Pics came out great but the black & white one is my favorite.


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## agentsmith (Mar 27, 2005)

Thank you for the comments Dadvball!

The sun is out today and I will take more test pics in a few hours and post a couple of them. The pics seen in this thread so far were taken under poor lighting conditions and I had to lighten the pics a lot for them to show any details, this photobase should look better in sunlight.

Agentsmith


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## agentsmith (Mar 27, 2005)

Here are some new pics of the photobase, this time the pics were taken in sunlight and they look a little better. I still need to make a new backdrop to match this photobase but that is easy to make and not a problem.

The Bf 110G is the old 1/48 scale ProModeler kit built a few years ago.

























The aircraft seen in the two pics below is the 1/72 scale He P1078.

















Agentsmith


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## Jafo (Apr 22, 2005)

the mottle on the 110 is sublime!


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## agentsmith (Mar 27, 2005)

Thanks Jafo,
Both of the models were painted with my Badger 100G airbrush with the fine needle and head assembly. Paints used were Model Master enamels.

Agentsmith


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## starduster (Feb 12, 2006)

That photo base looks really good, you did a great job Agentsmth, I did a diorama some years ago using a method to make trees from an old Model Railroader article from a mister Jack Work, and being an old O scalier modeler
the trees came out great using only electrical wire and badged colored flocking from the train store, and I used those trees you have as well kinda mix and match. you have a good eye for details and those B&W photos really give the models a realistic feel to them, thanks for the photos. Karl


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## agentsmith (Mar 27, 2005)

Thanks Karl,
I really admire all the details that I see in model RR layouts, the trees and groundwork look so much better than what I can do. That would be great to be able to make trees like you had described, I bet they looked very nice.

I do have a tree starter kit that I bought a while back that comes with everything needed to make about 15 trees and do plan to use them as part of a new photobase featuring a camoflaged field aircraft hanger, that project will have to wait for a while intil I find another job.

Agentsmith


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## starduster (Feb 12, 2006)

One more feature that I did was to paint a back drop using Bob Ross's method for painting his pictures and that also did a lot for the models too, but you have done a great deal of inspiring work with what you have done so far and your work is top notch. Karl


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## agentsmith (Mar 27, 2005)

Thanks once again Karl.
I find painting the backdrops are a lot of fun to do but like building models it does take practice to improve. I use large foamboard sheets for my backdrops and it works great but the place where I was buying the foamboard from went out of business and I have not found another source yet but would like to get more of them for painting practice.

Agentsmith


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