This is my most recent project, in which I wanted to capture a typical fountain of the many that we see in the colonial patios, squares, gardens and magical towns of my country.

For us Mexicans, fountains are places of rest and relaxation, ideal for place pots and a endless number of plants or flowers that highlight the natural environment of the place, they are in turn small oases in this so digital world

The most important thing about this project were the plants, which were a very fun and enriching process, which I will describe below.

The first thing I had to do was the pots, however these were the most laborious part, because I could not find a set on the market that would be useful to me and at the same time compatible with the 1/24 scale, so I need to sculpt them in epoxy clay  and then make a mold  of them and make the copies in resin.

Once I had the necessary copies, I painted them using the terracotta color of the Politec brand, which has the exact tone, in addition to leaving a texture equal to clay, however to give it even more detail,  I apply some brushstrokes of diluted rust tones  pigments. in normal water, which once dry  achieve a perfect terracotta finish.

Only 2 of the pots were painted with a type of elaboration very characteristic of Mexico: The talavera, which can be seen reflected in multiple bluish patterns, or multicolored drawings captured on a bright white surface. This talavera technique is something very common here in my country and can be seen in mosaics, handicrafts, and of course in pots, which gives an even more personal and colorful touch to the project. To do this I had to paint some patterns and flowers with a brush on a completely smooth surface previously painted with glossy white and varnished with a transparent gloss, this took a lot of time but in the end the result was as  I expected.

Once I had all the necessary pots, I went to look in my cellar and in the market everything that could help me to  make a striking and realistic variety of plants and flowers, fortunately I found several useful elements, which turned this part more into the simple one, although laborious, in which I invested more time since I dedicated myself to looking and photographing real flowers, which gave me the necessary reference to know how to arrange and paint my plants in the most accurate way possible in order to achieve an unique realism.

The plants I use are divided into various materials: Resin, Paper, Photo Etched, Nature treated and Synthetic fibers. Next I will talk about the process of each material.

Resin.

In this case I only used resins to represent the violets, the first thing I did was sculpt a violet flower in epoxy clay and then make a mold to produce  the necessary resin copies, once the copies were made, I painted them using acrylics in different tones and purple lights, the green leaves on the other hand were made by die cutter on normal green paper, and then decolorized using colored pencils and watercolor washes.

Paper:

Clovers, Daisies, Dandelions, Ferns and heart tonge are interesting products made by Ammo Mig and the Japanese brand Kamizukuri, which are completely laser cutted  with the most  finest design on common paper, assembled and painted It is simple but requires the necessary time and total patience to be able to obtain the required realism when assembling and placing them one by one in each pot.

Painting them is extremely easy, Ammo Mig’s already come in a very well achieved green tone paper, but even so you have to color sheet by sheet using colored pencils of different shades of green, some washes of acrylic paint or watercolor. In the case of ferns, the leaves were painted in a light green underneath and a stronger green At the top stems then I have  to paint the stems  in a dark Brown line  and start folding leaf by leaf from that line to give it a quite striking realism, simulating the natural fall of each bouquet or stem is the most important thing.

On the other hand, the kamizukuri ones need to be colored 100%, for them first I apply a base coat of diluted Vallejo olive green acrylics for use in airbrushing, with a subtle pass the entire sheet will be painted and then I do the same  detailing process with the pencils and watercolors.

Once we have the leaves painted, now it only remains to assemble them one by one and apply the necessary folds to simulate the natural fall of the stems, petals and branches, for this we must be very careful since applying more than the necessary force will only achieve the paper unnaturally bending or tearing.

Photo etched.

The little sunflowers are the only set that I use as a photo etched, the truth is I did not have much hope of obtaining a very natural result from a PE set of since in the end you also have to fold sheet by sheet and petal by petal to be able to replicate the naturalness said plant. However, with a little patience and a lot of care, it was possible to fold leaf by leaf and color the flowers in such a way that the “stiff” element of the metal is completely lost, I really highly recommend PE plants sets after this experience. , in this case use one of the royal models brand

Nature treated:

Taking advantage of the fact that I went to photograph gardens and real plants, I was lucky to find several natural elements, which I once treated with chemicals and glycerin, were perfect to be used as scale elements. The treatment process is somewhat time consuming, but once all the moisture has been removed and a preservative such as glycerin has been applied, the leaves and twigs are sure to never lose their green color or rot when used.

 Synthetic fibers:

These are undoubtedly the simplest, using electrostatic grass and pre-painted sponges, you can do some interesting things, just a little white glue and that’s  all we have something similar to chives, tea plants, or clouds flowers.

In order to adhere the plants to the pots,  I use Vallejo’s Tick Mud product, especially Russian mud , which gives an excellent wet soil finish.

In the end, it turned out to be a work of about 12 weeks of elaboration, in which I used for the first time several elements and techniques that I had never dared to use before in previous projects or dioramas.

I must admit that it was a very fun and very relaxing process, which allowed me to get out of the confinement of this pandemic a bit and made me enjoy the appreciation and beauty of natural elements such as flowers and plants, which many times we stopped. side in our urbanity.

I hope you liked my work and that above all it encourages you to involve more plants and flowers in your dioramas and vignettes.

Believe me, you will  not regret