Sand and Sea

For the two small beaches on Tredinnick Creek, photos of real beaches on the Camel Estuary were studied. During my last ramble in the area I hadn't specifically set out to photograph them, but luckily one photo gave me all I needed.  If you click it, you'll get a larger image.  Notice that, in the distance, the bracken comes right down to the sand; nearer the camera there is exposed rock, and on both the beach slopes quite steeply towards the water - far more than on beaches that face the ocean.

I roughly formed the rocks from bits of polystyrene ceiling tile, which I then covered in Polyfilla.  While this was still quite wet, rock strata was formed using an old tooth brush then, when dry, I gave it a couple of coats of light grey acrylic paint.  Finally, bits of the 'rock' were picked out in a darker grey.

The beach is simply a sheet of plastic card, set at an angle and sprinkled with fine sand from Portreath Beach.  Very dilute grey paint was washed over it to tone down the colour, so that it looked more like muddy estuary sand, rather than the golden sands of Portreath. In the photo it looks rather too coarse, but that's not so noticeable on the model.

To create the creek itself, the baseboard surface was first painted black, then the water colours built up by dabbing on and blending black, cerulean blue and white acrylic paint.  About a dozen coats of Mod Podge were then applied, allowing 24 hours between each so that they dried properly.  Finally, the whole lot was sealed with clear varnish.

Incidentally, I'd never heard of Mod Podge before seeing a 'how to do it' video on YouTube (since deleted).  However, like so much these days, the stuff is easily obtained from eBay.  There are several different sorts, though, so make sure you get the 'Gloss-Lustre' variety.