large area hill and bush

styrofoam or green florists foam can be sculpted to give you your base.
If you use the white foam like you see used in packing or as insulation (works witht he pink and blue foam insulation too) you can pick it up from Home Depot or Lowes in large sheets. This comes in everything from 1/2" to 3" thick depending on the application. Most of it is 3/4"-1". Cut your shapes and build it up in layers like a topographic map. Then take a wire brush and "scrape" the sculpture smooth. Go easy because its pretty fragile stuff and you'll gouge furrows in it if you get carried away..

Liquid nails makes an adhesive that is used specificaly for foam applications. Squirt some out on your foam and set the piece down. Let it sit for a minute or two and then pull it up, let the air hit it and reset it. It will hold firm.

After its set you can smear on your ground work. Celuclay or plaster or a combination of the two works fine. Then proceed with your normal ground work.

If you are going to use a petroleum base thinner as a wash on your ground work, be sure that the foam is covered or sealed. It will eat the foam away and you'll be left with a sink hole. While not bad for Florida diorama, not good for a mountain side in Italy. Unless you're modeling big bomb craters or volcanoes....But then there is little control so.... I use Acrylic paint for this and have no problems with bad reactions with the foam.

Americana is a great paint for this. Comes in more colors than Tamiya and Humbrols combined and sells for $1 for 2 oz of paint. You can find it in craft stores. I use it for painting residential murals and have switched over to using it for weathering and dry brushing as well as for ground work, Great stuff.

The green florist foam comes in big blocks and can be sculpted similarly. It is a finer foam and has the advantage of breaking into dust when you work it, As opposed to the white styrofoam that becomes electrostatic snow and ends up everywhere. While great for decorating the dogs it is a pain in the neck otherwise. The green foam is good for inserting trees and shrubs or architectural elements.

You could take a kesson from the train guys and use blocks, framework, chickenwire and plaster cloths...but why?

Mike

with Mike but i use pva glue to hold down the styrofoam and florists foam and then I go over it with pre made up pollyfiller or make up a batch of plaster of paris I then seal the top coat with watered down pva glue then undercoat with a cheep spray can of green or brown.

You can also cover the foam with strips of newspaper, then spray a coat of dilute PVA, Elmers, from a spray bottle.

This saturates the paper, which then conform to the foam beneath, before setting solid after a couple of days.

Best of all it's cheap!

Karl