Rot n' Roll

My friends, the Beetle is finished and ready for a small scenic base! In this case it's quite necessary because, let's be honest, it sure does look a bit out of place like this, doesn't it? 

Adding the natural scatter and moss was the most enjoyable thing I've done in a VERY long time. You already know how much I enjoy moss and green grime from dioramas, and this was the perfect subject where I could feel like a child on a playground! 

I started in the interior, not only because most of it would be obscured, but also because I wanted to finally assemble the model. The floor was covered with fine earth (basically a powder or dust), dry leaf scatter, some twigs from tiny plant roots, and flooded with VMS Ballast Freeze. Once dry, I added blobs of PVA and sprinkled them with Woodland Scenics Fine Turf. Then I gave everything a coat of flat varnish and started painting - Ammo Earth was used to add some extra color to the ground scatter, and the moss was painted with Vallejo Golden Olive. Ammo Slimy Grime was then applied as a selective wash around the moss and blended, toning it down a notch. The wheel was painted completely with acrylics. 

The outside was the same, but here I had to apply the moss in a much thicker layer. This was done in multiple stages where I would apply large blobs of PVA, sprinkle, remove the excess, repeat. Then I started brushing the PVA over the moss, the moss would absorb it, and I would sprinkle more fine turf, slowly building up the volume. After a coat of flat varnish I didn't mess around with enamel earth here, just Golden Olive as a thick wash. This wasn't sufficient, though, so I airbrushed the moss with two mixtures of Tamiya Bright Green and Flat Yellow (look up Tamiya X-15, it's the happiest green you've ever seen), and this provided the oh so wanted richness and color gradation. Finally, slimy grime was again blended around the moss, creating a darker outline, but also providing a smoother color transition between the moss and the car. 

And that was pretty much it, now I can make a simple yet vivid forest scenic base! I think a circular shape would be great here as it would suggest that the model should be viewed from all directions. 

Honestly, rotten cars seem to be so much fun, I would definitely do this again!