After a LOT of trouble...

... I've got the scenery ready! My friends, I want to apologize for jumping from a raw base with no vegetation to the fully painted scenery. The reason for it? A TON of trouble during the painting process. 

I was doing everything "by the book" per my usual style, and every technique worked as it should... but somehow, nothing worked together! The ground was too greyish, the grass too vivid, the tree bark was almost the same color as the ground... pretty much the only thing that looked good from the beginning were the rocks in the creek! 

So there was a lot of repainting and experimenting. For example, I completely repainted the tree bark with pure grey tones. Oh, did I mention that the exposed wood was another thing that clicked right after my first try? 

I tweaked the tone of the ground with an airbrush and dark yellow paint. The grass was resprayed several times with very diluted tones, just to change its color a little. I also added loose sea grass on the ground along with some fine leaf scatter, held in place with Gravel and Sand Fixer. This was then resprayed as well. 

Some withered leaves on the ground, because these are always present in the forest, and I was ready for paper vegetation. Now this is the step that truly transformed the scene, and it was so much fun. I kinda struggled with paper plants in the past, especially the painting stage, but here I think I found a good method. It's actually the same principle as painting stowage! I base coated every plant with a mixture of black and brown, and then applied vivid green tones on top of it. The shadow undercoat makes a world of difference. I found it best to apply the dark coat while the plants are still attached to the paper "frame", and paint the actual colors once they're placed in the scene. 

I had to take a few quick reference images outside and in the forest to get a better idea about the thick undergrowth, and I'm quite pleased with the result so far! 

Now I'd like to focus on the turret so I can implement it into the scene and pour some resin into the creek bed! 

Have a great weekend, my friends!