GROUND FORCE

Nick’s use of scatter to form ground cover is particularly effective. “I mix about ten different types of scatter material,” he explains. “I’ll use scatter from a variety of manufacturers and of different sizes, grades and colours, too. “I mix up a large batch in a sealed plastic bag, which I’ll shake before use. I always make sure I’ve got some of the mixture left over, which I use for repairs. I’ll also modify the mix here and there by adding more of a certain colour or grade to vary the mix - ground cover is never completely even.” ‘Molinnis’ is home to a staggering amount of trees, and Nick makes it

abundantly clear he was never going to scratchbuild them all. “The trees at the back are from The Model Tree Shop. There’s about 100 trees, so I decided I wasn’t going to scratchbuild all of those,” he laughs. Nick has made sure to clump trees closely together in order to simulate the thick density of many British forests. Some of the trees in the foreground are built from various commercial tree armatures, and others from sea moss. Nick uses various scatter materials to represent leaves, with fine scatter reserved for sea moss trees and thicker clumps of flock for larger armatures.