The first batch of the Sea House Warming Hut air-dry clay boulders are nice and dry. Mid-week, I saw that a crack had developed in the largest one, and got the idea to fill it with a quartz vein. I have this lovely pearl white acrylic, and if I mix it with some wood glue and load it in a syringe, I think it will behave convincingly. I’ll wait until I model, paint and salt all the boulders, though.

I know I’m not the only one to buy something because of the packaging. In this case, I had wanted to make domed skylights, and this container — of organic gala apples, no less — at the local big box store was ideal. Although the original project was sidelined, the cut-apart plastic is now making excellent bases for individual rocks. My landscape modeling compound of choice is Crayola Model Magic, and making the boulders hollow  saves a lot of cost.

The apples were very good, too.

Here is an action shot of a boulder in the making, and my dual purpose small metal ruler.

This is 8 ounces (226 g) worth of boulders and rocks — enough to populate the left side of the build. (You can also see my second-favorite multipurpose modeling tool: a silicone wine stopper.) I’ll let these guys dry for a day, then paint a first coat with the same taupe wash. I want to do the additional glazing and salt crystal sprinkling to all of the rock foundation at the same time. If all goes well this week, I’ll see time to continue my elemental play.

In other news, Christina, the winner of the Denise’s City Cottage kit provided by HBS/miniatures.com giveaway, contacted me and it’s on the way to her. Hopefully she’ll post about her build, too. I’m really enjoying seeing so many approaches, and as always, learning tonnes.

PS: I was FaceTiming with my two-year-old granddaughter, showing her the rocks I made from clay and the rest of the build-in-progress. She was listening and studying the screen very intently, then announced, “I want to go there.” Best appreciation ever.