So time for an update!
I will start with the experiment. After the good results I had with my little test piece, I applied the hairspray only to my small tree to do a second test. I only applied it to the lichen, because as I said it made anything that had been painted glossy. I got good results with the tree test but I see absolutely no difference on the lichen itself. If has the exact same touch than what it was before I applied the spray. The only thing that it affected were the top parts of the branches that it hit.
So with this result I decided to not use hairspray. Maybe it´s just the spray I got (there were about 10 from which to shoos a the shop, so I had no idea of which one should I have taken), but it doesn´t work.
I also continued working on the next batch of trees. I added the smaller branches onto them but did not feel like applying the clay, and I thought it would be cool to have some variation within the trees, apart from dead empire men laying on the base. SO what I decided to do was to simulate that some trees were growing on rocks, so I started casting rocks using the woodland scenics rock mould and their lightweight hydrocal.
What I found out is first that I don´t know why I thought the plaster would dry in 45 minutes, and I was totally wrong

. I think it takes them 36 hours, but I leave them 48 in case. So obviously what I did was pull them out before they were set, so they broke in half and provably lost some detail. Even tough, they are usable and actually at the end turned out to look pretty nice, and a quite high level of detail (tough I think not as much as if I had let them dry properly). Some of them actually broke horizontally, which I can´t understand how did it happened unless it was a water layer. Anyways, I corrected myself and casted the next ones. I don´t know how they turned out yet but I´ll post some pictures when I get them out of the mould.
You can see what I meant with the horizontal division on the rock laying on the mould. I am reusing the broken bits I can´t fit anywhere, just turn them back to powder by smashing them and them just remix them. I am quite pleased at the moment even tough I screwed up on the first, but well, mistakes happen. Here´s a close pic of them.
They have some air bubbles but I think that´s because I didn´t wetter the mould before pouring the mix. I´ll see if the new ones have air bubbles as well.
Once the rock are in place I will start adding clay on them, my question is, do you guys want me to post the WIP pics of these trees, or should I just post other stuff (like my rocks experiments and other scenery stuff). I guess I will either continue the pathways at the same time as the trees or start with the river, I don´t want to bore you guys


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Well enjoy until the next post,
Jorgik