I decided to make a load for a log car that has been standing empty for a long time, waiting to be used for some purpose. The result turned out to look very realistic, if I can say so myself.

At first I had the idea of making a 3D model of a log pile and printing it, but then I decided that a model made from natural products would look better and take less time.

So, the creation process looked like this: I gathered dry reed outside, cut it into pieces of the required length, stuffed the ends with wood putty, smeared the tree trunks with it to have some rough texture, glued the logs together to form loads and piles, and painted them with acrylic paints.

Glueing first and painting later saved a lot of time, as otherwise I would need to do a lot more painting.

The trunks were painted with a mixture of Vallejo Burnt Umber and Vallejo Orange in various proportions.

The most tedious part turned out to be cutting all the trunks to required length so that the load fits into the wagon but is not too short.

The most difficult part however was making proper color for the cuts; I even had to repaint them a couple of times, because they looked either too bright, too dark, or too yellow. In the end I can’t even say exactly what mixture was used: something like "a lot of yellow, a bit of rust, a whole lot of water."

Photos of the process