Production of San Pedro Fort and Island.

[Cmmdre]

Any Captain flying enemy colors would be nervous rounding this point.

[Bligh]

You ain't seen nothing yet Paul.
Rob.

[Dobbs]

Today the houses got painted and glued on, and the guns went into the fort.
Just waiting for a couple of coats of matte varnish overall to complete the job.

I was wondering about that. By matte varnish, do you mean clear matte spray paint? Don't your trees get soggy?

I was buying materials the other day, based on your list in another post, and when I got to the fine and coarse grit, I thought, "that's really coarse, I must have it wrong." When I got home, I saw your beaches, and thought, "should've bought the coarse grit!"

[Bligh]

Morning Dobbs.
I use any spray varnish I can. Used to buy Workshop matte varnish.That got too expensive, so I moved onto car spray. However, to ensure a real matte finish the top coat is always "Testors' Dullcoat." It ain#t cheap but does ensure a good finish and eliminates that white bloom you sometimes get in humid or very damp conditions.
Re sand and gravel, I use fine sand from railway model shops, plus as I said the two grades of ballast. For a point of interest, ie outliers, like the one off the tip of the fort, I look for a stone of larger dimension from the gravel surrounding my house and add that before the scatter of other rocks. Be careful not to overdo this effect, as it may detract from the main features. With all backgrounds of this sort, understated is better and slightly under scale, unlike with Model Railways, also helps especially when photographing your setup. It is after all mainly just fluff, unless you intend to fight over the terrain. To this end I use Langtons ships in harbour for two reasons. They are both undersized at 1200 scale, and can be supplied with furled sails or even just crossed yards.
Hope this helps you to a successful conclusion with your own project.
Any other queries just post here.
Now on with today's fort before I have to go fpr my yearly Asthma checkup. Life does sometimes get in the way of getting on with ones hobby don't you think?
Rob.