Birthday cake for outdoorsman

I made this cake for my dad's birthday. He loves to hunt and fish, and I wanted to try my hand at gum paste figures. I need lots more practice, but I was pretty pleased with the first attempt (Josh had to help me - he's a great play dough sculptor. Jack always wants him to play play dough with him instead of me!). I wanted to do camo fondant somewhere on the cake but couldn't get it to work right. The dirt is supposed to resemble Georgia red mud.

I made the deer, fish, hunter's head, and trees, and Josh made the ducks and the hunter's body. Because I didn't know how I wanted to color the hunter, we sculpted him in white gum paste and then painted him with gel food color. I wouldn't do that again - next time I'll tint first! The gel never dries and is sticky, plus it's shiny and is out of place on the rest of the cake.

The fish and the trees are my favorites! The trees are sugar cones covered in green royal icing using a leaf tip (can't take credit for the idea, found it on the internet). The fish is painted gum paste instead of tinted, but on a small surface (and for the scaly effect) it worked fine. Mom had the idea for the water rings around him (brilliant!).