Tuesday 11 February 2020

Growing grass

In the last update you might have noticed the ground had gained a layer of green, more progress has since been made.


The base layer is normal scatter flock, sprinkled over dilute PVA glue using two or three shades of green, which prevents bare patches being seen through the static grass. Some ground-foam type "foliage" flock is used too, to increase texture.


Next up is the "static" grass, and this is my first time using my new Peco applicator - this proved more effective, and looks a lot safer, than the cheap tea-strainer-meets-fly-swat I was using before. I also used Peco "basing glue" instead of PVA - it stays tacky longer than PVA, and is a better consistency than dilute PVA. Again the grass is mixed from two or three shades of green, plus some yellow-brown, including long (6mm) fibres of straw colour.


Now it didn't all turn out looking this good - this was one of the later areas to be done and maybe I'd got better at it! I found it best to apply the long straw fibres first, not too dense, and then a mixture of shorter greens together, and here it has worked very well.


I've also added some bushes and undergrowth using a variety of materials, including rubberised horsehair, foam products, and even lichen. However, the best results were with a fibrous material, teased out, sprayed liberally with cheap hairspray, and with scatter or ground foam (or both) sprinkled on. It's quick, easy, and as you can see here, surprisingly effective.

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