Anyone have any suggestions for large(ish) patches of grass?
The Leo here is going to be driving down a road/highway with the grass being the roadside. More than likely it’ll get a dusting (or more) of snow/slush over top so it doesn’t need to look like a verdant meadow by any means
I’ve seen a few grass mats from AK and Green Stuff World but it’s hard to get a feel for them in pictures. I’m not looking to invest in a static grass thing at this point so any suggestions for products or home brew are greatly appreciated.
I used some old school HO stuff back in the 80’s. It looked like artificial turf at first. but after brushing it with bleach to lighten some of it up, spraying random earth patterns on it, and covering with detritus it looked quite good. I did it for a Connelly Cup competition the spoons had entered - a field mess set up in the Gruenewald, with an exact replica of it in HO scale. It was a pretty cool diorama, far better than the sugar cube, string and toothpick monstrosities the judges had seen in previous years. The spoons won a trip to Hawaii. I got extra ribs whenever I wanted. Fair enough - I grew up in Hawaii.
The grass matts these days are FAR better in quality and appearance. Depending upon the brand you’ll be fine.
Connelly Cup was a competition spoons (mess platoon) entered every year. It had two phases - the field mess and the garrison mess. There were many judging criteria including quality and appearance of food, portion size control, flavor, etc…
The field portion was judged on those things as well, but included obviously a field kitchen trailer, an eating tent, outdoor “tables” at standing height, immersible water heaters for first sterilizing and afterward cleaning your mess kit, a nearby source of potable water, an AA gun, a staging area for vehicles, and probably a few other things I’m forgetting. They even made gravel walkways edged with sandbags, like they’d have had time to do all while we staved of 25 Soviet divisions that surrounded Berlin.
I scratch built the trailer, a GP medium tent that was lighted, used railroad ballast for the walkways, green modeling clay for the hundreds of sandbags, wooden pallets and barrels with heaters full of water (dried white glue) hell I scratch built the whole damned thing except the ROCO deuce and a half that even had the correct bumper number. My water source was a nearby portion of the lake which I simulated by running the terrain down below the level of the lake, painting it murky green and adding a sunken little HO scale boat. I then covered in with a piece of plexiglass I bogarted off my friend’s desk since he was on leave (he was not pleased) and simulated a calm water surface. It was quite badass for what it was supposed to be. I guess their company XO was in charge of the spoon platoon. He told me he had seen sugar cubes for the sand bags which he thought was a good idea. String was supposed to show the route the troops used as they walked from one station to the next. Toothpicks and matchboxes pretty much for everything else. He even bought the very fake looking Christmas trees to add to it, even though all of the trees in that part of the Gruenewald were deciduous. I used roots from some of the plants that were used for landscaping around their building. I don’t think they ever figured that one out. I told the LT I refused to use the Christmas trees, and if I had to use sugar cubes anywhere on my masterpiece I would un-volunteer my services. I guess they didn’t win a trip to Hawaii per se - they won the USAEUR (United States Army Europe) competition which earned them a spot at the Army wide competition in Hawaii, so they and my approximately 3x4 foot diorama went there. I did not. But I was the best fed m**********r in Berlin when they got back.
You can use grass mat and make it look very realistic. Lay your piece of grass mat and blend it well with real dirt and other variations of colour. You don’t want it looking like a ball park. But mats do make a great starting point. Look for some of the Noch or Heki mats. They have a huge range.
They sure look nice on the interwebs but they’re going to cost me almost as much in shipping as the bloody mats so end user feedback is critical. Don’t suppose you’ve got any pictures of what you’ve made out of them?
They come on a black plastic backing, you just carefully lift them off that and glue down to your base. The beauty is you can mix and match to your hearts content, and there is no wastage like you have on the full mat type. They do full mats too if you want that type and trim them to shape: http://www.martinwelberg.nl/wild-shrubbery-mats.html
This is one of their mats that I simply cut in half and glued down. First I added a little plaster of Paris on the board and made an uneven area for the mat to sit on, instead of dead flat. I sat the mat in a tray of water to soften the mat, then when it was malleable, laid it on some paper towel to remove the excess water. PVA on the plaster, press the mat down to conform to the plater ground shape and voila:
That’s a solid little scene you’ve got there. That grass looks excellent too. Now I need to go crush my dreams by calculating exchange and shipping . Stupid pandemic. Stupid Canadian dollar…
Don, if you want some cheap bases to put your models on, look at the ‘Swedish Kit Shop’ (IKEA). I got 4 ‘sandwich’ trays ‘Bronssopp’ for $10 AUD (about $9 CAD) which are big enough for a medium size model, like a Sherman with 75mm Gun, T34/76, Valentine, etc.
There’s a possible lo-budg. solution because when you say “large” areas of grass it looks pretty frikn’ small by my standards. I don’t claim credit for this, it may even go right back to Shep Paine but check out local stores for brushes – hair brushes, brooms, bristles, whatever. Glue the brush(es) on then cut away with a good pair of XT sharp scissors/shears/blades, then spray green shades
If you want something cheap and local, especially if you are going to cover it with snow, try some grass mats from a local hobby/crafts store. I don’t know what you have in Canada, here we have Michaels and Hobby Lobby. Some of the stuff they have is actually quite decent. If you have a local model train store, they also carry some nice material for grass.
Ken
Yeah old school technique using pig bristle paint brushes. The cheap type you do fences with, etc. Cut away the metal band and the bristles are embedded in a resin, just cut off clumps and glue the resin in pre drilled holes, or cut the bristles off individually. The old style hand brooms for vegetation:
That’s not a particularly large area. You can easily do the soil, vegetation and snow textures with ordinary materials.
The verges on this vignette were done with static grass, commercial grass “clumps” and ground foam. The thick snow was done with micro-balloons mixed with white glue to a toothpaste-like consistency with additional micro-balloons dusted on top of an airbrushed mist of clear gloss.
The mud splashes on the snow along the edges was done with washes and pigments spattered from a stiff bristled brush.
. Stupid pandemic. Stupid Canadian dollar…
