Fun with Fibres & Flock!
At long last the time has come to make a start on the scenic side of my layout. The last time I built a layout was in the early 1990s and Barry Norman's excellent book on landscape modelling http://www.amazon.co.uk/Landscape-Modelling-Barry-Norman/dp/0906867444 was recommending the use of lint bandage to simulate grass. Hours of fun was had dying bandage green and then gently laying it on a bed of PVA glue, before ripping off the backing once it had all set. Although this technique worked well, my old layout was 4mm scale and I wasn't convinced this method would be quite so effective on my present 7mm scale layout. Moving forward 20 years has brought many new advances in scenic modelling and I was keen to experiment with them!
I armed myself with a copy of Gordon Gravett's inspirational book on modelling grassland http://www.amazon.co.uk/Modelling-Grassland-Landscape-Detailing-Wildflowers/dp/B012HUQ0Z4/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1447797856&sr=1-10&keywords=gordon+gravett, (I hope you can find it for cheaper than this!) which I can thoroughly recommended as a source of great ideas and techniques for anyone embarking on scenic modelling. After a most pleasurable read I decided to jump in with both feet and treated myself to a static grass applicator.
There are a large number of flock and static grass manufacturers, but a lot of them unfortunately make really garish colours that to my eye look very unrealistic. I'm also not a fan of manufacturers who pre mix a number of colours in one packet, I'd much prefer to buy individual bags of each colour and then mix them to my particular requirements. I eventually settled on buying materials from Greenscene who do a good range of static grasses in a variety of colours and lengths. Their fibres are also nicely matt and don't exhibit the plastic looking sheen of some products.
I want the private siding to look much less maintained than the Great Western trackwork, so I cut lengths of Woodland Scenics long grass fibres and planted them in dabs of PVA. Once these had dried they were trimmed to length using Mrs Wenlock's best nail scissors!:-)
Grass tufts in situ
Larger areas of grass on embankments and between the tracks were tackled using the static grass applicator. I used a mixture of Greenscene's "lush green" 6mm fibres and "dried grass" 6mm fibres applied with the static applicator onto some scenic glue.
First application of static grass
I wanted the grass to look quite long and dry at the tips so a second layer of 6mm "dried grass" fibres were applied on top of the first.
Second layer of fibres
I used postiche theatrical hair to make a simulation of brambles. The hair was teased out over the static grass fibres and then sprayed with Humbrol Enamel aerosol matt varnish. While this was still wet Greenscene fine flock was gently sprinkled over the varnish ensuring that it was possible to still see the grass fibres below.
Postiche hair brambles
I made some weeds by cutting some lengths of Woodland Scenics fibres, spaying them in matt varnish and then sprinkling them with Greenscene flock
Fibres and flock
Once the varnish had dried the "weeds" were planted amongst the grass fibres and held in position using PVA glue.
Weeds in situ
I also decided that making some rosebay willow herb might be fun and add a bit of colour to the layout. Woodland scenics fibres were cut to length, dipped into scenic cement and then into a pinky purple flock available from Greenscene.
Rosebay willow herb constuction
Once dry these were planted using PVA into the static grass. Greenscene flock and postiche was used to simulate the plants leaves around the plant stems.
Rosebay willow herb in situ
Obviously there's still a lot more baseboard that needs to be tackled, but I'm pleased with the results so far. I need to start thinking about adding hedgerows and trees to the layout and to help with this I've bought a copy of Mr Gravett's book on tree construction! http://www.amazon.co.uk/Modelling-Trees-Part-one-Broadleaf/dp/1905184883/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1447797856&sr=1-3&keywords=gordon+gravett
I'll finish this post with a couple of overall views of the progress so far
Overall views of layout
As usual any comments positive or otherwise are very welcome!
Until next time.
Best wishes
Dave
- 23
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