A rockface diorama - part 4 - Creating rough grass

Entry posted by nickwood July 27, 2019

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After removing the excess fibres most people would leave it at that but to my eye the grass is too uniform. In the real world rain and wind flattens longer grasses and paths form where by humans and animals pass regularly. So the next stage is to replicate this.

The following needs to be carried out BEFORE the pva glue has fully set.

Using a cocktail stick or similar the fibres can be manipulated to lay down, pushed into clumps or removed to reveal the shorter fibres underneath. This will inevitably remove some fibres and loosen others. Before starting the diorama I hadn't given any thought to showing how to incorporate a path. If I had, I would have prepared the path surface first before applying any grass fibres. However when undertaking scenery works things don't always turn out as you expect and this gives me the opportunity to show that it is relatively easy to adapt and change things as you go along. The first layer of short fibres applied earlier had dried thoroughly so something a little stronger than a cocktail stick was used to remove them in small patches to represent a path starting to form.

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To represent the surface where the path was starting to form, pva glue was carefully applied with a small brush into the areas where the grass has been removed and then a fine grit scatter applied by piching between two fingers and dropping into place. Once the pva is fully covered the grit can be tamped gently with a finger to make sure it is well and truly stuck to the glue. The diorama is now set aside to dry thoroughly for at least 24 hours.

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On close inspection it is fair to say that the path may have been a little more convincing if the surface had been applied before the grass fibres but from normal viewing distance it looks fine.

Once everything is dry, a good brushing with say a half inch paintbrush, followed by vacuuming will remove all remaining loose fibres and grit.

Is this diorama finished ? Not quite.

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