Seeing as I don't live near a hobby shop and online ordering sometimes scares me... Any ideas for home brewed grass for dioramas/figure bases, etc?

Painted paintbrush brissles? Don't know how you'd manage to stand it up though.

Although not as fine as static grass, I have used dill weed from the grocery store for grass. It looked good to me, but your model will smell like a pickle for some time.

Patrick

If static grass isn't available then I save the sawdust from cutting the base. Glue in place just the same a static grass and paint when dry.

Saw dust! Excellent tip, thanks!

If it's the "online" part that's worrisome, you can go to Military Miniatures Warehouse and download a regular order form and use the US Postal Service. John has a variety of landscaping materials. My last online/Paypal order was put in on a Sunday and the stuff was in my mailbox on Thursday. Neil at Sentinel Miniattures also works off a phone or standard USPS ordering system.
I have dealt with both these guys extensively and can wholeheartedly recommend them. You have the good news/bad news (sales tax is applicable) that tehy are both in New York.

You can use tea leaves taken from a tea bag. If you use a couple of different brands, you should get some variation in the colour. You can also buy loose tea which you would probably have to grind to get the right size for grass.

Tea leaves! excellent! Thanks!

Oh, and I live in NY, pesky sales tax...

As far as sawdust goes, I work at a Home Depot, if you grab a ziplock bag from home and bring it to the lumber department @ HD, ask if you can raid the vacuum canister behind the panel saw! We empty ours every month so its ALWAYS full. The panel saw is for full sheets of plywood and the sawdust is pretty fine, I, however, take mine home and sift it in an old flour sifter( which I picked up for a dollar at a resale shop :-) ). Next, I fill a spray bottle with an alcohol/H20 mix with food coloring for dye. Experiment with green and red food dyes for the desired coloring. Try it, it's inexpensive and lasts forever.
HTH Cuhail

For longer grass I have used jute twine, dipped in your choice of grass color paint (diluted), dried, unwound and cut into tufts which are then glued to the dio base. Jute absorbs colors at different rates, so you wil not get monotone grass. It is time consuming, but the results are good!

If you are looking for taller grasses try using the hair from paint brushes. The one I used is a broad brush used for applying wood varnish. Its camel hair. If you open up the metal plate that holds down the hair in most brushes you will find that the hair is glued down. Tear of appropriate clumps, tie down one end. Snip with the scissors facing the top portion to give it an irregular growth appearance. Just ask your barber how to cut irregular, jagged hairlines during your next haircut.

I like the wood varnish brushes because the hair is fine and white in color. When you brush a bit of green paint over it and rub another unpainted clump over the painted one the color gets spread evenly without making the individual hairs stick together. Flatten a bit the top and paint the ends brown to give it a slightly dried effect.

I have some pics of grasses in my unfinished 2nd. dio in my gallery if your 'e interested in how they look. They aren't not fantastic but I guess I'm kind of happy with it. If you can get coconut husks they make great tall elephant grass and cattails. No problem here being from a tropical country but you may have to pop over your local Vietnamese or Chinese corner store to get some if they have it. The dried husks are sometimes used to make floor mats.