Hi y'all

First of all I want to say that I'm new to this forum so if I make any mistakes please forgive me and try to be indulgent. I've been a lurker on this forum for some time, reading advice and other usuful things that are somehow connected with my hobby that is terrain making (for tabletop games). I haven't really tried building military models, but I might try sometime (I'm especially interested in dioramas). I usually create buildings or smaller things in 35mm scale and if anyone's interested I can post some links to my pictures. But back on the subject: I'm finishing my latest vampire mansion project and wanted to create some dump/dark/dead/rotten grass for the base. I know people usually buy this stuff in craft stores but unfortunatelly it is very hard to get such static grass in my area. So I'm stuck with a bag full of fresh, light green grass from Heki, that I've used before in my past projects. I know I can colour it with ordinary acryl paints and try to achive a desired color. But choosing the right color scheme and making it look damp is kind of tricky. I also have a bag of light green ground foam, also form Heki so if anyone has any ideas on using that, it would be rally cool. Maybe someone's already did something like this, or has some experience on this subject. I would be really grateful for any help or advice. By the way: Great site!! Tons of cool articles, great pictures, beatiful models and superb dioramas.

regards,

dsc.

First of all - welcome to the Posting Side Glad to have you.

I would offer to go with a dark color for the grass and go with a gloss finish to give the illusion of wetness.
You can try to use some cut/rimmed/shaved hemp twine as a grass substitue. Just cut short and apply in a base of white glue and water.

heard of some useing tealeaves or oregano slightly nuked


reb

Nice to have you aboard Dsc. I believe Slodder has pretty much covered it.

Just to add a bit, grass when found in a clump especially a large one has a darker green shade in the middle or center where its the thickest. As you progress towards the edges lighten your basecoat color with a bit of yellow. Right at the edges you can highlight with a bit of grayish brown to show drying or decayed material.

Grass runover by a heavy vehicle besides being crushed flat (depending on how heavy a vehicle) is of a darker shade.

Thanks a lot for your help guys!! Today I've managed to organize some free time and colour some of that green static grass I've mentioned in my earlier post. I've used a dark green/brown color scheme and tried some varations, mixed some static grass with ground foam, did a mix using PVA glue water and static grass and tried to achieve a damp grass effect. It's now all drying so I have to wait for a couple of hours for the final look. I will try to take some pictures and post the links to them for comparison.

dsc

So here I am again with some photos to show the results of my experiments. I've came up with to ways to achieve dead/dump grass:
- a mix of 50% water and 50% PVA glue, some inks to colour the whole thing, I've used brown, green and black. After mixing everything, add some static grass to the mixture. Add as much as you need. Leave the grass for about 15 minutes to colour it. Apply with tweezers. Use a toothpick to create small clumps.
- use a similar mixture, but don't add any PVA glue. Use the inks to achieve a desired color. Throw in the static grass. Wait for it to absorb some of the mixture. After 15 minutes, take the static grass out and use some paper towels to absorb some of the excess mixture. Leave it to dry, mixing it from time to time (this way the grass won't create bigger clumps that are hard to use).

The amount of inks added to the mixture determines the level of colouring. More inks means darker grass.

I've tried both of those methods and finally used the one without the PVA glue. You can see the results on these pictures:

Upper view
Side view


I think it looks pretty good, don't you think??. Cheers!

dsc.

Looks like you have caught the feeling. By the way, the building looks good also.
capnjock

Thanks for the comment capnjock. I've uploaded one more picture which is a bit brighter then those previous two, so you can see the results even better. Here's the link:

Upper view 2

regards,

dsc.