The Groundwork and Vegetation Thread

[marc_reusser]

Several members have mentioned it might be a good idea to start a single open thread like the "Bits, Pieces, and Clutter" thread for showing, comparing, doing SBS's, and discussing different methods, aspects, and techniques for creating groundwork, vegetation, and foliage.

...so this will be such a thread.

This thread will be for techniques, process, experiments, examples, etc., and does NOT replace, or be confused with, the "Fine-scale Leaves, Plants, Vegetation and Scenic /Scenery Supplies" thread.

[chester]

Great idea Marc, yardwork is a weak area here.

[eTraxx]

I was playing around with some items from the spice rack to see what I could l do with them.

I tried Mint, Bay Leaves, Basil, Marjoram, Oregano and Parsley


Mint


Bay Leaves


Basil


Marjoram


Oregano


Parsley

[Alexandre]

Are these ground or are they out of the jar?
Some color mixes look interesting, but the weak point is the thickness of each leaf. (while it's look good on the first picture, on the macro shots it does not look as great)
Something I would recommend for dead leaves or forest scatter is to make a gradient in the particle's size.
Starting from ground mix (powder look) to biggest leaves, cause that's a good way too add contrasts and help the mix to be readable.
I'm not sure it makes so much sense, so I'll do a small test piece to show what I mean.

Eeerh, I'll need to add a bit vegetation vocabulary to my english skills or I'll be of no help..    


Edt : Oh, and thanks Marc for opening this thread.

[danpickard]

Good idea for the thread Marc. 
I'm sure that amongst this lot, there should be some decent ideas to share around.

Cheers,
Dan

[eTraxx]

I think the Mint and Parsley were probably best .. the rest being too thick. Here's something else I tried .. the plant in the center of this photo is from a feather duster (Ostrich plume)

[Chuck Doan]

Ed, the spices are an interesting idea!






Old school: Real dirt, sifted thru various screens, parts of sagebrush twigs, various grades of rocks, and jute macramé twine for grass. All afixed with diluted white glue. 1/16th scale.

[Alexandre]

Marc, you should lock the thread, everything's been said and shown by Chuck  

More seriousness : You are one of the very few modelers that share the same attention to everything, whatever it is. And when I first saw your pieces some years ago, what I instantly loved was your texture's sense. It's something that many of us aim to when dealing with rust, or wood weathering, but it's somehow often rushed when it comes to groundwork.
In a email to Gordon I wrote this, and it seems I can't write a better english translation of what I think :
Many superskilled modelers or scratchbuilders are so focused on the accuracy of their modelkits, that it seems they tend to forget they also know that lichen doesn't look like scale bushes, and that you never see the same texture everywhere you look on the ground.
You're of course not in this case and I can't tell how much I learn by just starring at your pictures.



Edit : forgot the question I wanted to ask : Is the real dirt used here painted, washed, filtered or stained, or is that its natural look?

[Chuck Doan]

Thanks for the nice words Alexandre! I have to say that I get nervous when thinking about ground works and vegetation. There is some wonderful work going on (like your amazing mud!) I have pretty high confidence in many things, but not this area. It is good people like you are focusing on it too so we all can grow.

The dirt I used here is natural. It has high clay content so it doesn't have a lot of "sparkle" to it like a lot of dirt. I just sift it through various size brass screens and then I layer it on, fine to coarse.  One problem is that it can look too much the same...something I need to work on. I also am willing to glue on a lot of tiny rocks and leaves after the initial layers are applied. I know you do this too, and that nutty-ness helps make for better detail.

[Malachi Constant]

Aussie Scenics static grass applicator ...

Wanted to share a positive experience about a budget-friendly static grass applicator (about $55 with shipping) ... after having some "frustrations" with using a bug-zapper / tea strainer version ...

So, here's a picture of a test piece using the crappy old bug-zapper version ... it took a lot of coaxing to get grasses to stand up in the center ... but it did sorta, kinda work with a lot of hassle.  So, I got some more grasses to play with layering effects.

The stuff around the outer edges is a mixture of dead/burnt grasses from Verlinden, "Ziterdes" (apparently made by Noch, some Noch forest floor and some WS light green ... (Yes, I know yer supposed to paint the foam before doing scenery ... this was just messing around to try to get static grass to actually stand up and then see if I could layer it!)

Alright so ... before getting the new "toy" ...

[Malachi Constant]

Okay, so here's the new toy ... I had gotten some rather nice 6mm static grasses from Aussie Scenics on ebay ... and after having fits with the crappy bug-zapper, decided to gamble on their budget-friendly version of a static grass applicator ... VERY PLEASED with the initial results!  (Cost $55 w/ shipping from Australia to US)

It arrived yesterday, and I couldn't resist the urge to play with it in the middle of the night!

The power unit holds two D-cell batteries (not to be confused with D-cell locomotives) ... and there's a separate little shaker section with two different size screens available. (The "coarse" screen is on the shaker at left and the "fine" screen is shown top right.)

(And, subsequently, Dan Pickard pointed out that the separate power unit would make it simple to substitute a smaller shaker to work in tighter areas ... sounds like a good idea!  Spotted a little aspirin bottle with a wide mouth snap-on lid ... put a bit of screen in that ... should work!?) 

[Malachi Constant]

So, I piled a whole mess of grass on top of my crappy little test piece (... I'll paint the foam before landscaping the real dio ... I promise!)   

[Malachi Constant]

And sonuvagun, all that grass stood up like good little soldiers! Here it is with the edge of the foam showing ...

And with that purdy pink foam cropped out. I'm a total "hack" (or at least newbie) at the whole static grass thing. The bug-zapper one was a pain in the rump ... this one is a BREEZE! Never used the Noch, so I can't compare ... but my budget was hoping that something in the $50 range would work, and this does. (Actually, it was hoping that something in the bug-zapper range would work, but it didn't!)

This is an assortment of static grasses from Aussie Scenics, Woodland Scenics, Noch and Verlinden ... and some weeds made from Noch foliage ...

[Malachi Constant]

Some idiot has been hacking up my Matchbox toys! 

Cuz he thinks it would end up pretty close to ole Haney's truck. 

And some idiot is already parking his hacked up Matchbox on the grass!

[Malachi Constant]

One minor issue ... since the unit comes from Australia ... everything ends up the other way 'round ...

But if you flip the pix in a photo editor, no-one will ever know!