G'day Guys
me and a mate of mine where discussing something a little while ago, and it got me thinking, which one do you think is more important for this matter.
The subject was Long grass in my diorama(elephant grass to be exact) if your not familiar with this it grows in tropical areas, has very broad blades and can grow very high (over peoples heads).
Anyways it is being represented in my latest diorama using fake X-mas Tree foliage, which is perfect as 1/35 elephant grass i believe, its just a bit bunch of plastic strands of "grass".
anyway the comment was made that should each blade be pointed at the top, as real grass is, and not squared off like it is in mine, now there are literally hundreds of blades which would make it very hard and time consuming to go around and cut every single blade to a fine, pointed tip, but my friend insisted that he would do it and that it had to be done to obtain "accuracy"....now i believe that, as important as accuracy is with modelling, when it comes to dioramas, and especially matters like this, representation is more important.
If it looks like grass, then it IS grass. No need to make sure EVERY single blade of grass is perfectly accurate.
what do you guys thinkcheers, thanks for reading

i understand your point, and in the case you mentioned, i would be the same as you, if it looks like grass, it is grass!

however with something like a vehicle or a building i would be far more concerned about the accuracy. plants and natural features(rock etc) are too random and irregular to insist on total accuracy all the time!

cheers

joe

I'll answer with a definite "maybe".

It does really depend on the diorama, the visual representation, and the viewer.

For example in my diroama "The Fall", I did three trees, parsley over lichen style. It was a fall scene and I needed to represent that to support the heavier clothing and the time frame. So I was stuck, I had to paint each leaf. That's one reason, to support the scene. A second reason was, I (the viewer) was not satisfied with just one color, so I did three layers of reds browns and yellows. It was teadous and time consuming but the impact and result were well worth it.

Now in your case, I leave it up to you. If you are satisfied and have a good idea of who will see it (no judges who know what elephant grass should look like) then leave it.

What you may want to do is make a small 1" square and test what it will look like and determine if it's going to yield stunning results.

I would have to go with representation on the grass issue here. In the case of grass, if it looks right, it is good to go. We are all familiar with how grass looks in reality. If you can convey that aspect in a model form and it looks authentic, you have done well.

Ofcourse, not all grass have pointed edges. Let's say some of them were too long and has been cut. So that's why they have squared edges :-)

Oh well, whichever you think suits you best, you do it. After all, you are having fun with it right?

As what we do in modelling can be considered art, there is always artistic license in what we do. The detail we seek to add will be noticed to almost only the trained eye. Others don't notice the detail or think it part of a larger piece (ie an engine being a whole when in fact it is many pieces). They wonder why we go to such lengths as we do. The detail will only add to the glaze over of the eye of the viewer. It is when we don't add the detail to correspond to the detail we add on a vehicle or figure that the whole scene stands out. So you must ask yourself, do you want the vehicle to stand out? If so, then don't worry about the grass. If it is the whole diorama you want to blend together, then detail the whole thing out evenly.

I personally think that there is always artistic license in modelling. Given the factors of model manufacturing limits, the sheer numbers of the "hardware" we seek to represent and the differences and interchangability between them - as well as crew customization - the conditions and terrain the units fought in and about a million other factors we fail to even comprehend, we have just as much responsibility to tailor to accuracy as representation. When you think about it, we want to accurately represent a model, but the size of such accuracy may be too small for the eye to notice when staring at it from a foot or two away. Its just really hard to see individual rivits that are less that 0.1mm large from distance. So a lot of it is a compromise between being appealing to the eye and just the knowledge that you know those rivits are there.

There is very little chance I am going to point up the tops of all my grass in 1/35. Maybe a few small patches here and there along the visible edges.

Well, it depends one who the diorama is for.

1. If it's for competition, I might want to go that extra step and clip them off.
2. If it's a gift for someone then those extra details make it much more special for them
3. If you are making it to please yourself and you are happy with the look then let it be.

There are always going to be perfectionist finding things wrong with your diorama, but they aren't the ones building it are they? Those that do put a lot of time in making their stuff "perfect" make some awesome work, but usually don't turn out as much as someone who rush through some details. I think mainly if you’re happy with it, it’s done. The only person I try to please with my models is myself. If someone can point out mistakes that I can improve on later, then that’s good, I can improve. If you don’t want to take their suggestions because it’s too time consuming, hey, I don’t blame you. We only have so much time in this world. Why do something that’s going to bog you down and is going to be an unpleasant task as opposed to something that you are going to enjoy?

Isn't this the age old dispute? I will throw in my 2-cents. The only time I would worry about this is if I were going to compete, otherwise I will garuntee that no one, the average person (non modelers), would never even notice. If it were man made I would do my best to make it accurate, but even then if it were to discourage me from ever doing another dio, no I wouldn't. This subject is indeed to each their own, but as a judge I would not falter anyone for this. If you look at the "professionals" work you can still find things they need to improve upon, and see short cuts they take. I would say find a happy medium that make you the individual happy.

Hi LWF. Id be the first to admit to going for representation over accuracy. In fact, if I thought something looked better and was wrong, rather looked not-so-nice and right, Id go for the former.
I have a picture in my head of what those christmas decorations look like and am trying to picture them in a dio. I guess it will all depend on how you finish them .. and add around them to make them look like natural grass. If they look the part .. go for it. If you have any doubt, nows the time to fix it. In a year or two´s time, when you look at your model, guess whats gonna stare you in the eye and you´re not gonna be happy with it? This is the stage that Im at now. My display cabinet is nearly full and things that Im not 100% happy with are getting weeded ... literally.
What about some pictures ..

I'm with all of the above. I think ultimately the harshest judge of our own work is ourselves, irrespective of whether we are perfectionists or not. Conflict arises when the standards we set for ourselves are compared against comments of others, especially of those whom we look up to.

I think USNavy2534 said it best in that the final product is usually a compromise between what the average eye can see and what only we know are there which may not necessarily be visible to anyone other than ourself. For example, I took about 40 minutes just to cut a suitable-sized, rounded piece of plastic from the box cover of ordinary batteries to simulate a speedometer dial cover on my 1:35 BMW bike. My wife comes along and said why I even bothered because it can't even be seen. She was right but then I figured what the heck, at least I'll know its there.

Basically, as long as your'e okay what the heck either way.

Here we are, the suspect in question, there is at least 3 times more of it in my diorama than whats pictured there.
Personally i agree with all of you, other things accuracy is definetly best, but my opinion is in a matter like this, im happy with it, and im sure the majority of people who would look at this )even if it was for a competition) would not take note that all the grass isnt nice and pointy, especially when it is certainly not a focus point of the diorama.

cheers, thanks for the opinions, of course, keep em coming

Mate what a great idea, and if it isn't the focal point of the diorama then go with it as is.

I can see my missus wondering why our Christmas tree is a bit thin on top when gets resurrected again this Christmas.

Brian

Ok - here's my opinion on the picture. If it were me I'd cut'em. I wouldn't go nuts and do everyone (well maybe I would but that's why I married a psychologist). I might only cut once per blade (undecided as of now).

The grass when its against a contrasting background comes off as to square and to uniform all the way up and down.

Now - ultimatly - you said it - you like so that's really your call.

Seeing the picture, I'm torn. In places, it looks okay but at other spots, it looks like it should have been cut and seems unnatural.
Maybe a trip to the model railroad shop or a craft store will turn up something better.
That said, IRL as opposed to the picture whinch may have enlarged the effect, it may work.
If I were judging it, if it were like this, I probably wouldn't notice all that much, the effect being overall good. But if you cut a few only it will emphasize the squareness of the others.

looking at the pics, id say cut it. i'm not sure how well this would work with this stuff, but when i do grass i glue it in place and take scissors and with them perpendicular to the base i make vertical cuts in the clumps and that yields a natural irregularity of the tops for me. however this stuff seems pretty thick and i've only used this technique on the static grass, so if you try it, you might wanna try it on a seperate piece of something. hope that might help. good luck

Ok guys after alot of thinking i decided to cut most of em to a point. Im a bit more pleased with it now, cheers