Hi Guys,

In my curret dio, I used bristles from a cheap paintbrush for the tall grass, static grass and real earth. I already did just 1/3 of the whole dio and before I proceed further I need your expert opinion regarding the tall grass in combination with the static grass.

Do I need to paint the tall grass with a shade of green or I just color the static grass to blend with the tall grass? Maybe others could give more suggestion that would help improve or correct what I already did.

Below are some pics for your reference....









Any suggestion would be very much appreciated....

Cheers

I think that if you sprayed that bright green static grass with a bit of light brown and then buff it would look fine. IMO the grass is too bright at this stage.

Eddie

The spacing and variation in location looks good. One thing I might do to the tall grass is add at least a dark wash to the lower 1/2 or 1/3 of the blades to give them some more mass and depth.
The static grass does need a different color, it looks a bit to bright green vs. a natural green.

Scott and Eddie mentioned working with the grass and I agree. But I wanted to say how impresed with the way you're putting the tall grasses, static grass and earth together on this base. This is really going to be nice. AND , . . . and . . . your composition is just super. Very interesting to look at. You've placed the elements just right.

I had a recent post on the the same techniqe for tall grass and I used green easter egg die to color them. You might not like the results but you can exspierment with it if you like. Have a look at my Welcome to the Nam part 2 in the dioama forum and you can see the result.

Hi Guys,

I forgot to tell you guys that the setting of my dio is supposed to be in Russia between June to August, I plan to give the ground an "after the rain" look (slight/little muddy look).







From the suggestions I gather and agree that the static grass really needs a change of color from bright green to something natural...BTW, I used two different sets of static grass -- one shade is lighter as seen in the pic below. Do you think the lighter shade shown in the pic is better...



Should I also retain the color of the tall grass and just give it a darker wash as suggested by Scott or do I need to make them a little on the green shade (with a darker wash)? Here in the Philippines as well as in Nam, tall grasses are commonly colored green as shown by Pfc, but I'm not sure in Russia (where the dio setting is supposed to be)...

Cheers and thank you very much for the help...

Arvin

Arvin, The start of your dio looks great! I also like the composition very much, as Rick does! It looks fantastic and very realistic (as far as what I can see now!)! As far as the grass is concerned I do agree with what the other said! You need to find a "dryer", more subtle shade of green!, even paler than the green on the last photo! Nevertheless, your on the right tracks! Keep it going and keep us posted!
Cheers and happy modelling!
Prato

Hey - if this is the Russian front I would leave the tall grass the brownish/tan. The images that I have seen are of tall brown/dark grass not nice lush green grass.

Hi Arvin, Your dio is looking really good in my opinion. I think you are doing an excellent job with the tall grasses, the short grasses are just way to bright for the Russian landscape in late summer or early fall. If you haven't yet, have a look at the silflor grass review I just did that will give you a great basis for the color of your short grass. I think it is very accurate for the color you are looking for. Looking forward to seeing your next update. Cheers Kevin

Hi Guys,

I'm very thankful for the patience in answering my questions they are very helpful. I'll work on those short grass...

BTW, Kevin I read your article twice and for me its very informative and useful. Its just a shame that Silflor and Heki is not sold here in the Philippines. They authorities here probably think they are related to cannabis :-) :-) :-)

Thank you very much

Cheers

Arvin

Hey Arvin:

I've been reading the threads; comments from the other modelers re your really fine start to the dio. So this old Jayhawker is going to be a pest again and respond once more, on a couple of things I didn't say in previous forum note.

I hope you have some extra brush bristles that you could attach to a similiar small hunk of base like your "real" dio piece. That way you could experiment with diff shades, tones and washes on something that isn't your finish product. Once you get it the way it seems best then that info you "learned" could just be repeated on your real dio base.

Secondly, when I first looked at the pix I didn't realize this was the dio that we had a discussion about composition a while back; and at that time I mentioned about my concern of where the turret gun barrel was pointing and where you were placing the Schwimmwagen. You hadn't added any figs to those prelim pix. The way it's set up now is so interesting and the uneven terrain is just great. I even noticed that the figs are in a line somewhat that is parallel to the line of the tall grasses. Clever. All this added eye candy is harder and more time consuming to do of course, but obviously from looking at your work, you have had some experience (a lot?) working with ground cover and terrain, etc. Good show! Eager to see it all come together. Seeing all this creativity is exhillerating . . . even though I don't know how to spell that word.

Hi Rick,

Thank you very much for the encouragement. Actually this is just my second dio. In my first dio I did not use tall grass.

This was my first dio...



Your initial comments in the last forum thread actually made me think about the different/possible positioning of the figs. They really helped a lot.

The tall grass placement is not yet complete as well as the dio (I worked 1/3 of the dio only). I plan to add a few more tall grass in some of those areas where there are no short grasses.

I sure do have spare bristles and you gave me an idea about experimenting on them....

Thanks