Whats the best way to depict grass and dirt? 1/35th scale.
For grass, I'm told brush bristles are good. For dirt, I was told just sprinkle some real dirt on it.
For my wittle diorama I've got a sandbag wall with a MG mounted in it. If you really want an in depth description look for the other post I put in this forum
Im thinking of putting a small tree or prehaps a branch or two in front of it as a form of camo. Any ideas on how to do this?
And the final one thats been bugging me for eterinity+1: How do you make hedges?!

Thanks

Anthony

hi well for grass you might use the static grass from verlinden or berka you just mix it with some white glue press it on and highlight it

but there is also high grass from woodland scenics
all you have to do is take a little of it
drill a hole fill it with white glue
press it in let it dry and trimm it any way you like
and for tree trunks
walk in the garden and see what you can dig up :-)
winter time in the garden rocks with finding stuff

Static grass is the best product to reproduce grass in a diorama.....but as zero stated to mix it with white glue.....DO NOT do that!!!.....static grass is meant to be sprinkled over a white glue/water mixture....about 50/50.....cover all the glue with a heavy layer of static grass.....then wait a few minutes and blow the excess off....this will help the grass stand upright like real grass.
After it's all dry you might want to paint it.....I do....some don't...personal choice.
I use a variety of dirts in baby food bottles......I do the same thing with the dirt as I do with the static grass....the 50/50 mix of glue and water...but wait til it's completely dry to blow or shake off any excess.
Static grass can be put on over the dried dirt too.

hi there,

static grass will do it.
for dirt i use the spoils of sawing (dutch= zaagsel)of MDF wood, mix it with some paint or white glue and put it on the model.

greets Shermansam

Static grass would do.
Regarding WS's field grass, I never drilled a single hole for this diorama:
http://members.tripod.com/mmfs0/onlinemem/Gberegovoy/dioramarightfrontright150x.jpg

For groundwork, if you want to follow Shep Paine's book, he uses Celluclay. Make sure to mix it with white glue or else it'll end up curling while getting dry. Don't forget to sprinkle sand/gravel on it.
Alternatively, I have heard others using plaster and sprinkling the surface with sand/gravel/earth.
For my first diorama, I used celluclay sprinkled with sand and some real earth.

NOTE: edited to make link work

Dirt is pretty easy, if you are going to cover it with grass etc. any non-glossy, non-smooth surface painted various shades of brown will suffice. If you want to show open dirt as you may be doing in your MG nest, you will want to go with any one of the previous posts. I personally use fine dirt that I collect from the yard. I make sure I grind it pretty fine, so I don't get big out of scale clods. I make sure I seal it with dull coat and paint it according to the theater.
A hedge row is very time consuming and resource consuming. I built one, one bush at a time. I used small sticks/branches as the main trunk of my bush and glued rail road 'moss' sprigs to it to give more fullness. I then took a spice (parsley) and added it as leaves. First spary the bush with arosol adhesive and then sprinkle the spice over it into theglue. Then on the ground works you drill a hole add a drop of glue and insert the stick. I used a bunch of different sizes and colors and styles of bush to give a variety of cover. Make sure you have some kind of mound in the ground work that the plants are growing from. Around the edges plant a lot of grass and weeds etc.

IMHO, static grass looks out of scale in 1/35-54mm. It always looks like too many little spikes. I prefer Woodland Scenics turf, warious shades for short grass. Their long grass works nicely for clumps of longer leaves. I drill a hole, fold a clump over and insert. I then trim it with a peak in the middle.

I stopeed using celluclay after it 'warped' my base...... Switched to plaster of paris for ground work and no problems so far. Fine dirt taken from the construction site is excellent for depicting sand.......For grass i would use static grass from woodland scenics. Use the 50/50 glue/water mixture technique as precribed by the others. I dont usually paint the grass but drybrush them in yellow acrylics. Hope this helps.

When I travel to far and exotic lands, I usually fill up a film canister (or two) of the finest local dirt or sand that I can find, and use that for the 'earth' on top of the Sculptamold base. I sometimes will filter it thru an old nylon stocking (not mine).

I also ask those that I know of that are going places to do this for me. I have canisters of dirt from Europe, various places in the US and Canada as well as some really fine stuff from all over the Caribbean (my favorite romping grounds). I label the canisters as to where the contents are from.

Sprinkle some static grass about, paint, and there ya go.

Thanks,
Kevin Keefe
Mortars in Miniature

I still like static grass myself. When I AB it stands right up.

For dirt, I have a small creek on my property and the variety of materials that washes down to me after a storm is pretty amazing. Pebbles, rocks, tree and shrub roots. As others have said, use what nature has so kindly provided!

I have not used sand for anything other than DAK dios.

hi!
that´s my way:
Dirt at the tracks and the lower hull can be represented very realistically with a mash made out of earth, sand, white glue, food soda, cut off brush bristles, static grass and brown acrylic colour (or at least water-based colour). After drying, this mass is to be drybrushed with a brighter brown dithering at selected places.

Ok thanks for the replies...I have been trying to reply, but this board doesnt seem to like my computer much...or the other way around.
ok....so just sprinkle some fine sand.....should it completely cover the base? Or should I paint some of the base with brownish and then sprinkle or what?

Thanks
Anthony

this is my way

I first make every levelling in my dio with foam board. this keeps your dio very light. next thing I do is cover everything up with wallspackle. while the spackle is still wet I lay a piece of kitchen foil (the transparent type) and push my tank or whatever vehicle I use onto it to make the tracks. What I also do while the paint is still wet is pouring the first layer of fine sand on it. and let this dry for a day.
then I make a 50/50 mixture water white glue and go for the second layer of sand. this is also allowed to dry for a couple of hours. then again a 50/50 mixture of diluted white glue
and put that on the places where I want grass sprinkle the static grass on it and I let it dry for a couple of hours.
then I grab my AB and give the whole thing a coat of very dark brown. let it dry. in the next couple of stages there will be several colours sprayed on top of it varying from different types of brown till greys and different greens just till I`m satisfied.
then put in the long grass made out of a big softhaired brush that I bought at the discount departement of my local DIY shop. drill a couple of holes in your dio and simply put them in
(you could give the whole brush a AB-job first to colour it or you can just let it be his own colour - I`m talking about the blank haired brushes here- to simulate dry grass)
then comes the drybrushing with almost all lighter colours and that`s it

my two cents

I use Woodland Scenes Grasses

MMM,
And if there is no static grass?
(static grass is so rare in my country. NO model shop have enuff stock for craving modellers)
Can i use brush bristles..?

mmmm...

Here is a pic of what I'm working on. Celluclay and kitty litter. I have more pics if anyone wants to see them... Celluclay is awfully forgiving...

(Pardon the beer can...)

Ya pardon the womans Bud-Light

I'm kidding

Womans (sic) Bud light??