I was going to put a tree or at least SOME foliage in my dio, but didn't know what to do...

I want to scratchbuild a tree or bush if I can, and if you know of any techniques that could help me along, that'd be greatly appreciated. Also maybe a link to your favorite tree for purchase, if I decide not to make one myself.

Also, could I make my own grass? Or is my best bet to buy some from Woodland or Verlinden? The LHS, I guess...but I would like to save money on all this stuff and make it myself...

Thanks

Hi Dee,

Keep an eye on the HFM Situations DG. We'll be running a series of "Groundwork for figures" SBSs over the next few months... at the moment we're still looking for what the users would like to see... you can give your input HERE

Rudi

Not a problem - foliage is covered well here. Lots of experience.
Here are few things
Clumps of grass
Simple Trees
Some discussion on trees and grass
Strumps
Groundcover
hybrid tree
tree
tropical
Tree from wire
palms
Holy cow - that's a bunch..... I started out looking for the wire feature and found all of these.

have a look at:


www.joefix-studio.be

I think you will find a solution overthere for contacting this guy's


[email protected]

the are verry correct in shipping and handeling the goods.


modeling greetings, feelpanzer

Could you help me with some advice specifically about making dirt paths and grassy areas?

Dirt pathes or roads are fairly simple. I get the idea you wish to save on the $. Here is the way I do it. I go out and collect real dirt and or sand, I dry it. After that I use a mesh wire screen fromn the kitchen and shift the dirt/sand getting it super fine. Then I will use Woodland senic's ground matte medium glue. Or watered down white glue will work as well.

For grass you can use hemp twine or other natural twines. Unravel it, Cut into a workable length according to how long you want your grass. Soak it in water for a day or to, stretching it out to remove the curl to it. I said natural fibre as it is easiest to dye, man made fibres don't accept dye. To color it you can use food coloring, (you will have to play with it to get the colors you want). You can aalso use Rit dye, it is a clothing dye, and should be able to find it at fabric stores. You can use some of the fake furs fabrics as well. Those have to be airbrushed, a brush will not work well to paint fabric...

Applying grass: White glue or woodland senics... What I like to do for the most realistic results is this. Paint the base a good ground soil color. I use house hold acylic paint, a grey-brownish color. Then I apply my soil/sand to the base over the freshly painted base. Paint the soil/sand so it is consistant but varing the colors slightly, darker or lighter to give it depth. For all grassy, or areas with any kind of plantlife I cover those areas with a thin or sometimes thick layer (depending on what your landscape is to look like) of static grass. Then I add my longer grasses, this caan be done two ways. One you can plant it by drilling holes in the base and plant them little by little, or you can cover small areas at a time and use the woodland senics, mixed with a little bit of colored plaster ( add soil colored paint to the mixture) and hold the grass in place until it can stand on its own.

Feel free to have a look around my gallery... You might want to also take a look around Big Jon's, as I have been teaching him some of my techniques. Jackhammer 81's gallery is also a good one. There are many that are good ground work people around the site. I know Big Jon also works on a tight budget. I know that these two other people will respond to questions well, and I myself, if we can help.