Vegetation
At last I have made a start on the greenery. Well I say 'greenery' - but because this is going to be Tuscany in the summer of 1944 its more of a collection of reds, yellows and browns.
The first step was to add rough grass to the areas around the ravine and road. This was done with a method I only read about recently. The hanging basket liner method is pretty well known, but what I hadn't understood was that it works best of you stick it 'grass' side down using PVA. It's dry within 24 hours. The trick then is to peel away the backing (it usually comes away quite easily with tweezers).
What you're left with can best be described as something like Donald Trump's hair... so it needs to be tamed with scissors, tweezers and fingers to make it look something like rough grass.
The area behind the bridge clearly needs a bit more work!
Now, as I say, this gives you a basic covering of what is basically rough grass or undergrowth. It's very cheap, quick and easy way of covering quite large areas.
However, it needs something more to make it look like real vegetation.
This is where I turned to the excellent
MiniNatur range of grass tufts. These come as little tufts of varying size and different shades, which you pull of the backing strip using tweezers. They can then be easily glued in place with PVA.
I used a mixture of '
Golden grass prairie tufts, tall' (727-35 S) and
'Two colour grass tufts late fall' (737-34).
I effectively used them to 'surround' the basket liner areas to give a more natural look.
The contrasts may look a little strong in these shots, but here's still more to be added and, ultimately, pigments (and perhaps a little
airbrush work) should help to bring everything together.
Onward and upward!