Review Dried turf: anyone?

[rossbach]

Hello,

I work for the emergency services. In our firestations we use dried turf to absorb fluids that is spilled or leaking from the vehicles.

I think this would make excellent material to reproduce forest soil. It has a very fine structure that can be even made finer by rubbing it. It natural and looks better then some of the pre mixed forest soil products that are on the market.

A bit like scenic grass: for realistic grass nothing can beat these little seaweed balls that can be found on Mediterranean shores.

I going to experiment with it and will keep you informed. Cheers Paul

 

[Oda]

Looks very promising Paul.Keep us informed mate.

Oda.

 

[peedee]

Well done.
I always love the use of 'found' natural products.

Psul

 

[Viking Bob]

Like to see how this turns out, I have seen these seaweed ball's and I am intrigued.
Regards

 

[mick3272]

Like to see more about the seaweed balls grass, Only seaweed I know about is No 8. on me chinese meandu.
Mick

 

[rossbach]

About these sea weed balls: look at the Selucid Hipparchos in the finished figures section. Page 2 I think. The grass there is from such a ball.

These balls can be found on the shores by the thousands. They are called 'Posidonia Oceanica' or Neptune balls. Pf member Kisifer from Greece sells them.

 

[taff edwards]

That's a lot of balls
Lol

 

[rossbach]

I am going to post a finished Scythian king during the next week. Grass on his base was also done using these balls. In the meantime take a look here (pic can be enlarged) :

 

[rossbach]

Since we are tlking about grass: here's a pic of a base with a lot of grass for which I used parts of an acrylic Barbour coat lining. thing is that these strands are attached to a canvas base.The coat liner resembles fur. You can imagine that it has a very dense structure because the fibres stand close to each other. This makes painting a bit difficult. What I did was to cut out a few pieces from te liner which I emerged in a both of diluted acrylic paint. When dry I attatched the pieces to the base and used a brush to give the grass a natural olive-brownish colour. When everything was dry I used a kat's brush (bought at the pet shop to spread the fibres.

The seaweed strands on the other hand are loose. They have to be pulled out of the ball and then the idea is to glue tufts on the base with a pair of tweezers.

 

[pmfs]

And if you mix some leaves in, forest soil will look top notch.

Cheers,
Pedro

 

[valiant]

Ive used hanging basket liners to good effect as long unkempt grass. It needs teasing out a bit and some has tiny bits of green felt which needs removing, but otherwise a cheap option, as you can get lots of grass from one liner!

 

[rossbach]

And if you mix some leaves in, forest soil will look top notch.

Cheers,
Pedro

Probably yes

 

[rossbach]

I completely forgot that this is an English speaking forum. For some reason I used the Dutch word for peat: turf.

But just to make sure: the dried stuff I am going to experiment with is dried PEAT

How silly of me

 

[phil_h]

Very interested in seeing how it works out - looks very promising... Always looking for new ways to get a natural look to groundwork...
Phil