Ahh! Grass...
I used about all the mentioned stuff before, and all of it can be very useful. A nice alternative to unraveled jute twine is the wire used by plummers to seal gaps. About the same effect, but doesn't need to be unraveled.
If you use static grass (only usefull for short grass), make sure to decide what effect you want:
1) evenly covered surface (like a lawn): use the traditional method of coating the groundwork with some type of glue (white glue, sightly watered down, works perfect for me), then sprinkle the grass on, then softly blow from the sides to make it stand up. The most common mistake with this method is to apply the grass too thinly. Try to get as much static grass on it as will possibly adhere, for this is really the key to make it look realistic.
2) wild natural look: don't use previous method, but take a small clumb of static grass between some tweezers (don't worry too much about what ends are sticking out), apply a dot of white glue on the groundwork and put the clumb of static grass into this. Blow of the excess and tease the clumb with any tool to give it a natural look. Repeat this, putting different sizes of clumbs next to one another, leaving some gaps here there, untill the surface is covered. Irregularity is the key to a natural look here.
For longer grass, there are also different options:
1) very long, stiff grass: paintbrush bristles, glued on as static grass method n°2 (often easier to dip the bristles in the glue instead of putting the glue on the groundwork). This looks quite stiff and is only good for some effects in my opinion, as repliating the tall strands that often grow from lower patches of grass. Best to combine this with lower grass or it will look overscale.
2) long wild grass: the Heki stuff, or the plummers wire (or unraveled jute twine). The heki fibres are finer, which makes them fantastic for the job, but the plummers wire or jute twine is easier to manipulate in an extra wild look. For both: cut the fibres to length and apply as static grass method n°2. Irregularity is again the key to a good natural look, so vary the length, the density, the size and the placement of the clumbs of grass. Don't apply the heki stuff as a mat but pull out or cut of the fibres, then glue them to the base.
One more tip: don't be affraid of using too much glue (within reason of course!). Usually people use not enough, resulting in not enough fibres attached too the base (thin and unnatural result) or the fibres coming loose during painting. White glue dries transparent, and any marks can be touched up easily during painting.
Last important tip: almost any groundwork material needs to be painted to get it to look good, and so does grass! Even if it has the right colour, the shine is often a bit off, and we also need to think of scale effect...
With anything green in groundwork, be carefull not to make it too bright. Yes, your lawn may look very green indeed, but in 54mm it just looks fake. So make sure to mix in some brown and beige tones, or even highlight with pure drab beige. Many people tend to overdo groundwork and make it into some kind of decorative flowerpiece. I am also guilty of doing this in the past, but it only seems to distract from the figure.
Both airbrushing and brushpainting works, but I have found it easiest to first paint the basic groundwork, then glue on the grass, paint the grass (by brush), and finally retouch the groundwork, making sure to get some groundwork tones on the (base of the) grass also.
Finally, for inspiration:
-Bill's work is still one of the best for nicely understated groundwork, and he has one plenty of figures to check out different effects.
-Gianfranco Speranza has done very nice, althouh more "fancy looking" groundwork in the past, as has Brian Steward in a more distant past.
-The dioramas of Christian Petit are a real inspiration for more elaborate groundwork!
And attached is a dio I did a long time ago (please don't focus too much on the figures! :lol: ), showing the effect of a combination of static grass, plummers wire and some dried flowers trying to mimic a dusty dry Oukrainian summer steppe.
Hope this helps. Best wishes and good luck with the project!
Marijn
