Long Dead Grass in Wieland

 

Writing posts several weeks after the fact is never an easy task. It seems like all your thoughts are muddled and you lose the subtle ideas that crossed your mind when accomplishing the task. Nevertheless, it’s my duty to write about these things, even if time has passed.

 

You probably remember that I experimented a lot with grass and texture over the last few months. As expected, this prompted me to revisit the Murray Bay Subdivision and to apply the lessons learned. The was still a lot of open fields that required more texture. Some basic grass had been applied a few years ago, but it wasn’t satisfying. The color was slightly off and it lacked volume. Indeed, dead plants in ditches are much more than simple lawn.

Using Chris Mears proverbial support as a starting point, I started to apply diluted white glue in patches over the first layer of grass. Then, I made a custom mix of very long 12mm grass, 6mm fibers, jutes and smaller grass. It was haphazardly blended together in a random way to have some variation. I dabbed that mix over the glue and started to create clumps here and there. Different mixes were tried to ensure greater variety, but always using the same basic ingredients for a consistent color palette.

When dry, the vegetation was misted with hairsprays and dead leaves and fine green foam were sprinkled over to add more color and textures. These would replicate dead leaves who don’t fall during winter. 

The same approach was used to blend the new photobackdrop with the layout. This time, colors were carefully blended to match the vegetation on the picture. That was crucial to create a sense of continuity between the 3D and 2D worlds.

 

I still need to add more vegetation to complete the scene, but I must admit I really like the idea that you can build a scene in several steps over a long period of time. I’m not the first one to propose that, but experimenting with it really shows the potential. If you are not happy with the results, just dump more material until it reaches a critical mass!

By the way, I'm also the harbinger of a sad news about Charlevoix Railway. As we are speaking, the yard in Clermont has been dismantled completely after more than a decade of inactivities. It was to be expected, but in my mind, it would just rot and rust there for eternity. The return of freight service on the line was always a pipe dream, but we can now safely say it is no longer even a dream. hat said, no news if Wieland will be dismantled since it was still used by MoW. However, nothing is safe and maybe the old CCF snow plow is about to disappear from the landscape...