I love the use of the broom branches for trees. It gives that lifelike tangle of a bunch of second growth trees fighting with each other which is rarely modeled on layouts. That is a great idea for summer modelers for edges of woods and forests too. The deer and the deadfall on the ground is a great detail that draws people into the forest. Adding some stumps of old trees or some bits of evergreen low growth could also do that.
My Weed And Grass Experiments I spent the afternoon continuing my landscaping work. Now that the entire layout is covered in dirt, and the forest is starting to take shape, I turned my attention to groundcover vegetation. Yep, that's right, I spent the afternoon immersed in weed and grass experiments. It was three hours of wild and crazy colors, bizarre patterns and textures, and lots of smoke (I built a fire in the fireplace, it was cold downstairs). The challenge was to find a blend of colors that would look like dormant winter grass - not green, but not quite brown either. My lawn right now is sort of a greenish-gray color, or it was before it snowed today, now it's white. After a few tries, I found the combination that I wanted: What you see here is a mixture of Light Green static grass from Woodland Scenics, ground-up leaves from outside (same coffee-grinder mix that I used for the forest floor), and clippings from a cheap Home Depot paint brush. I did NOT apply the grass with a static applicator, because I didn't want it to stand up. All of the tall grasses here are drooped over or laying completely flat, typical for early winter, so that's what I wanted my model grasses to look like. Looking around outside before the snow started falling, I think I've matched the look pretty well. A few more shots of what I finished today:
Grass & Weeds Looks great Tracy. The gray-green indicates the effect of a freeze, in your yard. The structure is excellent. Weathered nicely, especially the corrugated roofing.:thumbs_up: