Hi Ian
First , I must say that those hedgerows weren’t my idea; just experimenting with a technique discussed in Osprey’s Terrain Modelling by Richard Winslow. I recommend this book highly. Find it on Amazon.com and ask for it for Christmas.
I started on a wooden plaque from Hobby Lobby= $1.99. Glued a piece of styrofoam 1" x 1.5" x 8" ($.01? just a scrap piece) across, with Crafter’s Pick water based Super Glue- $3.99. This glue is outstanding for dio building. An 8 oz bottle will take you a long way. I took the advice that nothing should be completely “squared” or symetrical on the base, just doesn’t look right, so the sttyro went on at an angle.
Covered entire base with Celluclay, 5-6 bucks for a pound. Added brown cheap acrylic paint to mixture. Cheaper versions of Celluclay available. It’s really just paper mache. Cheaper technique is sand / dirt mixed to thin pancake batter with white glue, water and brown paint. Add tiny rocks, tiny broken twigs, etc to give texture. Whatever mix used, spread over base and styrofoam and styro piece. Made gully in mix for pathway, sprinkled tan sand over top.
While the mixture was still wet, I inserted the very ends of a “twig broom” bought at Michael’s ($1.99) to look like hedge trunks- really crowded them in there. Allowed entire base to dry. Added rocks to sides of “wall” while still wet. Placed larger rocks in scene for a couple of boulders.
Next day, I glued fiberous material lengthwise across top of twigs to give hedges “body”. I used rubberized horsehair. You could use Woodland Scenics’ Polyfiber ($3.00), but I wanted to try this material disscussed in Winslow’s book. I could only find it in the U.K. from a pace called Antenocities. Not expensive, however I had to pay for trans-Atlantic shipping. Wasn’t too bad though. I bought as much as I could afford, almost twenty dollars. Should last me a few lifetimes.
Spray white glue/water mix over top and then started sprinkling tons of dried herbs. Parsley, oregano, dill weed, basil, whatever the Ruler of yout kitchen won’t miss. Laid down grass using static grass in clumos with tweezers to glue/water sprayed in base. I didn’t bother painting grass, but you should. Paint greens for thick, healthy patches. Tans and browns at path edges and in patches for dead or dying grass.
This is just how I did this one piece. There are hundreds of different techniques. The hardest part is patience. Take a walk through a park, notice the colors, textures, growth patterns that you see. Snap pictures. Google “hedgerow” on internet images. Visit “how to…”'s and “how I…”'s on individual modeller’s websites. References and instructions galore!
I feel out of breath, that was a long monologue. I advise picking up that book. Great place to start. Experiment and keep doing it. Plan big, build bigger- if that’s what you want. I think all advice about starting small is hindsight wisdom. You can only believe that once you have screwed up. It just means practice small. Once you’ve accomplished results you like for different elements (figures, painting, structures, terrain, etc.), bring all those components together for the larger scenes. My first dio was a 1 foot x 4 foot Omaha; dozens of figures plus water, ostacles, a raft, blood, the works! Never fully finished. Stands today as a reminder of my dillusions of grandeur. However, my next project will be a gi-normous scene in Oosterbeek, outside of Arnhem, with half a dozen Brit paratroopers and twice that of Germans running them out of town. Wish me luck.
SteveM
