Friday, April 22, 2011

A to Z: Spanish Hanging Moss : Tutorial

One of my favorite unfinished projects is my Bayou Elf army.  Someday I may get back to it.
I wanted the bases to be very atmospheric, with swamp water & vegetation.
One of the ideas I had was making trees with hanging Spanish Moss. Problem was, I had no idea how to make it, and in searching, found no tutorials on the subject either.

So this is the results of my solution.

It's a year and a half ago now from when I posted the results and guide on TWF, and I'm sure that group-month's thread is long buried now, so 'S' gives me reason to post it here, where it's likely to be easier to find again in the future... so here goes:

Here's the basics of what you need:
Fine grade sponge-turf
PVA Glue
A couple shades of muted mossy green paint
Cotton (I got mine from the top of an Advil bottle)
Minis with trees that you'll be wanting to have be mossy.

Here's the three, with the first test subject having been done already.

Start by mixing some paint on Aluminum Foil, making the paint darker than you'd like it to look

Next add PVA glue to this. About twice as much as the paint.

Mix it with an old junk-brush.

See? It's a lighter color now.  should still be a bit darker than you'd like your moss to be.

Next start adding in the turf flock. it should get thick & lumpy.

Add a touch of water if you need to, so it will still move about and be wet.

Pull some cotton, about this much here, though you'll want to vary the amount, more or less now & then.

Lay it on the mixture, pressing it with your finger to have it soak up the mix.  Then pull it through the mix, which thins the strand some.

It will look like this.  No doubt, this is messy work.  Enjoy the flashbacks from kindergarten finger-painting!

Have a bowl of water handy, because your fingers will get gunky, and you'll need to rinse them periodically so you can handle new clump-strands of cotton.

Begin draping your hanging moss on your branches. Sprinkle more foam turf on any spots that look too smooth. Separate & pull bits here & there.

Let it dry for a good day and you're set!  You now have a mossy swamp!

2 comments:

David Drage said...

Nice tutorial thanks!

Paul´s Bods said...

Now that I like....:-D
I suppose this could be used in say a drainpipe sort of set up, paint a bit of gloss on it to make it look all slimy!!!
Cheers
paul

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