Workbench EXPERT MODELLERS SHOW YOU HOW
Waste not want not, says Peter Marriott, who has a great idea for using up every last fibre of a popular scenic material.
Sea moss – also known as sea foam – has been a popular material for making model trees for decades. Kits often come packed with a range of different size clumps and, inevitably, there will be plenty of loose debris in the box.
Any larger pieces of sea moss debris are ideal for use as they come, but much of the smaller ‘waste’ is often discarded. But wait! These smaller fibres and clumps can be useful for making shrubs and bushes, meaning you buy less in the long run, saving yourself a few pounds that can be put towards other things. All aspects of the sea moss kits can be used. Although the first step is to remove the large seedpods with your fingers or a pair of tweezers, they can be crushed and re-used as as natural scatter material for the floor of a wood or forest.
ANY GAUGE Price £24.75 (Gaugemaster GM 195) or £21.00 (Noch 23102) AVAILABILITY Noch stockists or www.gaugemaster.com 20 mins
In this project, I used RTS Microturf as the first layer of leaves on the bushes. These are tiny foam pieces, larger than fine turf scatters, but smaller than Woodland Scenics Underbrush, creating a good base on which to add sprinkles of fine, light green scatters.
Microturf is available in a number of colours, so it doesn’t matter what season or type of bush you’re modelling. The RTS stockist in the UK is DCC Train Automation (www.dcctrainautomation.co.uk).
If you opt to employ Microturf on your bushes, it also means that you need less scatter material, saving yourself even more money.
You can create about 20 trees out of a typical single box of sea moss and, with the additional costs of the adhesive, paint and scatter material for each tree, the price works out at around £1 per tree, with the bushes being an added bonus. It takes under half an hour to prepare the bushes for installation, so it can be a quick and easy way to add to your scene.
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