Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge

[TMo]

Amanda,

There are a variety of methods, but it's all based on the concept that if you look at a wooded hillside, beyond the first group of trees closest to you on the bottom of the hill to the top, all you see is the tops of the trees (a bunch of puff balls).

Also, if you look carefully, there's a variety to the colors, usually based on the tree type or the time of year. I model August/September, so the color pallette is pretty varied.

The classic puff-ball tree (I got the term from Dave Frary out of his excellent "How to Build Realistic Model Railroad Scenery") is a clump of green polyfil with a coating of either course turf (ground foam) or leaf flock embedded on the top surface.

The polyfil is torn off and shaped into a ball by compressing it in the palm of your hand. It's then dipped in matte medium solution and again compressed in your hand to squeeze out the extra matte medium. You then plop the ball into a plastic bag with your ground foam or leaf flock and you shake the bag to get the ground foam particles to coat the puff ball.

Another excellent alternative is to apply clumps of moss - I buy bags of at least 4 colors of moss (which you can get at most craft stores).

I apply by dipping in full strength glue and applying to my painted Sculptamold base and secure with a straight pin.