Re: [SGII], [DSII] Can't see the forest for the....

>A useful source of exotic-looking vegetation are plastic terrarium and
>aquarium plants. Usually quite large, but can be chopped up into
convenient
>pieces.

This sounds odd, I know, but none of the local pet stores have plastic
plants which look fake enough.	They have this really boring faux
seaweed
stuff, which isn't too useful for tabletop purposes.  I'm still looking
for
cheap, garish plants that I can chop up and use, but the aquarium owners
appear to have more taste these days.

This does remind me to hit AC Moore's and pick up some plastic
"evergreen"
Christmas wreaths, though.  With the right ones, you can apparently make
very nice pine forests by chopping them into bits.

>Also crafts shops have "plants" used for all kind of flower
arrangements
>etc. Some make interesting alien vagetation next to a 25 mm soldier.
>>
>> DSII, I've been making do with pieces of lichen on top of green felt.
 It
>> works, but it doesn't look all that good.  I've got some bumpy
chenielle
>> ready to be chopped into evergreens, but I'm not sure how to base
them yet
>> -- bases have a bad habit of warping on me, usually several months
after
>> I've finished working on them..  Any suggestions?  The AOL CDs are
too big
>> for this purpose, unfortunately.
>
>Useful stuff here is "Iceland moss" used by railroad modelers, also all
>kinds of spongy flocking materials available for them.

I've just found a good local RR store; I need to really give their
terrain
department a going-over.  I've heard this Iceland Moss mentioned before,
and I understand that it's much better than the Woodland Scenics lichen
that I've been using.

>An interesting suggestion I never tried myself is to use a piece of
>transparent plasticard the siz of the wood you want, flock it on top
and
>around the edges, fix wire, nails or screw vertically under it. The
supports
>should be high enough to fit troops under the wood's canopy.

That sounds neat...but I'd be afraid of losing troops under it,
forgetting
that they were they.  I get stuff lost in the lichen as it is.	Damn
camoflage!

John Crimmins
johncrim@voicenet.com
http://www.voicenet.com/~johncrim