Forest Grass Mats

The forest shade of a grass surface

The forest variant differs from a meadow in the way it handles light. Growth under trees never has deep spring green, because only a fraction of the sun reaches it; it has a darker tone shifted toward brown and an uneven structure in which denser and thinner spots alternate. That is exactly the character this ready-made surface is meant to imitate, without the modeler having to build it up in layers.

What the roll measures

The small roll measures 63.5 x 83.8 cm. The supporting part is a flexible film with a loose layer attached to it; that layer does not come free in normal handling. The same line also has considerably larger formats, so the smaller roll serves well where a finished scene needs a piece of wooded edge added, rather than a whole module covered.

Working with the vinyl backing

• The outline is cut with a knife or trimmed with scissors, the edges do not fray.
• Exposing the backing makes sense where a path or a clearing is to go.
• Mask the edge of the area by sprinkling foliage over it; a sharp transition gives away where the mat ends.
• Tree trunks are set through the layer into a pre-drilled hole.

The film can be fixed to a base board permanently, or left loose and moved between projects. Under a forest scene the second option proves itself: a tree can be replanted elsewhere at any time and the area stays usable. When the finished surface is completed with coarser foliage and a few tufts of taller vegetation, the regularity that every industrially made mat has disappears and the scene stops looking like a sample card.