Lichen - Autumn Mix

A fall mixture of shades

Fall is the only season that cannot be captured with one color. One tree yellows at a different rate than the next, whole green islands stay among rusty crowns and the fallen leaves beneath them change the tone again. That is precisely why a single shade is not put into the package but a mixture: a modeler picks piece by piece from it and composes an area where the color changes by the meter, not by whole fields.

The content of the small bag

The package has a volume of 1.41 dm³, that is 86.6 cubic inches in the manufacturer's measure. The proportion of the individual colors within the mixture is not laid down anywhere and it naturally differs between batches. Anyone building a scene over several stages will do well to pour the whole content out first and divide it by tone; when taking from the top, the lightest pieces stay until the end.

Composing a fall scene

• First lay the pieces out dry and move them until the distribution of color sits right.
• Only then glue the individual clumps down, so that the arrangement does not change.
• Place the richer tones rather in the foreground, where the eye looks for them.
• Leave the green pieces left over in the growth, as rust over the whole area looks unnatural.

The material has gone through preserving, so it stays supple and does not break when squeezed. It will find a use not only as a bush: torn up finely it will also serve as little heaps of leaves at the foot of a tree or as climbing vegetation on stonework. Together with coarse stone in a related color, growth gets a texture that clumps on their own do not have, and the transition between the ground and a crown stops being a visible boundary.