Light Green

Light green growth of early spring

Fresh green with no gray in it is the color of growth a few weeks old. That is how a meadow looks in May, how young grass looks on freshly sown ground, or a band of vegetation right beside water, where there is moisture all year. In a diorama this tone moves the scene into the first half of the year at once, even when nothing else on it changes.

The fraction is coarse, so the grains stay perceptible once glued and the area gains volume. The difference from fine turf shows mainly from the side, at the eye level of the model. The contents are 945 cm³ of material, in inch measure 57.7 cubic inches. The coloring is permanent and takes both water-thinned glue and a fixing spray.

Mixing shades

Light green is rewarding precisely because it can be toned down. On its own it tends to be too strong for a large area, but as a companion to darker tones it does exactly what happens in nature: it lights up the tops of tufts and the spots where the sun falls. The recommended way is to lay a dark base and sprinkle the light shade on only in part.

It finds use off the ground as well. Glued to the armature of a bush it makes young foliage; sprinkled into the joints between stones it suggests that a wall has stood without maintenance for several seasons. It suits all scales without restriction.

One more note on planning a scene. Greenery in nature changes from meter to meter, which is why it is usually better to buy two close shades than one and divide the area between a sunlit and a shaded part with them. The border then only needs blending lightly by sprinkling both materials, and the eye takes that transition as a matter of course.