Light moss

A light shade of moss for a diorama

Moss is the detail that immediately tells the viewer that the subject stood in one place for a long time. This material serves to imitate it and carries the light shade; the range also offers a medium and a dark shade, so overgrown places can be graded. The light tone suits sunlit areas and places where moss is only beginning to take hold.

Where moss appears on a model

Moss holds on where damp stays and where neither a hand nor traffic reaches: in the joints of paving, at the foot of walls, on a stone footing, on the north side of trunks and stumps, on roof tiles in the shade. On military and agricultural hardware it settles in the corners of superstructures, around rivets, under fenders and in welds, that is on machines laid up that nobody has looked after for a long time. That is exactly why the placing matters more than the amount: a continuous green film over the whole area looks untrue, whereas a few islands in logical places give a scene its age.

How to work with the material

• lay it down in small amounts and rather add to a finished area in stages
• keep to the places where damp stays: corners, undersides, joints and the far sides
• the material is fixed with a binder, commonly thinned PVA glue or matte varnish
• apply the binder to the base first and lay the material onto the damp area
• combine the light shade with the medium and the dark one, as a uniform tone flattens a scene
• once dry, brush the loose surplus off with a soft brush

Terms of supply

The material for imitating moss is supplied on its own. The binder, glue, paints, the diorama base and the model are not part of the delivery, unless stated otherwise.