Řepkové pole

The yellow expanse everyone knows from spring

Flowering rapeseed is one of the most conspicuous images of the Czech landscape. From the middle of April the fields turn into a glowing yellow expanse that stretches from the road to beyond the horizon and can be seen for miles. On a model landscape it is therefore of particular value: a single such field instantly establishes the season and the place where the scene is set, without your having to add anything else.

What it is made of and how to work with it

The material belongs to the agricultural range that the manufacturer put together precisely so that varied small fields could be represented without the labor of planting individual plants. The backing is soft, so it readily follows undulating terrain and does not create an unnaturally flat surface on a hillock. The sheet is stuck down with PVA glue or hot glue, it is cut with ordinary scissors, and it is a good idea to leave the edges irregular – a sharp straight edge is the one thing that reliably gives a field away.

Where it fits

It will find use on model railroad layouts, on dioramas with military as well as civilian vehicles and anywhere a stretch of cultivated land belongs in the background. You will manage the transition to a track or to a field boundary by scattering static grass or scatter material along the edge and blurring the join that way. The sheet measures roughly eighteen by twenty-eight centimeters, which is enough for one smaller field, and for a large area several sheets can be laid side by side. Hide the join between them under a field track, a boundary strip or a row of bushes, exactly the way plots are divided in reality – two fields laid tightly side by side look artificial, whereas divided by a boundary they look natural.