Wild Tuft – Beige

Beige clumps on the edge of the desert

Beige is lighter and cooler than classic straw; it comes close to the color of dry sand and is used where the growth should blend with the ground. Semi-desert steppes, dunes with stabilizing vegetation, the edges of field airfields in Africa or the parched hills of Sicily and Crete are among the typical places where this tone works better than a richer yellow.

The parameters of the sheet

The fibers reach 6 mm and there are 35 clumps on the film. The middling length means that the growth stays legible even after the scene is dusted with pigment, which is not always true of the lowest variants.

The recommended procedure during building

You get the best result by gluing the tufts on before the final dusting. Pigment applied over them unifies the color of the fibers with the ground and takes away their factory look. Place them in irregular groups of two to five pieces, with gaps larger than seem natural at first glance, because in a dry landscape there is always more bare soil than growth. An interesting effect comes from setting some of the clumps into still damp sandy paste; the edges sink in and the transition is then perfect. Before gluing, please check that the base is free of grease from fingers, otherwise the adhesive layer will not hold. It also works well to combine beige with green tufts in places where in reality there would be water, by a well for instance or along an irrigation canal. Beige has one more use that tends to be forgotten. Crumbled pieces of the fibers mixed with sand create a layer of dry debris of the kind that gathers in the lee of walls and in the corners of yards. All you have to do is cut the growth short with scissors and scatter it.