Tutorial - Bringing in more detail to your quick grass

posted by roman, jarhead ,kong

Introduction
Hi. Actually I am a bit cast away in the Rhinotaure :D
... but I am preparing some articles to it as I told you.
This one comes up with pure spontaneity and tells about details when using MiniNatur Grass.

In fact I really like to use this kind of pretty quick applied grass, but for more complex projects only the quick use of it isn't enough in my eyes. So often do I see so cool painted figures but the grass on the base looks like someone ran into a railroad museum and stole the grass on the plate. Never forget the base is also important when presenting your paintjob and a little extra detail on the base will not make your project worse - it just might take some hours more :)

Just a little break
- looking out of the window makes me get lost in trees and their beautiful detail these days:

Lost in detail
Now imagine you have used your

Using MiniNatur Grass
Bringing up some green to your base with the products of MiniNatur.

already. I did recently and took a little drop of superglue and placed it at the base, fixed for further painting. If you just fix it with its "selfglue-option" it will be gone as soon as water hits the spot.
I placed it like described in the article, then comes the detail work. Therefore I use, damn it - I don't know what it is. I remember myself being a little boy doing vacations in Italy and we always found those things at the beaches. Fantastic Diorama builder Trull came up with them again some years ago and gave me some. I was very lucky for recieving some more in MSS. Carefully ripp them apart, not the whole thing just the amount you might need.

Remember, you are not limited because you don't know where to get such stuff or don't know what it actually is. You can also use an old brush or some other Macgyvering for it.

I now did hit my MiniNaturgrass with some purposeful spots of matt varnish, using an old brush for this task. Now begins the meditation part. Using a toothpick to pick the blades of grass single. Maybe using some spit on the toothbrush (not much) to pick them up easily. Now place them in where the matt varnish waits. Make sure you do some with different heights as it is about changing the height of the constant seized MiniNatur. Listen to some quiet music, drink tea and place them carefully. Don't - I say it again tell your girlfriend to help to unload the car during your meditational work. Make sure to run away if you see a 20 kilo bag of cat litter or all your mind preperation will be gone in seconds and your hands can't do the right motion for at least half an hour. Just wanted to mention this :)

After your varnish dried you won't see any of it left. 
Optional you could do some more or even take a trimmer to trimm the grass if you like to do so.
Next Step was to bring the grass colour back on track with the base colour. An old brush, some washes of dirty colours, mainly colours you see in your base too brings it all back. Use a pure drop of water on the grass first and then hit the place with your colour of choice. This way it will mainly float to the ground and make the gras more darker to the ground, what in fact was the goal of this step.

After this dried out well you might go another run or do again some more steps with the matt varnish or trimm the grass, whatever you like. I am slowly finishing the base in its overall appereance and during my painting with some Oil colours on it I gently drybrushed the grass in its upper areas to get those parts brighter.

Basic use of oil colours 1
... and what you got to know for an easy start with oil paint, by Roman.

Basic use of oil colours 2
Andrea explains his way of using oil colours! Pure Essence of Petroleum, baby!

I now show you the actual state of progress - still a lot to do and I think I will make them even brighter in the end and set some final highlights into the grass blades.

You can also use your fingers or a a pair of tweezers to just ripp something out of those weed bubbles and glue it in place, this looks also very natural, but it is a bit tricky on how to place them with glue without glueing them to your fingers. I guess this sounds good as homework :)

Conclusion
I hope you like this little article, nothing special I know but sometimes beauty is hidden in the details.
I think the Rhinotaure makes me go lost in detail as it will be a late Christmas gift to Robert aka Muhani, someday. Well, I am really motivated as I also do it for the GoldenVinci :)

If you got any questions or just want to say "Hi" drop a comment.
So far, I am doing some happy painting on it again!
Roman

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