I've used the dry moss sold at Hobby Lobby and Joann's but I discovered something in my yard just before sunset yesterday. I have a tree in my yard. I have no idea what kind of tree it is, but it drops little acorns in the fall/winter like nobody's business. Yesterday, I noticed that some of the twigs that had broken off and landed on the ground had something all over them that looks to me like some kind of moss. I doesn't appear to grow on live limbs, but there's a broken limb caught in the tree and it also has this moss-looking stuff on it. I'm hoping someone can tell me what it is and whether I can let it dry and use it for modeling bushes, shrubs, etc.
I would absolutely give it a try! I use stuff like that for forest floor undergrowth and such. Let your imagination take over. You can also spray paint it and or use ground foam on it. Or not. Post pics of your efforts when you can.
Do not be surprised if it crumbles after it is dried out. You may need to soak it in glycerin so that it stays flexible. GS
Brandon, your tree is a Oak. They can be a real pain in the #@% and the acorns get everywhere as you have probably noticed. The Oaks with the large acorns make great shade trees though. Natural materials can be a great modeling resource. I like to use Nandena (spelling?) for tree armatures on my N scale layout! Joe
I hit the mother load when I went to tidy up my uncle's grave today. His grave is on the edge of the cemetery. The cemetery has a narrow road around it. Just across the cemetery road is a ditch with a steep bank on the other side. There on the bank was... the mother load of moss, right on top of the ground...no tools needed. I have to clean it all up, let it dry, and paint it, and there's plenty more where this came from. Also, I saved the Styrofoam from the old flowers we removed before replacing with new flowers. I'm going to collect more Styrofoam like this from a tradition in my area called "decoration." http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2316. I plan to stack the Styrofoam in 2 or more corners to model hills. It may seem weird, but the city will appreciate me removing some of the decoration trash for them.
Brandon, that which you have on the tailgate is lichens. That will need to be soaked in glycerin to keep it from becoming very brittle.
Uncanny timing, Sherrel. I think it was glycerin that I saw in the H/BA section of our neighborhood HyVee supermarket this afternoon, while there with my daughter. It was in the lotions/Gold Bond section, provided that I'm thinking of the right stuff and that I am remembering correctly that it was, in fact, glycerin. I just remember thinking that it seemed to be a rather unusual thing to see. It had a rather old-style label, not unlike the mercurochrome and merthiolate that we used to stock at the store where I worked. Best Regards,
http://www.walmart.com/search/?quer...22254&wl4=kwd-47302817174&wl5=9012644&veh=sem What's best? What's most economical? What would happen if I don't soak the lichen in glycerin and use it in the background of my layout where it wouldn't be touched?
The stuff off of my oak tree limbs is apparently shrubby fruticose lichens. It's also growing on a dead tree in my mother's backyard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichen#/media/File:Lichen-covered_tree,_Tresco.jpg
Would this type of Glycerin work for treating lichen for model railroading purposes? I've been keeping my lichen submersed in a 5 gallon bucket of water, changing out the water each week or so. So far, it has kept the lichen pliable. However, I want to get my lichen treated with glycerin pretty soon. https://www.amazon.com/Glycerin-Veg...=UTF8&qid=1467074901&sr=8-8&keywords=Glycerin
Sure, it ought to perform as hoped. In the old days, you could go to the drugstore and get various items like this if you needed only small amounts because they used them for compounding. I doubt that is possible any more.
OMG, Chris, Shades of yesterday. My mother would drag out that little bottle of merthiolate every time I had a scrape/cut. I can still feel the stinging on a knee or elbow scrape!
