Laying the turf around Thornycroft

As with Cliddesden, we used static grass to lay our turf around the Thornycroft site. Unlike Cliddesden where pretty much 85% of the board was grass, only the embankments at Thornycroft needed to be covered.

The embankments were made using polystyrene cut to shape, and then plaster-of-paris was laid over top. Once dried, watered down chocolate brown emulsion paint was applied to create the earth, and then using neat PVA and our home-made static grass applicator (warning it is not a toy) I started laying the turf using a mixture of different height grass and colours to create different effects.

The embankment down the road is mainly low grass with a mix of autumn and spring colours (later this will have shrubs and trees on top). The height gradually gets taller and starts to mix with lighter "dried" grass heading down the track to the crossing. After the crossing by the back of the wood store, the grass gets a bit patchy and "burnt". These effects add interest and realism to the model.

All in all it was a few ours work, and a few electric shocks (from the static grass applicator) to lay the turf.

Ed