Alfalfa Field

 I have kind of jumped the gun a little bit lately and have started working on some scenery.  I had planned on putting an alfalfa field just to the east of Denton.  

I started out by painting the foam with a brown latex paint.  Before the paint has a chance to dry, I sprinkle on some very fine sifted dirt.  The dark brown dirt is where the alfalfa field is going to be.  The dirt came from one of my irrigation ditches in my hay fields.  The lighter dirt in the background will represent dryland cattle pastures and the area around a house.  That dirt come from the side of my road.  The very light spot in the upper middle of the first photo is where a house is going to go.  To apply the dirt, I use the lid from a can of spray paint and then put part of a nylon over it.  It works very well and allows for a very even coverage.  The second photo shows how fine the dirt layer is.

To represent the alfalfa, I mixed several different shades and heights of Silflor Static Grass.  I use the Woodland Scenics applicator and it seems to do a good job.  For my glue, I just use thinned Elmers glue and apply it with a spray bottle from Home Depot.  

I masked off my tracks, edge of road, and fascia before apply the glue.  It took only a minute or two to apply the static grass.  I let it dry for a little bit, and then went over it with a shop-vac to suck up any loose pieces and help stand all the fibers upright.

To finish off the alfalfa I used a fine sifter to apply some lavender highlights from Scenic Express.  I use hairspray to hold it all together.  Alfalfa in our part of MT is generally harvested when it gets about 10-20% bloom.  So if this was a real field, it would be ready to go.  I think the bottom right corner of the field is a little too ripe!  Oops!  

I'm not sure how happy I am with the results, so I may end up cutting it with an old bear trimmer and then throw a few round bales on it to call it good.  Also, like I said earlier, I jumped the gun by starting scenery and I'm sure that this will end up getting destroyed as a I still have a lot of foam shaping to finish.