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lichen

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    April 2003
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lichen
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, December 25, 2003 12:15 PM

years ago the method used for softening and preserving lichen was to use glycerine. any alternate methods floating around?

jon in tennessee
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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, December 25, 2003 8:51 PM
it was simple and worked.

nowadays most people buy precoloured stuff which is more expensive but easier to get hold of (in a city at any rate) and doesn't fade with time if exposed to UV light.
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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, December 25, 2003 9:28 PM
Nowadays most people don't even use lichen anymore. It's not very realistic. They use ground foam, mostly.
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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, December 27, 2003 4:06 AM
thanks for the posts. i thought i might use some as it grows all over the place here in southwest tennessee.

jon in tennessee
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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, December 27, 2003 8:18 AM
I gathered up a ton of lichen on a trip to Maine a few years ago. I got a gallon of glycerine through a medical supply pharmacy back home here in Connecticut (they supply nursing homes with stuff- also a good source for plaster gauze cloth...) and boiled the lichen. It has stayed soft for the last 5 years. I sprayed it with some cheap green spray paint (Krylon in a can) and then did the matte medium-ground foam-matte medium thing. I've been really happy with the results for covering large areas of background on my N scale layout.
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Posted by mloik on Tuesday, December 30, 2003 2:02 PM
The stuff grows all around the place where I live. Carefully selected, they make good models of shrubs of the type common across the western US.

Michael Loik
Ben Lomond, CA
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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, December 30, 2003 2:19 PM
It's Dirt Cheap at Hobby Lobby. Sold in the floral section as deer moss. Seems to be cheaper than the chemicals and colors needed to make it. Is still a viable scenery material. FRED
  • Member since
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  • From: El Dorado Springs, MO
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Posted by n2mopac on Saturday, January 3, 2004 4:09 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by ACL Fan

Nowadays most people don't even use lichen anymore. It's not very realistic. They use ground foam, mostly.


I beg to differ, if use correctly. In N scale I use it for the bushier portions on the upper parts of live, growing Summer deciduous trees and I cover it with ground foam to simulate leaves. I agree that the old fashioned way of using it alone with nothing covering it did not look very good, but with the ground foam foliage It looks very nice.
Ron

Owner and superintendant of the N scale Texas Colorado & Western Railway, a protolanced representaion of the BNSF from Fort Worth, TX through Wichita Falls TX and into Colorado. 

Check out the TC&WRy on at https://www.facebook.com/TCWRy

Check out my MRR How-To YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/RonsTrainsNThings

 

  • Member since
    February 2001
  • From: El Dorado Springs, MO
  • 1,519 posts
Posted by n2mopac on Saturday, January 3, 2004 4:12 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by ACL Fan

Nowadays most people don't even use lichen anymore. It's not very realistic. They use ground foam, mostly.


I beg to differ, if use correctly. In N scale I use it for the bushier portions on the upper parts of live, growing Summer deciduous trees and I cover it with ground foam to simulate leaves. I agree that the old fashioned way of using it alone with nothing covering it did not look very good, but with the ground foam foliage It looks very nice.
Ron

Owner and superintendant of the N scale Texas Colorado & Western Railway, a protolanced representaion of the BNSF from Fort Worth, TX through Wichita Falls TX and into Colorado. 

Check out the TC&WRy on at https://www.facebook.com/TCWRy

Check out my MRR How-To YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/RonsTrainsNThings

 

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