I started with some 4mm long "light green" static grass from Woodland Scenics. In reality, it is a blend of yellow (dead) grass and green grass and not light green at all. I thought it would capture the partially living, partially dead look of grass in the fall. But after I applied it, it looked terrible and just stood out like a sore thumb.
I used some light green craft paint to add highlights to the static grass and that helped, but it still didn't look like what I envisioned in my mind. It didn't look like fall. It reminded me of what I had done on my previous layout, which was set in May.
Assuming I had just used the wrong color of grass, I added a different shade of green grass to the patch of land between some of the train tracks. To mask the track I used strips of posterboard.
The result at least had the right texture, but I had gotten sloppy along the edges and grass had landed where it wasn't supposed to. But it was also too vibrant for some ground surrounded by dirty train tracks and a lumber yard. In all reality, it should be filthy, probably polluted, and have bits of trash here and there.
Eventually, I stopped working on my layout. It wasn't right. Part of it wasn't entirely my fault: I had never attempted to model autumn before and I didn't know how to do it. I was used to modeling spring. And autumn came late this year, so I was doing it from memory. (Not a good thing, I admit).
However, on a family drive the next day I saw what I was trying to achieve... and how my layout wasn't cutting it. All along the edges of the road were either piles of dead grass and leaves or bare earth. I needed light green grass as a base color, with patches of reddish/brown dirt and grass showing here and there. Accents would be some lighter grass in areas, with lots of collected leaves and brown dirt on the edges.
Trees were still mostly green and only starting to turn yellow, orange or red. It was beautiful. And not like my layout. I had gone too far down the "green path", focusing on mid-green and dark green and then attempted to highlight it with straw and light yellow static grass. My work was hideous.
So, I came home and used my shop vacuum to forcibly strip all of the green clump foliage off, as well as any loose static grass and turf that was willing to go. It looked better already. I didn't do every area at once, though, because I wasn't sure how my next steps would turn out. I guess that is why scenery takes practice just like anything else.
Then I started in one area and applied some brown stuff that came from Life-Like many years ago. It essentially looked like ground up leaves or grass, and I had never known what to use it for. I applied it along the edges of the scene I was working on. Next, I went over it with some real dirt to lighten and muddy it up, with some fine light green ground foam was sprinkled on. I could tell I was on the right path, so I glued it in place. No large bushes were added.
I redid the area with the bad yellow static grass, I applied more leaves, dirt, and light green ground foam. Instead of leaning into dark green, like I had originally, I completely left it off. Mid-green and a little brownish-green foam were also added. I wasn't going for the final look now, because I would try some static grass again later. Just an initial coat base layer for now.
Then, the rest of the right side of the layout was given the same treatment including the back lot by Northeast Chemical.
It isn't finished, but it is a start in the right direction. Now to add some bushes and larger foliage (and not those large green clumps of foam).
