Lowly Lichen....Anyone Still Use It?


Greg@mnrr

Greg@mnrr

Section Hand
Lichen was once a very commonly used scenery material who has lost some favor with modelers as the selection of scenery material has expanded. Today I found a bag of dyed, compact lichen still just fresh after years in a storage area. A piece was used to fill in a spot where there should be a bush or plant and the small piece of the green stuff did the trick. The lichen blended in very well once the other scenery materials were in place around the lichen

Finding this bag of lichen gave me an idea as to how to finish a steep grade behind a large building. I'll use lichen and some tall plant material like Scenic Express trees planted in the lichen. Lichen maybe easier to install in mass than ground foam or make rock formations.

Old, dried out lichen mixed with ground foam makes good small broken branches and ground litter and I have a half full bag of the dried out lichen just for this purpose.

Anyone else use lichen and do you make use of it?

Thanks.

Greg
 
I've used it on areas where it can't be recognized as lichen.

In the following image, I used it on a [mostly] hidden area of my layout that is not accessible directly from an aisle. It's the shrubbery that lies beyond the highway overpass - the sky is a solid backdrop with a 4"x5" hole cut into it:

AsLaidAsItGets_TracksideEdited.jpg


I also used it as underlying support for hillside vegetation, with Scenic Express leaf material sprinkled on top - can you spot which of the bushes are lichen-based?

SouthBrooklynTownSlope_ShrubberyAndTrees_01.jpg
 
My wife got me a couple of bags for Christmas a couple years go. Still usin' 'em!

 
I have a bag of it on hand. It may not be all that popular BUT it has some great uses, especially for fill and adding dimension to an area.
 
Iron Horseman:

I have lichen growing all over my Central Wisconsin wooded acres. Never considered "harvesting" it since its easier just to buy a bag or two from Woodland Scenics.

Lazy way of using things.

Greg
 
I haven't used it since I tore out my N scale layout in the late 70's. By the time I started scenery on my HO layout, ground foam and other scenery products were available.
 
I know I have a bag full of it. Judging by some of the pics I've seen in this thread I know how I'm going to cover my hills on my layout.

Justin
 
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