Lichen - where does it come from?

[neonlights]

I bought a pack of basing materials the other day, and one of the packs contains lichen. Now, I had a good look at it, and it seems \"real\", I mean like an organically grown weed/fungus. It\'s very soft and seems to disintegrate quite easily. Are my eyes playing tricks on me or what?

Last thing i want is to put some dead plant on my mini only to find a few weeks later it\'s decayed and disintegrated! Has anyone else here used modelling lichen? Where does it come from? And if it is \'real\', then how do you preserve it?

 

[Dammekkos2]

Lichen grows mainly on rocks, there are many different types. If you\'re using the Hornby Lichen, I\'m not too sure what type it is. It looks organic though. I don\'t think it needs to be preserved, I had a bag lying around for a few years.

Edit - hornby lichen
http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=hornby%20lichen&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&sa=N&tab=wi

wild lichen
http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=lichen&hl=en

If you are using the hornby stuff, I would not reccomend it for bases, the scale is just far too massive. I think it would look good for terrain though if you play wargames etc.

 

[No Such Agency]

Lichen is a symbiosis between fungus and cyanobacteria! The fungus provides the mechanical \"shape\" and protection from the elements and the cyanobacteria photosynthesize to feed both!

Wikipedia entry for lichen

As for preserving it, it will dry out and lose its strength and vibrant colour like any dried organic material. You could prevent it from falling apart with a liberal coat of spray varnish, I suppose. If that worked well you could paint it...

EDIT - Actually, don\'t. Lichen always looks like crap when used on bases. It might look serviceable for alien plants or something but it still always looks out of scale somehow. Never use it to imitate regular \"earthly\" foliage, it never looks plausible..

 

[TAB Studio]

My favorite green thing,It grows on alkaline rocks, Coral walls and soil here and I use it for Bonsai ground cover but it must have lots of water to live and thrive pretty tiny white bloom as well, to walk through large areas of it is a toe treat.

 

[Rab]

Originally posted by neonlights
Last thing i want is to put some dead plant on my mini only to find a few weeks later it\'s decayed and disintegrated! Has anyone else here used modelling lichen? Where does it come from? And if it is \'real\', then how do you preserve it?

The stuff you buy in the shops is already treated and dyed. They soak it in glycerin which replaces the water in it, otherwise it would dry out and go all crunchy.

Model railroad guys use buckets of the stuff and I think a lot of them collect it themselves and do the dying/preserving thing at home.

You shouldn\'t have to do anything to preserve it, although, as NSA said varnishing it wouldn\'t hurt.

Rab.

 

[Evil Dave]

Originally posted by neonlights
Lichen - where does it come from?

Lichenberg

 

[ilynx2k4]

Originally posted by No Such Agency
EDIT - Actually, don\'t. Lichen always looks like crap when used on bases. It might look serviceable for alien plants or something but it still always looks out of scale somehow. Never use it to imitate regular \"earthly\" foliage, it never looks plausible..

Hey! I use it all the time!

I agree with you though that it can look out of scale, but I tend to use only very very small sections of it, usually from the tip of a strand. The tips are sometimes splayed out into a four pointed star shape too which, with a dab of paint, can look quite good.

Example : http://www.coolminiornot.com/88492

 

[Ritual]

Originally posted by ilynx2k4
I agree with you though that it can look out of scale, but I tend to use only very very small sections of it, usually from the tip of a strand. The tips are sometimes splayed out into a four pointed star shape too which, with a dab of paint, can look quite good.

That\'s the best use for it! The problem with lichen is that it\'s instantly recognisable as just lichen. If you use small bits though, like in your example, it looks really nice, especially if you paint it.

 

[neonlights]

Thanks for the insight everyone! I was particularly impressed with the encyclopedic definition

I was thinking of first dipping it in some watered down paint, maybe 2 water : 1 paint, wait for it to dry, repeat if necessary.
Then do the same, but this time in watered down varnish. Same ratio, and a couple of times. That way I can get it to the right colour and hopefully give it some additional protection.

Anyone see any downsides to this?

 

[No Such Agency]

Just try it! As experiments go, it\'s about as cheap and easy as they come.