How to stain realistic lichen 

been staring at this overly green batch of lichen for years... never ever crossed my mind to dye it. Thanks Mel!

In a thick plastic bag … I always add a little bit of flow improver, a tablespoon of Mod Podge, and use an acrylic ink/paint mix instead of just paint. Then I massage in all the ingredients. Finally, I dry all of it on a sheet of parchment or wax paper, making sure to separate each piece of lichen.

Love the reminder that we'll be adding more glue and washes as it's applied, so it's fine it comes out a bit clumped and/or inflexible after the dyeing step. Thanks for the great vid as usual!

Why did I never think of this? Brilliant! finnaly able to use some old lichen!

During the plague I played around with using RIT synthetic fabric dyes to color skateboard wheels for custom decks. I bet those would work great as an inexpensive colorfast dye that wouldn't bleed or re-activate. I was thinking about using them for DIY static grass. I got loads of colors.

Mix the paint, squeeze and squish! Nice and simple, good stuff.

I see lichen in all different colors in the craft stores. It comes in the typical bright green and the more usable mix like you showed, but also a light tan, brown, dark brown, drabs & oakers. I’ve even seen them in yellows, pinks, violets, blues, and reds. But I’ve used textile dies to change the shade of the lichen because it soaks in and stays. But hey, that looks really good, and that’s what matters. Keep cracking on. 😉👍👍

Glad to see you Mel! Great work

Most useful Mel/ I have some 40+ year old lichen from Beatties models, and some of it is bright green , some is lurid yellow, and there are a few clumps of pink/ purple. Lord knows what they were taking, when they made these. At least now I can break them out of storage to re-colour properly now.

Always excited to see a new video Mel. Working on a jungle myself so I can't wait for more Burma Build!

Love your models for heros hoodie

Mel, love this video! Gives me some ideas for my Frostgrave jungle board.

Great tips/techniques on lichen! Well done mate!

I never thought about darkening the lichens, thanks as always Mel! I hope to see soon a new video and a new idea ! Saluti dall’Italia 🇮🇹

Great stuff as always.

Great tips! I've always liked how lichen feels in hand, so soft and squishy. Smells good too. I can find it in the wild here where I'm situated at in Southeast U.S. but it's not very common due to my climate zone I suppose. Here it tends to grow on the ground near pines in dense wooded areas, kinda under them where they're kept shaded, and alongside the edge of the forest where it meets a clearing. Few and far between but sometimes pretty big patches.

Thanks for the how-to video Mel.

Nice video and a great tip.

Best way too wing down after long day at work. Is watch you.👍

I model on the cheap. I make all my own ground scatter (flocking) out of either sawdust that gets coloured in the electric coffee grinder my wife gave me for modeling, or foam rubber done same way in the coffee grinder. That way you can control the colours and the granularity of your finished product. I also make my own iron oxide (rust) by soaking about 4 pieces of 0000 steel wool in a quart jar with white vinegar. After about a month sitting in the window, I pour the mixture into a large pan (I use my old 11" x 14" stainless steel photo fixer trays when I had a darkroom) or baking dish and wait for the mixture to completely dry (usually about 2 to 3 weeks). Then I take a single edge razor blade and pulverize the contents into a fine powder and store it in little tins. Each batch I've done comes out a little different in colour. Then you use the rust as you would any weathering powder or chalk. It looks real, 'cause it IS real rust! I also colour my own chalk with acrylic paint and food colouring. I never buy weathering powders. Instead, I go to the dollar store and buy women's makeup in the little plastic containers. For $1.00 you can get quite a collection of different colours and they adhere better than weathering powders. For trees, I use the Nandena bush after the little red berries fall off, it leaves a perfect tree trunk (armature). I also have a TON of lichen growing out back on the hill behind my house. When using the Nandena bush tree armatures, you can paint them whatever colour you want--even grey for aspen trees. Cover the armatures with lichen, seafoam or whatever you want, then add your own home-made flocking and you're done. For pine trees, I use florist wire (wrapped) doubled and bits of jute cut in 1 to 1 1/2" laid in the wire, then using a drill, twist the wire while holding the other end in a pair of pliers.. I also use barbeque bamboo skewers with pig hair (horse hair) furnace filters (they're already green); have to paint the skewers first. And I never use spray paint since I use my airbrush for all my painting. I can use either acrylic or oil base paints; I usually use one airbrush for acrylic and the other one for oil base paints. Cheers from W Rusty Lane K9POW in eastern Tennessee

I’d love to know more about how they keep it “Soft”. I have tons of Lichen available naturally, but can never get it to stop drying out and crumbling int a powder. On another topic, several of my local modelers who watch this channel have had some fun, turning any of the episodes into a drinking game. Every time he says “Yeah”, we take a drink. Non of us have ever gotten so pissed drunk in such a short time. 😂😁👍🏼 Keep up the great content, Your friend from the other side of the pond. 😁✌🏼🇺🇸

Will do this with mine. Thanks

great stuff

Thanks for the video. Glycerin and glycerol are the same stuff, just different names.

Putting paints on plants! Nice work .)

Many thanks for yet another great modelling tip Mel, but this big Burma build has been going on for such a long time I started to think to myself, is there any part of Burma left which you haven't built!!!

good vid thanks lee

Great video! Where to buy the Lichen from in the UK please guys?

😍

This is great! Thanks for posting this. I have one question though. Will lichen eventually fall apart as it dries in your model?

Has anyone made the lichen joke yet? Mmm, im lichen this tutorial. Thank you.

It does look a whole lot more realistic. Over here in Sweden we use lichen for xmas decorations, so the stuff can be bought dirt cheap right after the holidays.

See you at salute mel?

À 6 minutes 58 secondes, vous montrez un produit. Pour les gens ne maîtrisant pas l'anglais, la traduction étant pourrie, il est difficile de suivre ce que vous dites. Or, il aurait été intéressant que vous puissiez montrer le nom du produit de la grosse bouteille. C'est super intéressant mais difficile de comprendre par moment.

why not use sum cheap hair spray the lichen then add coarse turf add nock leaves

I'm lichen it... (ahem).