Sagebrush, Step by Step

I have obsessively spent a rather ridiculous amount of time trying to duplicate the distinctive look of Big Sagebrush, a.k.a. Basin Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), which is the dominant plant around much of the Lockwood Valley. 

At left is a bush made using the Harold Minkowitz method;
 center, my Big Sagebrush. At right is one made the same way
 but using brown fur and Scenic Express "Sage" colored foam.
 It might pass as Yerba Santa, another common plant in 
Lockwood Valley.

Harold Mikowitz wrote about using fake fur to make bushes on his Pacific Coast Air Line Railway web site (www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com) and I tried his method. It makes good bushes, resembling dry season California chaparral, and I have made some that way and have a few on the diorama. It didn't look like the specific Big Sagebrush I was looking for, but I took that as a starting point and went from there. The main problem was color: Different sages and sagebrushes can vary widely in color, but the kind I wanted was a light gray with just a hint of green. I have not been able to find a currently available commercial scenery product that's the right color. Some manufacturers, like Scenic Express, have colors of ground foam and other scenery materials that they call sage, and they do resemble some kinds of sage, but not Big Sagebrush.

The leftmost sagebrush here is plain gray, without the spritz of
Vallejo Gray-Green.

Then, digging around in a box of train stuff, I came across a package of gray ground foam made by AMSI (Architectural Model Scenery Supply Inc.) that I had forgotten about. I apparently picked it up at the old Allied Hobbies store in Culver City, probably in the late 90s. Combined with gray fake fur, it gives me pretty close to the color I wanted. Unfortunately, the company has apparently gone out of business, so unless I can find another source, I'll have to figure out how to make my own when this runs out.

So here's the process I am using:

• Cut small squares of the fake fur. For O Scale, I make them between 1/4 and 1/2 inches square. It's best to cut the fur base, or backing, or whatever it's called, from the back side, using a sharp hobby knife or a razor blade, to minimize cutting the actual fur fibers.
• Using something like an awl or the tip of an Xacto knife, tease out the fibers so they all stick more or less straight up. Pull off any loose fibers.
• With a small, sharp pair of scissors, trim the bush to shape. Don't make it too regular or evenly rounded, but do trim any "wild hairs" that stick out too far away from the main mass.
• The fur I am using has a light gray base or backing which stands out like a sore thumb when installed. You can and should hide this with other scenery materials, but I also obscure it by coloring the edges with a brown fine point marker.
• Stick some double sided tape down on a sheet of cardboard, and stick the fur tufts to the tape, spaced an inch or two apart. Fluff and shape the fibers they way you want them.
• Spray the tufts lightly with cheap, unscented hair spray. The purpose of this first spray is to do what hair spray does -- stiffen the fibers and keep them in place. Let dry.
• Spray the tufts again with hair spray, and while it's still wet, sprinkle on gray ground foam. I use my fingers or even a pair of tweezers to avoid wasting the ground foam. When done, spray again. 
• Finally, sprinkle some of the bushes with Woodland Scenics yellow "flower" material. I vary the amount, with some getting just a light sprinkle, and some getting a moderately heavy application. Spray with hairspray one more time.
• When I made the latest batch, I sprayed some of them lightly with Vallejo Light Green-Gray to give them a hint of color. The difference is so slight in didn't even see it until I looked at painted and unpainted bushes side by side in photos on the diorama. But the painted ones definitely blend better with the other scenery, so I'll probably do this for future batches.

That's it. Now I just need to make about three dozen more.