Gauge Neutral Leaf foliage autumnal, brown, 28 x 14 cm

HEKI leaf mat, autumnal brown, 28 by 14 cm

A foliage mat from the German maker HEKI measuring twenty-eight by fourteen centimeters. The covering in the shape of small leaves holds on a carrier net and can be stretched out into an irregular texture. Brown is the color of late autumn, when the leaf has lost its pigment and only dry foliage is left on the tree. On a model it comes across quietly and takes large areas as well without the vignette going flat into one color, as happens with striking yellow and red.

Use

• the crowns of oaks and beeches in late autumn
• dry bushes, dead wood and the edges of roads
• toning down an autumn vignette that is too varied
• growth in winter scenes without snow

How to work with the mat

Tear a piece off, stretch it out into irregular gaps and lay it onto the framework. Fix it with sparing drops of super glue or white glue. On late autumn trees it proves itself to leave the crown sparser than in summer so that the branches show through; it is precisely that framework showing through that makes the difference between autumn and summer more convincingly than color does. Then sprinkle brown granulate under the tree as fallen leaves.

Who the mat is for

For builders of autumn and winter scenes and for modelers who need to tone down a landscape that is too varied. Brown foliage also suits growth around abandoned buildings and branch lines, where the landscape is to come across as neglected and uncared for. It is a modeling material, not a toy. The manufacturer marks its landscaping goods as unsuitable for children under fifteen.