Stone walls have always been a problem with me. Wheny ou can find them, they are expensive. An inexpensive substitute is made of balsa wood. By purchasing a solid length of balsa wood, one can make several items. Cut it the desired length, paint it grey, then do the detailed work in black with a toothpick. The detailed work consists of drawing various size "stones" on the grey. This will give you a low wall. By gluing two or more "low" walls together, you can raise the wall to any desired height. To make a hedge I recommend the use of green pomporns. They come in various sizes and can be used for many things. After acquiring the pompons of desired size, cut four pieces of poster board the desired length and width. Glue the four pieces together. When dry, paint the edges a dark green. When dry run two ridges of glue the length of the stand. This will be used to anchor the pomporns. When the glue is dry, paint the "top" green. While still wet, put railroad grass on it. This gives the appearance of grass. When the paint dries, tap the extra grass off by tapping it on its edge. Now glue the pompoms into place between the two ridges on the base. You do not see the ridges, but they hold the pompoms from rolling around. The base resembles the ground and will blend with dark green felt or other "grass". By using various size pompoms, you can make various size hedges. An example of additional uses would be making a small hedge the same width of a low wall. When dry, glue the hedge base to the top of the low wall. When you construct a portable village like one of those mentioned in an earlier SAPPER'S REPORT, the addition of small pompoms gives the appearance of greenery and makes the village more "natural". Pompoms are also useful when creating tree lines or small copses. The use of pompoms is only limited by the imagination of the builder. Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. IX No. 2 Back to Courier List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1989 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com