Well, I'm currently into 15mm WWII, but you folks knew that... In setting up some France'44 scenarios it became painfully evident that I didn't have enough hedge-rows, or more accurately lichen to simulate them. I then came across a bag of totally dried out lichen given me by Keith Jordan.. The stuff was so dry and brittle it crumbled to the touch. I needed to use the stuff, but it was totally unusable (and try to find lichen around here...) Then I remembered partially an old model railroader's trick which perported to rejuvinate lichen, cooking it! But in what? Plain water dried out the next day, so that wasn't the answer. I vaguely remembered it was something begining with `G' that I had been advised to use...but WHAT? After much brain racking, I decided to try Glycerine from the local Wal-Mart Pharmacy. At about a buck a bottle, it was cheap enough. And guess what? Mixed 50-50 with water and heated up in an old saucepan it worked! I placed the brittle lichen into the warm (but not boiling) Glyerine-Water mix and after a couple of minutes the lichen was as soft and flexable as ever. The lichen has now set on my game table for the last several weeks (we're running a series of actions) and it is as flexable as the day it was fresh from the bag... Just thought you'd like to know. Another goodie picked up was from Vince Clyant and is using pillow stuffing fiber as smoke, etc. This is better than cotton because it does not have the propensity to crush flat like cotton, instead springing back to it's origonal shape after being compressed. Back to Dispatch Mar 2000 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com