HI: IMHO, I've always associated grass mats with temp or Christmas layouts. My advice would be to use a wide variety of colors and textures for your scenery. There is a very good selection of materials available today. Take a look at what Scenic Express has available. Here's an example.
Static can look the most realistic. You can build an aplicator for under $5.00!!! It works just as well as the other homemade or store bought ones.
http://www.009.cd2.com/flyswat.htm
I bought my swatter from Harbor Freight for $2.99 and they have had them on sale for as little as $1.99
ratled
Modeling the Klamath River area in HO on a proto-lanced sub of the SP “The State of Jefferson Line”
Check out Scenic Express. They have silflor grass mats. It's not like the astroturf looking stuff.
Scenic Express grass mats
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
I did go witht he jar stuff and static grass. I am really impressed with how realistic it looks. I am very glad that I didn't go with the sheets. I went to the local shop, and he had a display. It didn't look realistic at all. It looked more like astroturf or something. Thanks
Peace
I've found the Woodland Scenics blended turf to be the best and have been using it for years.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Depends on what type of grass mat you're looking at. Noch makes grass mats for many types of grass - long, short, spring / summer / fall, even swampy marshland. They're expensive but look very good.
Keep in mind the WS stuff in the 'jar' is basically the same stuff you can get in big bags. You'd probably want to mix colors but not necessarily dump two or three colors in one bin and put it on. Grass tends to have different colors depending on where it is - in the summer, the grass under a tree might be green but the grass a few feet away that is outside the shadow area of the tree might be yellow from the sun for example.
I used a grass met once a long time ago. It looks better than raw plywood, but that's about all. The green color is too intense and it's too even in texture and color to look right.
Current layout is done with green dyed sawdust. I have a limitless supply of sawdust from the shop, so it was cheaper than the Woodland Scenic ground foam. You want at least three colors, a dark, a medium and a light green. For sawdust you can color it with either RIT dyes (Walmart, crafts section) or acrylic paint thinned down a lot with water. The paint also came from Walmarts. After coloring, I left the sawdust spread out on a cookie sheet in a warm oven to dry it. Took some time, but it won't sift well if damp.
I put a coat of dirt colored latex paint, well thinned down on the foam scenery. This way, the missed spots or the places the grass rubs off will just look like dirt. Then sprinkle/sift a good thick layer of medium green into the wet paint. Keep sifting til the land looks green. Then sprinkle some dark and light green around to give a nature, varying the color.
If you cannot get sawdust, then the Woodland Scenic ground foam ought to work just as well, Just buy some dark, some medium and some light green.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
curdogexpressI'm lost on how to do it! Is there a video or a book to help me out.
You will find videos on making a static grass applicator and applying static grass on this site.
Scroll down to part 11 & 12. The videos can be downloaded for as little as $2 each or you can buy the DVD's too. I bought the whole series and they are awesome!
Hello everyone.
I'm starting to get ready to start my layout and it will be two 4x8 in the "L" shape.
It sounds like a lot of grass work don't you think? I want it to look Alsome .
I'm lost on how to do it! Is there a video or a book to help me out.
train_frk-0079Grass mats are the easiest, but I have heard that they don't look realistic, more like a turf.
Unless you're modeling a golf course, the grass mats don't look realistic at all.
If you were to model large scenes of fields and prairie, then I'd put down the mat with blended turfs of different coarsness on top. Then I'd add static grass in different areas. Otherwise I use earthblend fine turf from WS as a base. On top of that I sprinkle different shades of green WS fine and coarse turf. But don't cover up all of the earthblend. Then it looks kind of like a golf course. Maybe static grass in places where there would be longer grass. So I guess my answer would be to eventually buy all the different kinds and colors of grass you can find. Or buy a huge memory foam pad, dye it and grind it to make you own coarse turf.
Mike
If you want great looking grass, the static grass from silflor applied with a static grass gun looks excellent. Other methods will give you passable grass, but in my experience the static grass blows them away.
Using the cheap grassinator design on the web I built a static gun for $30.00 and have been using the Silfor with excellent results. I did an experiment last year where I used the WS field grass and the time honored "weeds from the backyard" techniques to make realitistic grass. Results were pretty good but each 3" X 1" strip took about 3 hours of painstaking work to apply. I could do several square feet in 3 hrs with the grassinator...The photos may not show it but the static grass won the contest.
heres a shot with WS/Weeds grass, sorry it is a bit blurry:
Here is Silflor staic grass:
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
I've used the Woodland Scenics static grass and really like it. It's best if you blend colors a little. When the water/glue mixture binding it is dry, I dip a paintbrush into fine sifted soil and brush it over the static grass to mute the colors just a little.
Go with the jar stuff. This is actully what i am doing right now. First, get the blended turf. Then add varing shades like earth turf.
When I come down to my layout, I see this layout without any grass on it at all. I have looked at many different types of grass (sheets, static, jar), but I don't want to go out and buy all of them, just to test them all out. Grass mats are the easiest, but I have heard that they don't look realistic, more like a turf. The grass in a jar (woodland scenics) is both expensive and time consuming, but it looks the best. Does anybody have any input about which one is better? Sound off.