Hey, i recently added grass to my first, small layout. My dad lent me an old grass mat he had from when he was a kid. It was "Lifelike 1156 grass mat 50'x99"". While it suited me for my current layout, I would like to have more laying around for any possible addition. The issue is that it old and no longer made and although it can be found on Ebay and the likes, I would like to buy some grass mats that are more current.
Does anyone know of one that color matches the kind I use? I can provide a picture need be but I feel like it wouldn't convey the color quite well enough. I've found grass mats from woodland scenics but they have many shades of green (spring, green, forest) and I'm not sure if any would match my grass well. I know it's a bit of a long shot but I figured it doesn't hurt to ask
One solution would be to return the borrowed grass mat, then buy a replacement(s) in whatever colour you'd most prefer.
Is the area where you're using the mats flat, or does it have some contours? If the latter is your situation, you may be able to stack a new mat atop the older one, then cut the two, while stacked, in an irregular wavy pattern so that they could be installed butted to one another along the wavy edge, one side representing well-tended grass, the other perhaps less well-tended, and not as well-watered.
Another option would be to use both old and new mats together, then add static grass to both in order to make them look, if not exactly alike, at least reasonably similar.
I've only experimented a bit with static grass, but I think that it's a useful product, and I do intend to explore it much more fully. Here's my attempt, a simple pasture with weeds and grass that's not too tall...
Wayne
I would avoid mats completely and go with static grass. I have a cheap GrasTech applicator and multiple bags of grass material in different colors and lengths. I am thrilled with the results.
Mats work well for Christmas tree layouts that you need to take up and re-use, but they usually provide a completely monochromatic green golf course look, and are awkward to use on any kind of uneven terrain. Blending multiple grass colors with static grass lets you achieve a huge variety of colors for much more realism.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I'd just throw out the old Life Like mat, and start over. It looked super fake anyway.
Maybe you can find and old box or two of the Life Like grass, that looked just as bad, but it might match.
Mike.
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