Realistic tall grass on the Siskiyou Line

[jfugate]

If you are wanting to know an easy way to model great looking tall grass on your model RR, I've posted some details here on my web site:

http://siskiyou.railfan.net/silflor.html



I use hot glue to glue down the silflor and fake fur ... you can see the link above for more details.

[Anonymous]

Joe,

Bet you thought no one noticed your post. Nice job on the grass. As a model train weed and grass afficianado, I think your stuff looks great. I have been looking for ways to make high grass like this over the years. Your combination idea solves the respective problems with Siflor and fake fur alone. Those being Silfor is very expensive to do large areas and the fur doesn't look good at the edges. My new layout is set in the west and I will definatley be trying out your techniques. Thanks for sharing.

Guy

[Anonymous]

Beautiful work Joe! Thanks for sharing this info, as I can certainly use it on my western styled layout too. Very nice layout and website too!
God bless!

Greg

[mondotrains]

Hi Joe,
Thanks so much for sharing your experience and expertise on the creation of such a great looking field grass! Now, our next step, or should I say mine, is to find out where we can get Silflor for a lot less. As you know, many of our hobby suppliers are simply taking large volumes of cheap products and repackaging them for sale in smaller packages for the modeler. For example, I stopped at a local hobby shop recently and paid $2.49 for a piece of .060 styrene plastic which was a little less than 100 square inches (7.6" by 12.6"). I plan to use it to replace the backs of buildings which cannot be seen anyway....thus I can save the back walls of kits for creating other structures.

I went to a local company that deals in plastic and they will sell me a sheet of .060" styrene for $14.00. The sheet is 40" by 72" or 2,880 square inches....about 30 times the price I paid for the small piece at the hobby shop and only about 6 times as much. Yes, I will have a lifetime supply, but think of all the building backs I can remove and replace.

I'll let you know when I find Silflor in volume at a much cheaper cost. However, I'd still probably try using the fake fur in addition, as you suggested.

Again, thanks for the photos and instructions.
Mondo

[jfugate]

Thanks, guys, for the kind words about my layout, website, and tall grass posting.

And yes, Mondo, the hobby business is one of convenience ... and you pay for it. They've got to make a living and I don't fault them for that if people want to pay for the convenience.

But it is true that by shopping around beyond the hobby shop you can get some good deals on "bulk" materials.

Like getting MEK by the quart at Home Depot for a few bucks ... which is almost a lifetime supply of the stuff for gluing styrene.

Another scenery related trick regarding buying in bulk is when I approached AMSI (Architectural Models Scenics Inc.) about buying ground foam in bulk. I bought two 5 pound bags of green ground foam in 1997 and I'm *still* using them (although I'm finally about to run out) ... and I've built maybe 1000 trees in that time, not to mention lots of bushes and ground cover. Granted, that much ground foam cost me about $100, but hey ... that's less than 10 cents per tree.

Try doing that with Woodland Scenics ground foam you get at the hobby store!

Here's a photo of one of the trees I made with this foam ...



Or for a larger view: http://siskiyou.railfan.net/images/CRW_9924_RJ.jpg

[FJ and G]

Nice Joe,

My biggest complaint with most model RR tall grass is that it's too thick.

dav

[Anonymous]

Great clinic, Joe. I'll be employing your techniques on my layout.

[Anonymous]

Joe,
As always, your work is excellent. Now all I need is some information about those great looking trees!

[krump]

wonderful job

yesterday i read an article from MR mag in 1974, they used old broom bristles to make long grass - for being 30 yrs old it looked great also.

[jfugate]

Jarrett (and everyone):

The trees are "supertrees" which is a product from Scenic Express ( http://www.scenicexpress.com/supertrees.html ), which is also where I get the silflor for the tall grass, by the way.

Scenic Express' web site is somewhat disappointing -- many of their pages have said under construction for over a year now with little change. But call their 1-800 number and order their catalog ... it's a wealth of information on scenery products! I keep their catalog in the "reading room" (bathroom) and use it to plan scenery projects.

Hope to post some info on how I make my trees to my web site after the Seattle convention. If anyone on here is going to Seattle, I will be talking about my scenery techniques at the Layout Design and Operations SIG banquet on Friday. I'm the keynote speaker for the banquet.

[Anonymous]

joe

great work and awsome layout. you keep giving me new ideas for my Cotton Belt Layout. keep up the good work and show us more of your awsome layout in the future.

[darth9x9]

Hey Jarrett,

If you want to learn more about how to make Super Trees, here is one of our online clinics:
http://www.fcsme.org/bcarl/how_to_make_scenic_express_supertrees.htm

I hope you find it useful.

[Anonymous]

*bookmarks*
Thanks guys.

[jfugate]

Nice online "clinic" on doing the supertrees there, Bill!

I have some techniques I use that takes the prepared supertree sprig from bare to ready to plant on the railroad in under 10 minutes.

Like Bill shows you need to do something to straighten and prep the sprigs to get the best looking trees. I select the sprigs I want to use (usually 50 at a time), dip them in diluted matte meduim, and hang them upside down to dry like Bill shows. If they need straightened, I'll clip a closepin to the bottom of the sprig to straighten it.

The matte medium creates a rubbery coating on the delicate sprig and makes it a lot tougher. I leave the sprig hanging upside down to dry overnight.

Next day, like Bill shows, I stick the sprigs in blocks of styrofoam, then hit them with gray and/or light tan spray paint. I lightly accent the branches with black spray paint.

Here's where I vary from Bill's approach. Using this alternative approach, I get finished trees I can plant on the layout in a few minutes.

I spray the sprig branches with spray adhesive, then sprinkle on coarse ground foam. Don't over do it here ... one of the secrets to getting really great looking trees to to allow you to see through them somewhat. You can vary this to get some trees more dense, others less, but solid solid foliage you can't see through on supertrees covers up the realistic and delicate branch structure, which is a waste.

Any green color of ground foam will work here because I next spray the tree's foliage (just the foliage) with green spray paint to get the exact green shade I want for the layout. Tend toward yellow green shades for many species of tree, or a medium green for some trees like black oaks.

Then accent the foliage from above lightly with a pale yellow spray paint to simulate sunlight playing on the leaves ... this last step will bring your tree to life, and is one of the "secrets" I use on the Siskiyou Line that makes the trees look so natural.

So that's it. I do them in batches on blocks of styrofoam, spraying the entire line of trees with adhesive and spray paint at once. I vary the green colors from batch to batch, along with the foliage density.

But using this approach, you get trees you can plant in a few minutes, which I see as a real plus.


The resulting trees are about as real as it gets, IMO.

[jfugate]

One other *very important* point ... when using all this spray paint, this is definitely an outside job. You need lots of ventilation to avoid breathing all the paint vapors.

That's why summer is a great time to have "tree making" parties!

[FJ and G]

I follow much of what Joe Fugate has done; but I'm bookmarking bill's website as it's kinda neat

Dave Vergun

[jfugate]

Added a few new photos to the Siskiyou Line web site, including the silflor grass, like this one:



Go to this link for all the new photos:
http://siskiyou.railfan.net/model_p.html

[Anonymous]

Nice new photos Joe! I like how they are taken at a railfans perspective. It might be neat to see if you reproduce the shot of the book in my sig on your Slater Creek trestle.
BTW: my only complaint would be the missing kickplate on the 4408.

[jfugate]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mario_puzo


BTW: my only complaint would be the missing kickplate on the 4408.

One of the "hazzards" of owning a large layout. You only have so much time to do things and adding the front plow to 4408 is one of the things that's on the list, but just not high enough priority compared to the 1001 other things I need to do ....

Let's see, there's the special op session July 3, the clinic in Seattle, the banquet speech at the convention, video volume 2 ... oh yeah, and there's a layout down there that could use some work!

[:)]

[darth9x9]

Hey Joe,

Thanks for the compliment! I am going to give your method a shot. I am giving a refresher clinic next month for my club members and I will introduce them to your method.

Sharing ideas is always great!!![:D]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jfugate

QUOTE: Originally posted by mario_puzo


BTW: my only complaint would be the missing kickplate on the 4408.

One of the "hazzards" of owning a large layout. You only have so much time to do things and adding the front plow to 4408 is one of the things that's on the list, but just not high enough priority compared to the 1001 other things I need to do ....

Let's see, there's the special op session July 3, the clinic in Seattle, the banquet speech at the convention, video volume 2 ... oh yeah, and there's a layout down there that could use some work!

[:)]

Hopefully an experience I will have someday... Or maybe not.

[jfugate]

QUOTE: Originally posted by darth9x9

Thanks for the compliment! I am going to give your method a shot. I am giving a refresher clinic next month for my club members and I will introduce them to your method.

Sharing ideas is always great!!![:D]

Bill:

Sure thing ... there are good ways and not-so-good ways to present an "online clinic" through a web page.

Your web site does a great job presenting much-needed info on how to do nice looking supertrees! Here's Bill's site again:

http://www.fcsme.org/bcarl/how_to_make_scenic_express_supertrees.htm