Question - what brands of "static grass" are available, and which is best?

[chutton01]

Having finished my fabulous $4.00 electrostatic grass application based on the world-famous Harbor Freight fly swatter, using instruction from one of the multitude of on-line tutorials, I wish to a) test it and b) add some static grass areas to a diorama (yes, yes, I know the fly-swatter applicators are suitable only for small area, as you need to hold them within 4 cm or so from the surface - that's fine for this purpose).

Problem is, the hobby shops in the area do NOT carry static grass of any brand (nor does the Michaels craft), so I'm going to have to order it online. Searching around on-line only brought up more instruction on how to build and/or use an applicator, but no lists of which brands of grass are available and (more important) are best.

I know there is (was?) Noch, Silflor, the wiki article on Static Grass (more of a stub really) mentions Woodland Scenics, but they only seem to have flock - is flocking just really short static grass? There must be others.

I guess my real request is for an reasonably complete comparison guide of what's currently available for static grass.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

To be honest, I never really cared what brand of static grass I was using for my various layouts I have built over the last 20 + years. I would not be able to tell. Whatever brand I used, they all worked satisfactorily. More important is the length of the fibres and the color - you may have to make your own mix to get what you are looking for, as most single colors appear to be way too "green" or "yellow" to me.

[gmpullman]

I also built my own static grass applicator and I am pretty impressed with the results. Prior to the hi-voltage applicator I was using a Noch "puff" applicator bottle and an inflated baloon with fair results. However it was often cumbersome to get the baloon into some confined areas!

My source for static grass has been Scenic Express and as Ulrich has mentioned, it is all about the color and length for the effect you want to achieve.

http://www.sceneryexpress.com/Static-Grass-Material/products/1230/

I made up several squares of cardstock and applied several test sections using different colors of paint and grades of flock then kept them as a reference for future scenery applications.

The $10 fly swatter does a very good job IMHO.

Good Luck, Ed

[G Paine]

At Boothbay Railway Village, we have a Grassmaster, and I have been experimenting with it. We have static grass from Noch, Woodland Scenics and Scenic Express in both long and short fibers.

I have been trying to do mid-summer field grass. The Noch works the best, not surprising since they make the Grassmaster. Maybe it is my lack of technique, but I could not get the WS grass to stand up.

The colors we have seem to me to be too unifiorm in colors; I have been mixing a green with beige color to get the look of a hay field. The fibers like to clump together in the container. I have to break up the lumps for them to work in the Grassmaster.

Check UTube, there are a number of instructional videos on static grass.

This is what Walthers stocks for static grass; they do not stock Scenic Express
http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?category=Scenery&scale=&manu=&item=&keywords=static+grass&words=restrict&instock=Q&split=300&Submit=Search

[BATMAN]

I'll agree that there probably isn't a best brand. I have Euro-Rail Hobbies and Britannia Hobbies close to me and static grass is one of those things that I can buy at a store that just sells Europeon train stuff.

After you select the grass you want to use, add a pinch of this and a pinch of that and it will look much better. It's kind of like painting the Rocky Mountains, the more colours you use the better it looks. Unless it's a putting green at a high end golf course.

[MisterBeasley]

Scenic Express distributes Silflor static grass.  It may be the only way to get it.

I've tried both Silflor and Woodland Scenics.  Unless they've added something else, WS only makes 2mm grass.  I have a couple of colors of that, and several other colors of Silflor in 4mm and 6mm lengths.

I think the 2mm grass from WS results in more of a "fuzzy" look.  I model in HO, though, so N-scalers might think the shorter grass is better.

In contrast, the longer grasses give a more natural and wild look.

The very tall grass in the picture is field grass from an envelope, not static grass, and it's clipped and stuck in place with tacky glue.

Mostly, I like the 4mm results, but I throw some 6mm in for variety.  I think it's important to have different colors for a more natural look.  I do one small basket at a time, and I generally mix two colors right in the basket so no two areas are quite alike.

[rrebell]

Woodland scenics only makes the shortest length. The basics are 2mm, 4mm and 6mm, or at least were, now it seams everyone is doing different things, saw some 3mm and others. The 2mm is very short, like a lawn that has not been cut. I find I use 4mm the most but for best results, use a mixture. Next question is what glue to use, I have tried a few and it is not just the glue but the concentration. You are goint to have to experiment to find what you like. I tried one idea to have random tuffs appear, I put spots of glue, wet the area (so I would have a spot to pin to) and did the static thing, it worked, vacumed up the area after the water had dried and it left tufts here and there but not as concrentraited as I wanted so went with tuffs.

[chutton01]

Thanks for the responses so far.

I have seen a number of tutorials, and yes they do recommend mixing of fiber color shades (e.g. light green & dark green) for a more realistic appearance and stress longer fibers(4-6mm) for bigger weeds (which seems obvious). Another point always stressed - mix and declump the fibers before putting them in the applicator bowl so you don't stress the bowl/applicator seal, or push fibers into the applicator end (which I covered in tape anyway, but still makes sense as the grid wire does come out the end, leaving a bit of a gap). As for the bonding agent, I've seen white glue/pva, carpenter glue, matte medium, and the recent MR article on weeds recommended Aileen's Clear Gel Tacky Glue IIRC. Since I have lots of carpenter's glue handy, I'd start with that for a testing run.

I did come up with the same Walthers search results that "G Paine" posted  yesterday (I have to agree with the "Walthers Website Search Engine sucks thread" - it can be very picky and quirky), but I wasn't sure of the difference between flock and static grass (flock sounded more like a craft thing, like velour or something). At the time I couldn't quite figure out how their Premium grass differed from their static grass, if it even does (still not too sure).

Anyway, looks like Busch (eventually), Noch (the most often mentioned on tutorials), Faller, and Woodland Scenics (as far as anyone knows, offers only short 2mm fibers - too short for HO) via Walthers, and Silflor only via Scenic Express (fun fact - Walthers does redistribute some Scenic Express branded items like Matte Medium, Wetting Solutins and Water Effects, but alas NOT Silflor - under Scenic Express is a number of different "Flock and Turf" materials, but the images look nothing like Silflor fibers)

[Hobbez]

Silfor is my favorite, even though some of the greens seem a bit too plastic like in color.  I also mix in Woodland Scenics frequently, though they only have very short fibers.  I very rarely use a single color.  I tend to mix at least 3 different colors and lengths in the cup and it gives a very nice realistic appearance.

[rrebell]

Try Galeforce, very nice from our friends in wargaming.

[G Paine]

For adhesive I have used Scenic Cement and 50:50 dilute white glue. The importnt thing is to get a nail into the wet surface and clip the ground wire to it. Also, I start with a subsurface of ground foam. It holds the moist glue and is better than trying to apply directly on plaster or dry paint. Wet latex paint is also useful as a subsurface.

[trainnut1250]

Other posters have given you great advice.  I have watched the static grass offerings expand considerably over the past decade.  Scenic Express offers a great selection of grasses.  They are the place to shop for these products right now as they appear to be the only US dealer for Silflor. BTW: They just introduced their own line of grass at a substantial price reduction from SIlflor and other top shelf producers.

Static grass color and the length are the most important factors. Here is my rundown:

Woodland Scenic: too short and didn’t like the color selection

 

Noch: some good colors and lengths – watch out for their neon yellow and super bright greens

 

Silflor: the Cadillac of grasses - love the colors.  Good selection of lengths but alas no short CA gold.  Pricey compared to other products.

 

Hekki:  Pretty much the same as Noch - watch out for intense colors.

 

Gale Force 9: very short lengths. Good dry grass colors – comparatively pricey

 

Scenic Express:  Just launched am ordering some soon to try it out.

 

I model CA west coast tall grass.  I have used GF9, Silflor, Hekki and Noch in various combinations to produce some pleasing effects. Silflor really helped us west coast modelers out with their CA Gold color.  That one product has made modeling tall dry grass much more realistic and much easier.

 

 

Have fun,

 

Guy

[BATMAN]

 Guy.

Great photo of your trestle and grass. Can you please tell me what you used for the poles on the bents on your trestle? I like the look of them, especially the knots. Beats using dowels.

Also have you or anyone else ever used the 12mm static grass? How did it turn out?

[HObbyguy]

I have been using a lot of static grass, mostly Noch but everything I've tried seems to work fine.  Its mostly about color selection and length for the look that you want, and mixing different grasses does give better results.

Mentioned once but static grass really works best if you start with a substrate of ground foam to give the fibers something to bite into.  Best results for me are to apply ground foam and let it dry, brush over some diluted white glue, and then apply the static grass.  The fibers really stand up nicely this way.  Also I add pinches of very fine ground foams right after applying the grass to help get texture and color variations.

The longer grasses tend to get matted up more in the applicator so they are a bit more difficult to work with but they do look good.

[trainnut1250]

Brent, 

Thanks for the kind words. The trestle bent poles are made from good old 1/8" dowels soaked in alcohol shoe dye mix.

 Here is another view:

 

 

 

Here is more static grass - a combination of silflor and natual fibers.

 

 

 

Guy