Another newbie layout question. In an earlier post I said I am just starting on a 48x60 N scale plywood benchwork. It's actually 48x72.
I have this grass paper from an estate sale that yielded a gold mine of N Scale locos, cars and other "stuff." My benchwork is painted flat gray.
1. I am trying to decide if I should lay down a layer of foam board to dampen the sound.
2. If I use the grass paper, I assume it should go down before I mark the track plan. I have heard that the dye in the grass paper tends to come off on fingers. Is that correct?
Thanks for being patient.
In Him
DSFletcher
A Pitt Bull? On the Grass, eh?
My cat is bigger than your pit bull....
No wait, the question was all about grass...
LION would not use that grass paper. Him tried it about 50 years ago or so, but that is not what the real world is like. No railroad track is laid across someone's lawn.
Eventually you will want to use ground covers of some sort, turff, sand, earth, rocks etc etc. LION had some brick dust from our building. (Building is over 100 years old, bricks do crumble, you know.) HIm collected a 5 gallon pail of the stuff, paint som glue to the layout, pour on some dust, and then pour on some glue. Not pretty, but it takes paint well, but this stuff is not supposed to be seen, it is the undercover, and is 100% covered with grass foam, shrubbry, weeds, rocks, and trolls.
Present Layout of LION is SUBWAY. Grass growns not in tunnels, all benchwork is painted black. The Black Hole of Manhattan! Looks good, but alas... no grass.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
PittBullAnother newbie layout question. In an earlier post I said I am just starting on a 48x60 N scale plywood benchwork. It's actually 48x72.
Ah... those numbers are inches, not feet. Oh well. Still no grass. You model grass where you want it not fover the world with it.
Dampen the sound? What kind of foam. LION has not found (nor bothered to find) anything that would dampen the sound. Homasote would be about the best you could do. Actually the LION was going to mount transducers under the layout, along with computer type speakers in certain places where him wanted to attract the atention of visitors. MAKE THE SOUNDS LOUDER! That is what the LION would do, but then again LIONS model subway trains: no engines, just noisy trains careening through the tunnels. And people spen real money to put sound on thier trains. BAH!
We're in the same boat. Recently finished the benchwork for my HO scale layout. It's a 4' by 8', I hope to add grass on top of my foam soon.
PittBull Another newbie layout question. In an earlier post I said I am just starting on a 48x60 N scale plywood benchwork. It's actually 48x72. I have this grass paper from an estate sale that yielded a gold mine of N Scale locos, cars and other "stuff." My benchwork is painted flat gray. 1. I am trying to decide if I should lay down a layer of foam board to dampen the sound.
I chose to lay down a layer of 2 inch foam, it seems to dampen sound much better than my sheet of plywood underneath.
The big reason I chose to put foam in is because I hope to eventually add a creek in, and cut out other scenery details. Cutting out foam to create a low spot would be easier than cutting through benchwork. The foam gives a landscape that can be very easily sculpted.
If your not afraid to spend $20-$35 on foam, wheather to dampen sound or make landscaping easier, you will probably won't regret it.
Also, the foam might make for a better adhering surface for the grass sheets.
PittBull 2. If I use the grass paper, I assume it should go down before I mark the track plan. I have heard that the dye in the grass paper tends to come off on fingers. Is that correct?
If you lay it down before you mark the track plan, you won't have to mark it again.
As for the dye staining your hands;
I have never had a poblem with dye coming of the small sheets I have (I have not yet bought large quanities or put any down.) Of course, it is likely I have another brand. I recomend preforming a smal test, rub some against your thumb, see if it comes off. If not, good.
With grass sheets, I am more worried about it shedding the green fuzz than anything else. Even the "Non shedding stuff" will prove not so by leaving behind a small pile of green.
I might sprinkle the grass "powder", for lack of a better term, on wet paint, I have heard that method does not shed.
If the grass paper does not fit your needs, something can almost always be found to go right on top of it. Or, it could be cut off/out, something easier done on foam, rather than wood.
If this was my desicion:
Foam, yes. Grass sheets, yes. But it's your layout, your decision.
One Newbie to Another,
S. Connor.
In recent years, static grass has become more popular as the price of commercially built applicators has come down. The applicator develops a static charge, one side of which goes to a screen holding the grass, and the other to a metal pin that you stick into the layout. Spread some dilute white glue, stick the pin into the layout, turn on the power and shake the applicator, just like sifting flour. The static charge causes the grass to stand on end as it lands, resulting in a realistic field.
This scene has numerous forms of scenic cover, including some tall field grass that's glued on in clumps by hand, but most of what you see is static grass. The technology of model railroad scenery is so much better now that I wouldn't bother with grass mats. You, yes you, can easily make great scenery.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I used 2 inch foamboard over a "lattice " type framework. After all of my underside wiring was done, I stapled fiberglass insulation ( the type you use between studs in a wall) that comes in rolls.
It works great! If I need to change something, I just pull a few staples and temporarily move the insulation out of the way.
My layout is made up of three 6 foot wide by 8 foot long sectons I connected together, but each table can be unhooked and the entire layoutt can be moved if I were ever to relocate because it is light weight, one guy on each end and it is easily moveable.
The insulation does a great job of sound deadening and is inexpensive.
I just cut 6 foot lengths and stapled between the lattice netwok under the three tables.
Hi Pittbull
If you go with the foam use blue or pink high density foam.
As for the Life Like grass paper into the big green filing cabinet for the local sanitation engineers to pick up on the appropriate day thats all its fit for into the trash.
Grass mats even the really good quality ones like the woodland scenics ones,are really only any use for producing manicured lawns for you suburban and city gardens, cemetaries and parks. all other ground cover will be a mix of flocks foams or static grasses.
Nature is never that nice neat and tidy nor is it a nice bright even green like a front lawn.
Every one can do good scenery its not hard to do just takes some time and a bit of observation of the real world to get shapes and ideas right.
regards John
Grass paper is a waste of money and time. I laid a sheet down on the Staten Island West only to cover it with more realistic ground cover roads etc.
Joe Staten Island West
I'd suggest picking up a book or two from the Kalmbach store with solid advice on skills for beginners http://www.kalmbachstore.com/modeltrains-railroading-model-railroading-books.html . From there, determine if something like grass paper figures into how you'll want to finish things. Also note that MR is currently running a series on building an N scale layout on a hollow core door, and it's also full of good advice and materials and techniques.
I'd personally skip grass paper completely as it doesn't fit with how I build scenery, but I'm at a different stage in my hobby. For somebody relatively new, such a product may offer some learning value.
Rob Spangler
I would definitely use the extruded foam insulating boards.
For the grass mat, well are you building a layout with realistic scenery? If so, then the only use for that grass mat is as a drop cloth or packing material for shipping. If you're just trying to cover plywood or foam, then it will serve.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
When the paper grass gets wet from glue or water the colors will run. Cut the grass paper into little sections and use it for lawns and golf courses. For the rest of the world use a sand colored latex paint and sprinkle on LifeLike brand Earth, and Woodland Scenic ground foam.