Hi all, need your help again. Also, thank you for all who have given previous advice. I am applying WS Blended Fine Turf, green, to use as base layer, or ground cover over my (stained undercoat) mountain. It's easy to apply horizontally, as I am applying a spray adhesive, then shake the blended fine turf on the mountain top, and spray another coat of glue.
But what about a vertical application? How do I apply this blended turf to a vertical steep section of the mountain? Most of it goes to waste, hit the floor, (ready for vacuum). What technique can I use to apply the blended turf as a base layer to a vertically steep mountain?
RC,
I have encountered this problem when I landscaped a hilly backdrop on my layout.
I, too, used the WS Blended Fine Turf.
The first thing I did was to place a sheet of parchment paper below the area to be landscaped to catch the loose falling turf.
Then, instead of shaking it on, I poured small amounts into my hand as basically tossed the turf at the area where I had applied the adhesive.
The only remaining problem was loose turf on the landscaped area that did not hit the floor. I used my wife's turkey baster to shoot small blasts of air which effectively blew the loose turf off the landscaped area and onto the parchment covered section of floor.
The final step was to pick up the parchment paper and pour the loose turf back into the shaker.
That worked for me.
Rich
Alton Junction
What you can do after you coat your vertical surfaces with glue, is to take a sheet of paper, fold it to make a "valley crease", load it with some WS turf, put it very close to the vertical surface and gently blow it off the paper onto your vertical surface. The "gentle blow method" works well for such spaces.
Also, after your first coat of glue has dried, you can use a nylon stocking recessed into your vaccuum hose and secured with a rubber band to collect any loose stuff. The "rinse and repeat" the application with more glue and turf.
Have fun!!!
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
Railroadcoug,
First of all go out and buy some books or DVDs on doing scenery. Woodland Scienics has/had a good one and several have been published by Kalmbach over the years. Dave Frary (did Dave die?) has/had a good one from Kalmbach and there are several DVDs on the subject that are available from Micro-Mark.
How I have done this, is to wet down the area I want the material on with wet water (mix up a spray bottle with water with a few drops of dish detergent added) Dribble on some matt medium; or, what ever your using as an adhesive, then take a stiff piece of paper and sprinkle onto the paper whatever it is you want on the rock face and direct the edge of the paper at where you want the "Stuff" to be and blow down onto the paper and your breath will carry the material to where you want it. Obviously fock faces will not have a lot of vegitation growing on them, so this works fairly well.
(Sorry, this post was done at the same time as Galaxy's above)
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
Hi!
I did not read all the posts on this thread, so this may be a repeat...........
I use a folded IBM card (or any other thin stiff cardboard) and put an amount of the ground cover in the crease. Then, using a plastic soda straw and holding the edge of the creased cardboard near the area to be covered, I blow it on (lightly) using the straw.
Of course previously I applied a white glue mix (water/glue/liquid soap) to the area to be covered.
I've tried a number of methods over the years, and this still seems to work best, with less waste.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
All the above methods work fine, and I have tried them all, but what I found works best for me is, I blow the ground cover on with, what is called a " Glitter Spreader". It is a tool painters use to spread glitter on ceilings over the wet paint. You can get one at your local paint store. All it is, is a squeeze bottle wit a plastic tube," straw like", coming out of the top of the screw on cap. With that plastic tube you can aim it directly where you want the ground cover to go and squeeze it in little puffs. They seem to be very easy to make your own. I think one of those squeeze ketchup bottles will work, with a plastic tube in it. The part of the tube that is in the bottle should be cut at a very sharp angle, as to suck up more ground cover with every squeeze.
Sam
I basically do what Sam is suggesting above, except that I use one of those rubber bulbs that the hospitals send home with you for cleaning out your baby's nostrils. Similar to what you get in an ear cleaning kit.
To get it to stick, I paint the surface with full strength matte medium first. I work in areas of about one square foot at a time, to make sure the matte medium doesn't "skin over" before I can get the scenery materials in it.
To catch the extra, I use an cereal box that has been unfolded into a large, flat sheet.
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
Thanks to all. Great advice, tips and strategies. Now if I can only stop staying up till 3:00 AM working on this project!
RailroadCoug Thanks to all. Great advice, tips and strategies. Now if I can only stop staying up till 3:00 AM working on this project!
Why would you want to stop staying up till 3 AM working on model railroad projects?
It is too much fun to stop and go to sleep.
Coug, what I did was get those old style ketchup and mustard squirt bottles and cut the nozzel on them to make the hole bigger then fill it with the WS turf and spray it where you want it to go. It worked great for me in vertical areas. Just put someting like parchment or wax paper down to catch the excess.
Not sure just how much incline/ slope to place the "Grasses" on as you say plant on :vertical".
Although it may prove to be a decent "base' for scenery, most slpoed hillsides will show washouts in and around rock outcroppings, many will require some sort of retaining wall of stone, ties timber etc. Usually I will shape and contour slopes, grades and add the nec features to reatain any growth, brush, bushes grasses and show the washouts from runoff. Usually any very steep sloped area has been cut and methods to retain the cut are used. Very rarely does this occur naturally.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
It may be stating the obvious, but back when Linn Westcott introduced his "zip texturing" scenic method, he observed that if you throw the colored plaster or other material from directly up above down onto a rough vertical surface moistened with an adhesive such as diluted white glue or whatever, that the scenic material tended to stick on just those slightly more horizontally inclined areas where in fact earth would tend to accumulate and grasses or small shrubs would tend to grow.
Stated another way, one risk with the glue and throw or glue and blow methods is that you might end up with what looks like grass growing on the bottom of an outcropping of rock. Unlikely in the real world to put it mildly. Yet it might look OK at 3 am in the morning!
Dave Nelson