tall grass

[Anonymous]

Anyone had any good or bad outcomes trying to model tall grass?I have some prarie on my layout and need to add some tall grass but i model N-scale.Trying woodland scenics tall grass with limited success but would like to hear other idea's or methods.

Thanks Devin

[Anonymous]

I know about 6 months ago there was an article in MR where a gentleman had modeled I think it was the hoover line in autumn in "N" scale. I don't know what he used for grass, but it was listed. I think it was gold colored cotton. I have also seen people use carpet in "HO" scale, but it takes a lot of tweaking to make it look fine (thin) enough.

[Anonymous]

Hi Devin,
I've had some reasonably good luck with rope for tall grass. Try hemp and some of the other types of natural fiber rope, cord, twine stuff. Check out your local hardware store, they probably have a decent selection of materials. I haven't had much luck with synthetic fibers, as they tend to be too limp and don't take tints or dyes too well.
Mostly depends on what you want your "tall grass" to look like. Oh, a 200 foot spool of jute twine makes ALOT of "grass". Cheap too. Good luck, hope this helps..Jeff

[gerryleone]

Devin -- I use fake fur and have had great success with it. However, I use it a bit differently than most people. Instead of just mounting it face-up to the layout and trimming it, I spread out a somewhat thick layer of Elmer's glue on the layout surface, then gently put the fake fur FACE DOWN into the glue. When the glue dries, I use a pair of scissors to cut the fur off its backing. It can be trimmed even shorter once the backing is cut away. Then I use a pet bru***o vigorously bru***he fake fur, which will remove about 60% or more of it. I then paint it with a combination of Floquil Coach Green, Signal Yellow, and Roof Brown. (Polly Scale won't stick to the manmade fibers.)

The results look great, and because you've thinned it out with the brush, doesn't look so dense as to be unbelievable.

-Gerry

[Anonymous]

Yes, this is exactly what the article said he used. I was looking at what Gerry suggests and I think it would return excellant results, I will have to keep that in mind.
A question. Real fields of tall grass have waves running through them, do you alter your paint pattern to reflect these waves?

[gerryleone]

I suppose you could alter your paint pattern to reflect the waves, but actually just combing (or brushing) the fake fur in different patterns yields the same results. Because the fake fur is man-made, the different strands tend to reflect light differently, depending on how they're oriented.

[thirdrail1]

Scenic Express, Inc. has a new material, "Silflor", that appears to make excellent tall grass in their illustrations, but it is expensive.