Another try with 1mm static grass

[ednadolski]

I've been doing some more dabbling with static grass recently.  This test is mixes of various colors of the 1mm stuff from World War Scenics and Polak brands (the latter being very hard to find -- I've had to order from sites that show in Polish), with some of the 2mm from Woodland Scenics (Light Green and a small bit of Straw).

One thing that seems to help is to apply the glue in dabs, then put on a layer of grass, vacuum, and repeat for several layers.  This is more work, tho it does reduce the 'uniform carpet' look. I'm finding that it's not always necessary to wait for every layer to dry completely before applying the next. I'm also finding that many of the available colors in most product lines are way too dark, or too bold, etc., so color has to be selected carefully.

The Woodland Scenics stuff seems to have a tendency to want to fall over no matter how I apply it.  I upgraded my applicator with a new generator, tho it is a 12VDC one and I am still running it on a 9V battery.  It may help to apply the full 12VDC, I am looking around to see if i have any old wall wart adapters that are rated at 12V (most are less).  To my eye the fiber sizes also seem a bit heavier, no surprise at WS is primarily aimed at HO scale anyways.

I'm using a different phone app to take the pictures.  This one has better white balance calibration but is not as good with DOF as the default app, so sorry for the bit of extra blurriness.






Cheers,
Ed

[skytop35]

The Woodland Scenics stuff seems to have a tendency to want to fall over no matter how I apply it.  I upgraded my applicator with a new generator, tho it is a 12VDC one and I am still running it on a 9V battery.  It may help to apply the full 12VDC,

Yes, most definitely. I use the Woodland Scenics Static King applicator and had much much better results using the wall wart power supply versus a fresh 9 volt battery!

[ednadolski]

Re-wired for more power.... <Tim Allen grunts go here>




But the result looks a lot better:




I went with batteries since the 12V wall wart that I found was actually putting out over 16V, and I don't trust to the over-tolerances of these cheap electronic components.

(Funny tho, how the WS straw color looks in-person almost to have a bit of a blue-ish cast to it.)

Ed

[JeffB]

Looks good Ed...  I've been contemplating purchasing some 1mm fibers to fill out evergreen trees in HO scale.  I tried that with some very awful colored 2mm fibers from Scenic Express, and the effect is interesting, but the 2mm fibers were just too long for HO (1mm is too long as well, but I think it would work).

As you've seen...  When it comes to static grass applicators, using 12VDC as opposed to 9V or less, is certainly better.  The 12VDC "wall warts" are awful regarding tolerancing of the voltage, nearly every wall wart I've ever used (of various outputs), put out more than their rated voltage.  I purchased an inexpensive adjustable AC to DC power supply (ebay) to run my home made units so that I could better regulate the incoming power. 

I was able to run one of the negative ion generators I used to build one of the early applicators, on about 14V (12V wall wart that was producing more than 12V) without any negative side effects.  But when I switched to a more expensive (about $35 each) negative ion generator, I purchased the adjustable power supply so I wouldn't destroy the unit.

JB

[ednadolski]

Here is a bit more work with this.  A few quick notes:

 - It seems to work better to use the lighter/beige colors as the top layer.
 - A lot depends on how much glue you use. Less is definitely more, esp. if you want a sparse look.
 - The second pic has a couple of different color ground foams as part of the undergrowth layer, but the effect seems pretty minimal.
 - I'm liking the WS 2mm stuff less overall for this.  It still seems to just want to fall over, and with a light color like Straw that rather stands out.  The WS also looks like a heavier fiber, so it seems somewhat out of scale for N.
 - A very light dusting of the soil mix (sifted to a #200 screen, basically like a powder) does a good job of reducing the shine of the fibers.
 - After the glue dries, I work the grass over with a chip brush to remove loose fibers.  This helps to blend things together overall.  Follow up with a good vacuuming. A cheap plastic tick comb also works, if a layer went on too heavy.
 - BTW you can vacuum after applying each layer of grass, but don't hit it with the hose or you will create a flat spot (like a UFO or such landed there).
 - It also seems to help to sprinkle on some of the soil mix (a blend of several AZRM soils/powders, sifted to remove the larger grains) and then blend it into the grass layers (w/fingertips or chip brush), followed by fixing it into place with some pump hair spray (unscented, tho it still kinda stinks).
 - Pics taken w/a new camera app, but looks like I still haven't gotten the WB right (or focus, but that's another thing to learn).
 - Wear an N95 or better dust mask when working with this stuff.





Cheers,
Ed

[ednadolski]

Another try with the white balance calibration against a grey card:





Ed

[Mark5]

That's looking really good Ed!  (seriously)

Is my eye playing tricks on me, or am I seeing a bit of "sheen" on the "grass"?

[svedblen]

Looks great! I like it very much.

How many different fibre lengths and colors did you use in the last pictures? How did you build up the undergrowth layer?

[ednadolski]

Is my eye playing tricks on me, or am I seeing a bit of "sheen" on the "grass"?

Yes, that was before I applied the soil/dusting layer.   Do these look any better?







Ed

[ednadolski]

How many different fibre lengths and colors did you use in the last pictures? How did you build up the undergrowth layer?

Mostly the 1mm stuff, here are steps that I wrote down doing that second sample:

Step #1 - Undergrowth Layer:
 - Mix: 1x 1mm WWS Dead Grass
          1x 1mm Patchy Dead Grass (may be WWS, tho seems to be mis-labeled)
 - Dab/flick on glue w/ 1" chip brush
 - Vacuum, dry overnight, touch up w/comb, vacuum again.

Step #2 Main grass mix:
 - 1x 1mm WWS Spring
   1x 1mm WWS Dead
   1x 2mm WS Light Green
 - 3x passes of flick/spatter on glue, apply grass, vacuum (wet-on-wet, it goes faster)
    - glue thinned to 50/50 w/alcohol for flow
 - Dust on soil mix w #3C sieve before AND after pass #3
 - vacuum after each pass and dusting

Step #3 Grass Mix #2
 - 1x Polak 6101 Profiflock 1mm - Zelená jemná
   1x Polak 8121 Flockdekor 1mm - béžová
   1x 1mm WWS Spring
   1x 2mm WS Light Green

Step #4 Dry Grass Mix
 - 1x 2mm WS Straw (not liking this one very much)
   1x 1mm Polak 8121 Flockdekor 1mm - béžová (looks lighter after applied)

Step #5 Top Grass mix
 - 1x Polak 6101 Profiflock 1mm - Zelená jemná
   8x Polak 8121 Flockdekor 1mm - béžová
   2x 1mm WWS Spring

Overall, I need to simplify as it is too many steps, and I don't think it makes that much difference.  But for now it's all about the learning process.


Ed

[Mark5]

Yes, that was before I applied the soil/dusting layer.   Do these look any better?
Ed

Oh yes, much! That was my next question. 

[svedblen]

Mostly the 1mm stuff, here are steps that I wrote down doing that second sample…

Wow! That was ambitious but did truely pay off. Hopefully it will be possible to reduce the number of passes and still get an acceptable result.

Thanks for the writeup.

[ednadolski]

Hopefully it will be possible to reduce the number of passes and still get an acceptable result.

Should be.  I'm hoping my shipment with another WWS color arrives soon, so I can give it a go

Ed

[JeffB]

Looks great Ed...

BTW, airbrushing static grass looks really good.  I used thinned Tamiya acrylics to do it and the results were so good that I'll use that as a final step for all static grass in the future.

Jeff

[robert3985]

That's looking really good Ed!  (seriously)

Is my eye playing tricks on me, or am I seeing a bit of "sheen" on the "grass"?

Real grass has quite a bit of "sheen" to it, especially noticeable if it not a mown lawn.  Tree leaves and bark do too.  That's why when taking scenery shots a polarization filter is almost mandatory...it gets rid of the blue "sheen" on virtually any reflective surface that nature or man makes....the notable except being polished metal surfaces.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore