Static Grass

[UP1996]

I"m in the process of constructing a static grass applicator contraption and am wondering about the
large selection of grass material that's commercially available.

I'm liking the WS static grass flocking (read:cheaper and readily available at my LHS') however, it seems it's a bit
longer than the Noch or Silfor grass. (2.4mm vs 2mm). I'm worried about the grass being too long a grass in N scale so, I have a
couple of questions for the collective: 

1) Has anyone tried to weed wack static grass down lower with small scissors after its thoroughly dried? and how did that work out?
2) Can you lightly air brush color highlights on to the grass once it's in place and how did that look?


TIA.

[MichaelWinicki]

Are you thinking of using it for lawn-sized grass?

Even the 2mm stuff is about a foot high in n-scale.

For lawns I think a fine grade of ground cover would suffice.

For everywhere else I think there's a place for all different sizes from 2mm on up to 6mm... especially if you're trying to do some forced perspective stuff by using the longer stuff in front and gradually going to shorter grasses in the rear.   I see Scenic Express is offering some Noch 2mm & 6mm blends which is another interesting point– mixing your lengths so the resulting grass doesn't look so uniform. 

I purchased static grasses from the different suppliers just to get slightly different shadings. 

The static grass selection is growing very quickly.

[UP1996]

Are you thinking of using it for lawn-sized grass?

Even the 2mm stuff is about a foot high in n-scale.

For lawns I think a fine grade of ground cover would suffice.

For everywhere else I think there's a place for all different sizes from 2mm on up to 6mm... especially if you're trying to do some forced perspective stuff by using the longer stuff in front and gradually going to shorter grasses in the rear.   I see Scenic Express is offering some Noch 2mm & 6mm blends which is another interesting point– mixing your lengths so the resulting grass doesn't look so uniform. 

I purchased static grasses from the different suppliers just to get slightly different shadings. 

The static grass selection is growing very quickly.

I plan to use it in overgrown areas. I think you're right though, using different lengths and colors seems
like a very good idea.

[bsoplinger]

I've pondered using either a coffee grinder or blender to mix various sizes of static grass with thoughts of cutting some of the fibers to get completely different lengths. Has anyone done this or used some other method to randomize the length?

[MichaelWinicki]

I've pondered using either a coffee grinder or blender to mix various sizes of static grass with thoughts of cutting some of the fibers to get completely different lengths. Has anyone done this or used some other method to randomize the length?

That would be an interesting test...

Keep in mind that right now one can get static grass in 2mm, 2.4mm, 4mm & 6mm lengths.  Of course if you wanted one particular color to be of various lengths, taking say some 6mm fibers and cutting them up could be a possibility.

[ednadolski]

I may be way wrong, but cutting static fibers sounds to me like an exercise in futility.  (And FWIW, I'm someone who bends grabirons from 0.005" wire ... )

I would think that you could airbrush it tho.

Ed

[tom mann]

What I do to get different lengths is to add dirt after the grass is "installed". 

[inkaneer]

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http://search.harborfreight.com/cpisearch/web/search.do?keyword=hair+clipper&Submit=Go

[lashedup]

I've often thought about trimming the grass down with clippers to see how well it works. I may do some experiments to see what happens. Getting a good base down will be critical so that the base looks realistic as you trim things down.

-jamie

[Ed Kapuscinski]

As far as lawns go, I actually think that fine ground foam works just fine because you can't get static grass closely packed enough to look like a lawn.