new grass products

[tom mann]

Silflor Buffalo Grass:
http://www.sceneryexpress.com/products.asp?dept=1232

Golden Grass:
http://www.sceneryexpress.com/products.asp?dept=1126

[Ed Kapuscinski]

That Autumn stuff looks good: http://www.sceneryexpress.com/prodinfo.asp?number=MN73794

The other colors look a little "bright" to me.

[tom mann]

That Autumn stuff looks good: http://www.sceneryexpress.com/prodinfo.asp?number=MN73794

The other colors look a little "bright" to me.

I ordered late summer and autumn, for variety and I bet you their graphics guy bumps up the color to make things look "bright".

[wm3798]

Bummer, dude... I thought this was going to be a thread about my other hobby....

Spiccoli

[Erik W]

Do you think it's possible to mix these Buffalo Grass tufts effectively with scenery that is mostly ground foam, maybe as weeds in ditches, around water, etc?  I may give it a try.  I think it can add more texture and make my ground cover look more three dimensional.



I know, I know, you've seen this before.  I'm neck deep in scenicing the next section so I'll have some new photos soon.  I’m also going to add some dead leaves under my aspen trees using pulverized real leaves.

Erik

[hminky]

I grow my own:





at:

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/fur_grass/

Thank you if you visit
Harold

[lashedup]

That Autumn stuff looks good: http://www.sceneryexpress.com/prodinfo.asp?number=MN73794

The other colors look a little "bright" to me.

I ordered late summer and autumn, for variety and I bet you their graphics guy bumps up the color to make things look "bright".

Good call. The late summer is a little bit of a mix and is the most toned down of the green colors. Summer is very, very dark green and spring is very bright. The Autumn is a nice burnt brownish green. I usually take the late summer and blend it with a few other colors to get a good mix.

[Bob Bufkin]

Bummer, dude... I thought this was going to be a thread about my other hobby....

Spiccoli

His other hobby is going to Iraq and making a pest of himself.

[Sokramiketes]

Do you think it's possible to mix these Buffalo Grass tufts effectively with scenery that is mostly ground foam, maybe as weeds in ditches, around water, etc?  I may give it a try.  I think it can add more texture and make my ground cover look more three dimensional.

Erik

I've been struggling with this question as well.  These prairie tufts, the static grass, etc. all have a hairy look that is completely different than the ground foam textures I'm used to.  They can look very effective for large grassy areas... but then how to you transition into bushes and trees?  And in our case, can ststic grass dominated modules mix with ground foam modules and still harmonize?  Lashedup and I played with some static grass on this module that was originally all ground foam, in an attempt to populate the low-lying marshy areas with some tall grasses.  I think it has a lot of potential this way, where the foam covers everything, but then you come back in with the fiber products to get different textures.  This should work fine for the prairie tufts and your scenery, Erik.

Lashedup is going the other way, and starting will all static grass and then adding bushes/groundfoam second, so we'll see how that works also.

Here's some quick shots of the test:

[wm3798]

Very effective... That's the ground foam first then the static grass added?...  I would think that would work better than the reverse since the adding foam second would tend leave foam bits floating on top of the fiber...
Lee

[DKS]

I would think that would work better than the reverse since the adding foam second would tend leave foam bits floating on top of the fiber...

Yes, that's what I do, and I also use this to transition between grassy areas into shrubbery.



(To quote, "I know, I know, you've seen this before.")

[Erik W]

One thing I consider with the ground foam vs. static grass/tufts of grass is the size area I'm dealing with.  I figure I can add more static grass or tufts in the foreground areas and it won't really be noticeable that I haven't used at the back of the layout.  In fact it may add to the forced perspective aspect of trying to convey distance within a few feet.  With the recent military dioramas I built it was easy to use static grass and individual tufts on the entire diorama since it was so small.  In the interest of making progress on the layout I’m trying to effectively combine both techniques due to the much larger area I’m dealing with.  Here are a few of photos of the scenery base.  Some of this area I'm working on now. 







Erik

[Erik W]

Mike how did you apply this static grass?  Did you apply your adhesive (matt medium?) and then apply the static grass or did you do the reverse?  Yours "stands up" more than I can get mine to.

Erik

[lashedup]

Erik those mountain scenes are really coming along....

We used a Gras Master static applicator on Mike's module. Normally for the first coat I brush on matte medium undiluted. On the second pass (and what we did with Mike's) we used a mixture of 1 part matte medium diluted with 3 parts water in a misting bottle. To control what get's covered in the misted glue mixtures, we used paper towels that were ripped to cover parts we didn't want grass on.

To clarify what Mike said, I'm working on modules that have expansive areas of grass. So I covered the bulk areas with grass and will go back and add details in areas where it is needed. If you're mixing ground foam and grass like Mike's module, I'd probably add the grass later, you'll just have to deal with masking areas off and running a vacuum lighty over areas where it is needed. This is a module that is still very much in progress as I need to add ground foam to the edges and sporadically for weeds and stuff in the open dirt areas.



You can scrape away "move" static grass to glue down different materials. For instance on the far side of the farm crossing you can see the grass that looks thinner and more tan or burnt - that's just a dirt (Smith and Sons) materials that I brushed into the grass dry with a small paintbrush. You can work soil materials into the grass, but not ground foam. However, some ground foam mixed in does look like some weeds and other vegetation as well. We're still playing with it and you'll see a lot more diversity in the next module that goes alongside this one since that has a depot, roads, a team track and more.

Mixing the static grass colors and doing multiple spot applications on top of your base layer helps give it some variation and such. The second application tends to look much richer and longer. While it looks better, it may be a scale 4-5 feet tall if you get carried away.

Here is another view that shows the colors a little more realistically (less saturated):



We'll try and post more progress shots as we go along. I'm traveling this week but the end of this coming week and the following week will be very busy as we have a show in another week and half.

- jamie

[Chris333]

Cool effect on the fields. Did you use a notched trowel?