new grass products

[scootbird]

What did you use to make the field?

[Sokramiketes]

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

That would be outcome based modeling... Jamie made his own styrene trowel with pinking shears.   

[bsoplinger]

Has anyone tried the newer static grass gun that Noch makes over the static master thingie?

http://www.discounttrainsonline.com/Noch-Turbostat-grass-applier-/item528-50180.html

Just curious, since it is actually cheaper than the static master.

[wendell camp]

Erik how do you make your aspen trees Wrendell

[DKS]

Has anyone tried the newer static grass gun that Noch makes over the static master thingie?

http://www.discounttrainsonline.com/Noch-Turbostat-grass-applier-/item528-50180.html

Just curious, since it is actually cheaper than the static master.

There's also a how-to for a DIY static grass applicator, the "Grassinator," over at Ztrains:

http://www.ztrains.com/pages/tech/grassinator/grassinator.html

[Erik W]

Erik how do you make your aspen trees Wrendell

I made them from stuff I found in the dried flower area of Michael's craft store called Candy Tuft.  I used the natural color.  I cut off tree sized pieces, stuck them in a piece of foam and airbrushed them yellow.  I hand painted the trunks white and added the dark spots with Polly Scale Railroad Tie Brown.

Erik

[wendell camp]

Erik how do you make your aspen trees Wrendell

I made them from stuff I found in the dried flower area of Michael's craft store called Candy Tuft.  I used the natural color.  I cut off tree sized pieces, stuck them in a piece of foam and airbrushed them yellow.  I hand painted the trunks white and added the dark spots with Polly Scale Railroad Tie Brown.

Erik

Thankyou Wendell

[lashedup]

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

That would be outcome based modeling... Jamie made his own styrene trowel with pinking shears.   

I mixed up some lightweight spackle with some charcoal mortar dye (Sakrete liquid in a small bottle sold in the cement section at home depot - little bit goes a LONG way) and made a mud-looking substance. I used a plastic knife to spread the mud spackle on in a 1/8 or so layer and then took a 3-4" piece of .015 styrene that I cut with pinking shears and used that to create the rows. After it dried I airbrushed it to dull the shine and then took a large bottle of Elmers glue with the orange pointed twist spout on it and carefully laid a bead of glue on the top of each row. Tedious, a little, however you can lay the tip of the bottle on the row next to the one you're working on to use as a guide. After that I sprinkled some Scenic Express Flock and Turf Spring Green Fine foam over the whole thing and lightly pat it down. After it dries, I go over it with a vacuum with a piece of paper towel over the end to catch foam that didn't stick and reuse it.

The one thing I struggled with was the edges. In the photos above I used real black dirt, but it is too coarse looking. I have another big field to do on another module and will do that one a little differently and play around with how to get it to look right. What I need is some of that midwest black dirt park baseball field stuff from mid-summer that is super fine. I haven't tried chalks and I might try that as well.

Anyhoo, I'm going to order some more static grass this week.

[Chris333]

I have a small Z scale field to plant so gathering info. I do have a notch (I think) field mat, but don't know if I'll use it.

What exactly is this a field of?  Corn is the big "wow" thing, but it is a pain. I like these fields because they are low and seem easier to make, but what is it supposed to represent?  Just in case I need to answer question after mine is done 

Thanks

[lashedup]

Chris I hear you on the corn thing. On top of it Skibbe screwed the rest of us with modules in the same group because he did late season dead corn out of broom straw - all of it hand planted. So laziness bred invention and I came up with this solution instead. Given the scale size I'd say this looks a bit like cabbage, beets or soybeans. Cabbage would have a little more of a blue tint to it.

The pinking shears I used are a little larger of a cut size than I want in n-scale. I'm going to go to a nicer fabric store and see if I can find shears with a little smaller rows. Crops were normally planted in rows about 24" a part back then. I held up an n-scale ruler to the pinking shears I have and the individual cuts are about 30" scale inches and 1 foot deep (30" inch rows are becoming more prevalent today for soil preservation - the things we learn doing research!). I used styrene to give me a flexible material to work with. I thought about a trowel but I have hills and valleys and needed to be able to have something less rigid. I also recommend putting a skim coat of the lightweight spackle died black first as a base and letting that dry. Then go back and do a layer for the rows. That way you won't have any foam or base showing through.

When I build the other larger field I'll take some step-by-step photos. I'm in Europe on business most of this week, but plan to do the other field shortly after I get back - so within a week or so.

Unrelated to the fields, I ordered some of that buffalo grass among other things from Scenic Express. I'll take photos when I get it.

Hope that helps!

[tom mann]

Lashedup:

The grass looks very good, but if you'll allow two comments:

1.  I think it looks too vibrant for it's height.  From far away, it looks like it is golf-course quality.  I don't know, maybe a mix of something like the "autumn color" would work?
2.  I think that it has too perfect and consistent of a texture- again, it looks like someone is maintaining it.

But either way, it is better than groundfoam!

[chuck geiger]

Geez no more felt or god awful faux fur. Thanks Mr. Hankey!

[lashedup]

"Better modeling through peer pressure" and it works!

Yes, I've spent hours and $ on printers to redo the smurf decal because of this logic...

[Sokramiketes]

Whoa, who's Tom and who's Lashedup now?  I'm quote confused!

[pfs]

Whoa, who's Tom and who's Lashedup now?  I'm quote confused!

I think mysql is having a bad day