Aug 13, 2017

Static grass process

There were some questions on the last post about my methods for static grass, so... here you go:

I started with sifted 'traction sand' from Menards or Home Depot - the smallest stuff is somewhat multi-colored and kinda 'rough'.  I put down a heavy coat of paint, then sift the sand into that.

Then, spray with alcohol/water mix, and ground foams - fine in bright green, and a very dark confier green (uneven), then larger clumps of medium green in a coarse foam.  Sometimes some watered down white glue to help keep that in place.
Before the grass, a heavy soaking coat of watered down white glue.
Next is a 2mm Woodland Scenic static grass, kind of an olive drab color.  Over that some variety of 6mm grass, usually wheat or dry grass color first, then some brighter greens.  At this point, it's usually thick enough that further static grass has trouble sticking, so I might hit it with some pump-style chean Ultrahold hair spray, then just spots of additional static grass - 2mm dry grass (almost gray), or maybe a dash of some other colors.

In swampy spots, I might alter this with ground dried leaves as the first layer, and might try some 10mm grass.  Sometimes hitting that with hairspray, I can get very fine foam VERY lightly sprinkled to sit on top of the static grass, which is a nice effect.  Just tried that once or twice, so far.

I should note I put a nail on my homemade static grass applicator, and just quickly touch it to various areas while putting on the grasses - that allows me to move very quickly over different sections.  Much fast than driving a nail into just one spot, then clipping on the ground lead, etc.

Lots of different grasses, and I use a small blender to loosen up the clumped grass out of the package, and also to grind dried leaves I harvested a couple autums ago:

Even very bright green foam works, when layered under other stuff:

Woodland Scenics 2mm dry grass all clump out of the container.

De-clumping in process!

After de-clumping - better:

Lots of colors of grass and foams (and a very cluttered Dolores townsite for now...)

Aug 7, 2017

Quick scenery update

Not a 'normal' blog post - but here's some quick photos of recent scenery work... a new photo backdrop behind bridge 42-B at Ophir, and more static grass near Vance Junction: