Hopefully that title will snag enough of the search words that people looking for information on this thing (which there is very little so far) will be able to find it. Static grass has been around a long, long time. Most of the static grass on the market is derived from nylon carpet fibers. They are most typically available in 2mm, 4mm and 6mm varieties. For us n-scale people the 2mm height works out to a scale height of 12.6 inches tall grass - pretty deep and not real workable for nice short manicured lawns in front of a house for example. For the HO people it would work nicely as low grass. In n-scale the 2mm height makes nice fields of grass or wheat (depending on color obviously) and applying multiple applications of static grass on top of the exisitng applications will make it both thicker and taller to your desired look. In the past the only real options for applying static grass were to apply some type of adhesive (I use matte medium or elmers brushed on for the first layer of grass) and then either shake the grass right out of storage container (like Woodland Scenics shaker bottles) or to use a "puffer" bottle that Noch sells. Then you could take a small piece of pink foam or a rubber balloon and rub it in your hair and wave it about a half inch (15mm) above the surface of the static grass you applied to try and get it to "stand up". I've also tried using a vacuum cleaner hose with some paper towel over the end to try and "suck" the fibers up to a standing position. You can see the results of this type of application in the photos below. (above)Noch puffer bottle on left and Noch Grass Master on right There have been a number of previous articles in Model Railroader (and elsewhere) where people have used homemade static generators that were turned into applicator devices. Not only was this usually a little tricky, it was also prone to give you a bit of a jolt if you weren't carefully using it. Noch has released their own "Grass Master" static device. It looks a bit like a flashlight and according to Noch's instructions, converts a 9v battery current into a "stable high voltage reaching 15,000 V DC". On the top of the device is a length of black wire with an aligator clip on the end that carries the positive charge. I used a paper clip pushed into foam board and attached the aligator clip to this. The white loading cup on the other end of the flashlight looking device has a small half inch long metal shaft in the middle that negatively charges the static grass that you put into the cup. Over the end goes one of two plastic screw on screens (one for 2mm grass and the other for larger 4-6mm grasses- we used the 2mm screen for this). The device is very simple to use - just fill the white plastic cup about 2/3 full of static grass of your choice (I used Woodland Scenics in this case), screw on the plastic screen end-cap, clip the aligator clip to a pin/paperclip/nail in the scenery area you plan to work on, turn on the device and lightly shake it about 2-3 inches over the area you want to cover with static grass. For the first layer of grass you'll brush on matte medium or Elmers white glue on the area you want to cover. The static grass literally appears to be jumping from the surface of the glue to the applicator. There is no noise from the device at all and the grass standing up makes little tiny ticking noises on the foam surface when you apply the first layer. You can visually see how thick you are putting it on and when you have largely saturated a given area with grass. It really works. I have to admit that I was highly skeptical (especially for the price of this flashlight looking thing) but was pleasantly surprised. (above)Noch Grass Master and two screw-on end-cap screens For the second and subsequent layers (depending on how deep you want the grass or field to be) I use hair spray in a pump mist bottle (not the spray bomb can hairspray as you'll have a huge mess). You can also use a mist bottle with 50/50 diluted matte medium and water so long as the mist bottle doesn't clog and actually still comes out as a mist. Just mist it lightly as you don't need a lot and then apply the second and subsequent layers of grass. A recent (May 2006) Model Railroader article on static grass application talked about using a 50/50 matte medium/water mix in an airbrush to mist it on for any additional coats of grass beyond the first one. I haven't tried this yet to see if it yields better results, but so far I'm pretty happy with what I've been able to accomplish. I ordered the Noch Grass Master through Scenic Express and it isn't cheap - $116 dollars. Looking at the photos below, I'd say you'd have to really ask yourself what you are looking for. As you can see in the photos below the puffer bottle doesn't do such a bad job, it just looks a bit more mottled, less dense and doesn't stand up as much. However if you're looking more for that late fall/early winter look or burnt-out dry fields that are matted down, then the puffer bottle would work fine. The Grass Master really works well to get that grass standing up and looking more like the grass you see in nature. It's ultimately your call. (above)Difference in density and coverage between the puffer bottle and Grass Master
Wow! I may have to try some of that static grass! Looks amazing, especially with the Noch Static Master! Good job lashedup!
Excellent, and well thought out review. Since my wife is slowly convincing me to model modern IL, I see where this device would come in handy. I'll have to see about ordering one of those. Very good use of pictures for comparison too!:thumbs_up:
OK I goofed in my hurry to get this up and called it the "Static Master" when in reality it is the Noch "Grass Master". If a mod or admin could change the title accordingly that would be great! I'm sold on this thing (even with the heavy price tag). Best thing would be to go in on it with a few people if you can because you won't use it all the time. Static grass also requires some careful thought in regards to how and when you use it when working on your layout. For instance when I was working on the photo module (link HERE) I used the puffer bottle. On one hand I wanted the grass to appear to be growing up through some of the ballast on the far shoulders. This meant putting it down after laying track but before ballasting so I could pour some ballast over the grass. To do this and not get static fibers all over the tracks I had to use wet paper towels to cover anything I didn't want fibers on. This becomes a much bigger issue when you need to mist on hairspray or 50/50 white glue/water mist for second or third layers of grass as the mist will need to be controled somewhat. The good news is that it isn't very difficult to scrape the grass off or even take a lighter/lit match and singe the ends to shorten them in certain areas (like around tracks or areas that might get sprayed with weed killer). Now that I have this device I'm forced to go back and scrap all the old static grass off the module and re-apply it with the Grass Master. Since I'm also building the module for outdoor photography I need to find some more vibrant shades of static grass since the Woodland Scenics stuff really fades quickly in daylight. The static grass Noch makes is way, way too bright (a sample comes with the Grass Master). Scenery Express sells their own blends that I'm going to try next as it appears in photos to be somewhere between the Woodland Scenics pale blends and the Noch dayglow colors. Anyway, I'll post more photos as I make progress on things. I also hope to try and take some during actually application of the static grass. -jamie
Very interesting and looks fabulous, but I wonder how it can be kept clean. Do you think you can vacuum it with one of those keyboard vacuums on occasion? Otherwise it looks like a veritable dust magnet. I might be to that stage on my railroad in six months or so, I'll' check back with y'all then and see how it has held up.
All done as to change in title. This is the type of thing we can use in the new Railimages as a tutorial. Great job.
Geez, Lashedup! I didn't know I needed one of these until I saw your amazing review, display and comparisons! Not too often anyone lays something out that clearly. Your actual last name isn't Noch, is it??! I have to get me one of these! David
The upkeep in terms of vaccuming also concerns me too. Thanks for the review...very detailed and illustrative.
A great gem of a thread! Thanks, Jamie. I still like the effect with the puffer bottle, though. Get one of those new plastic-base grass mats for use as lawns and you have 3 "styles" of grass. Available colors is an issue. Do you want to do an another experiment by dyeing the material before application? I would also be curious about using the longer lengths of material mixed in various proportions with the 2mm. I am also wondering about using the somewhat longer material along with yellow ground foam to make fields of mustard; it's all over the place around here. Looks like I'll have to get the machine eventually since my hair will probably be gone and I won't be able to use the balloon method.
Wow, great writeup Lashedup!! Certainly a really interesting product. I notice you are using it on a portable diorama, do you reckon the technique will be strong enough to stand up to handling on portable layouts or modules?
From a durability standpoint there are a few things to consider, but overall the static grass once fixed in place is pretty durable. Once I'm satisfied with how it looks I mist it with some diluted matte medium and water in a misting bottle. I may take a vacuum with the attachment hose and the brush attachment that is pretty common and suck up any residual static grass after applying it and letting it dry. This is a good idea anyway as you'll want to try and get rid of or eliminate the stray fibers as much as possible. So yes, so long as you aren't apply a vacuum suction hose directly to the grass without a brush attachment, the grass stays in place pretty well. That said, like most scenery materials, if you handle it too much the fibers will flake off. For instance if you were to take your finger and rub it fairly hard across the top of the grass in a small area you can start to loosen the fibers off the top. This may actually be an advantage if you want to "wear' down the grass in a given area to show the colored base scenery or dirt. If you lay the grass down in 4-5 layers to make it really thick, it will stay once affixed with diluted matte medium, but if you press your finger into it hard enough, it will leave a finger indentation that won't come all the way back up on its own. You can take a dental pick or tweezers and "tweeze" the grass back into shape though. So overall keeping this clean isn't too big of a deal because you can run a vacuum over it to grab stray fibers and dust. Also from a handling standpoint it wouldn't be too much different than any other delicate scenery. Repairing a section isn't too bad either as natural grass has quite a bit of variation to it. A carefully manicured lawn in front of a house might be a little tougher to repair evenly, but looking at the lawn in front of my house, it already looks like giant modelers have been "handling" it.
Very nice review. If you want to roll your own, here is a how-to (in German): http://www.finescale.org/howtos/elektrostat/elektrostat.html Here is an ugly link to a translated version: http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?h...scale.org/howtos/elektrostat/elektrostat.html
One more with a poor engineer that got left behind. Maybe he's looking for his lost loco in the weeds... Ordered some of the Scenic Express static grass in two colors. Should get it by Wednesday or so and then we'll see how things go with color.
Possible ready-to-adapt (almost) High Voltage supply (cheap): the Xenon-flash power unit from one-use cameras. A local camera shop would chuck the mechanicals when they processed the film. Second unit... Harbor Freight sells an electronic fly swatter for as little as $2.99 on sale. I don't believe either are quite as high a voltage (16KV for the German unit above) Gee, model rr crop circles! Bob in IDaho
