OK I'm real tempted to give this stuff a try, But the applicator is toooo expensive. 1st has anyone used one of those Hillbilly engineered versions of the applicator, and which kind. Do you have instructions for making one ( preferably along the lines of Grass applicator for Dummies type of instructions) . And 2nd, Most of my layout is already sceniked with ground foam type scenery. Has anyone tried to apply the grass over foam, how does it look, and do you have pictures of this.?????.......Thanx......Mike
First question, I have seen one of the Hillbilly contraptions. I worked great, but it terrified me. Major arching going on. Although, the guy using it wasn't quite sure of what he was doing when he made it. I've heard good things about the home builts. I just happened to not have a very good experience with the one I saw in person. Second, on Modutrak, we pretty much all go over a base coat of ground foam now. We do the usual latex paint, apply ground foam, and vacuum up the loose stuff. Then we apply a heavy coat of Matte Medium (we tend to use Modge Podge sold at WalMart), and then go to town with the static grass. After the first base coat, we'll go back with a watered down matte medium spray and add variation spots using a torn up paper towel, and then add a different color variation of more grass.
Youre Harper college 2008 set of shots is interesting, scenery looks good from what I can see of it. ( somehow the pics show up waaaay to big and out of focus on my monitor ) The 2006 shots are great the groundcover looks to be a mix of different materials, kinda what I am looking to get. The East New Lisbon module is really what I am looking for. The mix of static, and foam is looking fairly realistic here. I'm guessing here that the trees are scenic express ?....Mike
Made my own for less than $25 and it works GREAT: I have an entire detailed HOWTO article on my blog showing how I built it: HOWTO: Static Grass Applicator I pretty much followed the instructions on Joe Fugate's scenery DVDs; my article describes any variations I made to his original plan. Jamie
An acceptable alternative to either buying a static grass applicator or building one yourself is simply getting a Noch "Puffer" Noch 08100 Puffer Bottle Static Grass Applicator: Amazon.co.uk: Toys Games and using that. I modified mine by wrapping a flexible magnet around the neck of the bottle. I then statically charged a balloon (the old "rub the balloon on the hair" trick) and drew that over the top of the grass after it was applied. I have a Noch Grassmaster, a fly-swatter variety applicator and the "Puffer" and I can say that that the Puffer did a very credible job.
Mike, I'd have to let Bill answer that question, as I'm not sure what trees he used. We pretty much all use Super Trees now. For more recent pics of the layout, search "NTS" and the N Scale forum. My thread on our set up should pop right up.
i plan on following your instructions in making one too once i get to doing my scenery! i aint paying no $200 for the noch! you should mass market that homemade one.
