Long grass required.

Jan 07, 2005 24 Replies

Can any and all offer tips on ways to create long grass?



I've tried a few things, but would like to move on from experimenting to finding something the result of which I'm happy with.



I want grass/weeds that, in real life, would come up to somewhere around knee length, which is a nnth away from being straw in colour, and which would be quite dense and hard to walk through.



What do/would you all use?



Pete


you could always go for a walk in my back garden, seems to match your requirments from memory, I dont go there any more since the growling noises started!!

Other than that there is a pack of hairy stuff Gaugemaster do that I hink sounds something like your after, sorry i dont know the product code.

Brilliant! I stuck 'Gaugemaster hairy grass stuff' into Google and it gave me a picture of exactly what I'm looking for :)

Mind you, I'd still like to hear of any 'homemade' solutions if anyone has any.

Pete

"mutley" wrote

Hi Pete,

A mate of mine uses the carpet underlay which was used in old Ford Anglia cars.

Glues the underlay face down with PVA and when it's firmly set he strips the surplus away. Leaves a very fair indication of long, half-dead grass.

John.

Carpet underlay was the way I remember all the mags telling me to do it when I were a nipper, but the only underaly I have around the house is a kind of soft rubbery thick mat.

Maybe Simon has an old Anglia underneath all the grass in his back garden and he can flog to me... ;)

Pete

The message from mutley contains these words:

Old-fashioned carpet underlay of the felt variety, the modern stuff is no use for anything really*. Glue it down, allow 24 hours to set, and then pull it up. The stuff is usually brown so it just needs the addition of some spray glue and some scatter material and you've got long grass (or brambles and rosebay willow-herb in N). The part you pulled up is ready for doing the next bit...

[* actually, I used it between my baseboards and the framework to deaden the noise... Don't know if it works or not because I don't know how noisy it would be if the Duralay wasn't there!]

Article is in German, but you can use the pictures to get the general drift:

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incredibly well, though there is some (hairy?) electronics.

Or trimming down door mats (I know someone who went through an entire shop's door mat stock to find one with the right pile). Or carpet underlay attacked with a stiff brush.

- Nigel

Several articles over the years in North American magazines on make tall grass using the electrostatic method. I'm sure if you Google "electrostatic grass" you'll find something about it.

-- Cheers Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway

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go to page - right click - translate into English

gives a very acceptable description

Cheers

Steve

Yo

********** Note: High voltage is lethal!

Therefore that is here no build**********

Hamsters beware ;o) Brilliant! :oD

All the best

Fling

"Flingel Bunt" wrote

I thought it was the current which was potentially lethal, not the voltage?

John.

You can't have one without the other so it is a meaningless distinction in this context. Keith Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

"Keith Norgrove" wrote

You can have a high voltage and low current - as in the case of an electric fence surrounding a field full of animals, or a low voltage high current as in the case of motor car electrical system. You tell me which is likely to be most dangerous or am I missing the point somewhere as usual?

John.

Yo

'mindesign' originally wrote - "go to page - right click - translate into English ...gives a very acceptable description"

Go to

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right-click on some clear page space and select "Translate into English" ... I did and got the bit about Hamsters, voltage and other amusing phrases.

Iffy translation all round, nevermind the voltage bit, it all makes for an entertaining read, none of it's 'correct' (English) really. "Who does not understand the circuit: Finger away!" I agree :oD

Up yours! Erm, maybe that's not what it meant ;o)

All the best

Fling

easy, its where one of the animals gets to drive the car!

Simon

Quite a good "puffa grass" how-to.

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Ian

mutley wrote: > Can any and all offer tips on ways to create long grass? >

Artificial fur, of the sort used to cover plush toys like teddy bears, available from bigger fabric retailers.

Depending on the colour, it can be either stained first using dilute acrylic paint, or if it is a suitable colour as bought, glued directly over the basic scenic forms, then trimmed with scissors or an electric clipper to vary the length of the fibres to give variation of appearance.

If you want more defined areas of different length it is a simple matter to cut and fit sections of fur with longer fibres. The seams are easily concealed by teasing and brushing the fibres so that they overlap. Or a fence, hedge or path can run along the seam.

You can then airbrush the fibres to further vary the colour, and finish off with scatter scenic material to suit. Cheap paintbrushes and the like are good sources of fibre bunches to represent taller growths such as reeds and weeds. Cut a bunch, drill or punch a small hole in the ground, then dip the end of the bunch in white glue to secure it. After it dries it can be trimmed to shape. It's time consuming, but very effective.

I've also had good results with beach towel material to represent the sort of low clumps of vegetation found in bogs and swamps - sorry, "wetlands"!

I've also tried Silflor scenic material - a superb result, but here in Australia it's ruinously expensive, sadly.

In news:crn976$pfh$ snipped-for-privacy@newsreaderg1.core.theplanet.net, John Turner blithered:

Regrettably far easier to get a lethal wack of current from a high than a low voltage source.

The effect on tissues including the myocardium depends on the energy of the shock, which is why defibrillators are calibrated in Joules.

Duncan

Duncan

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