How to use Woodland scenics turf/flock/grasses and similar

[Dr. The Viking]

Hi there,

I'm REALLY eager to learn the business of "grassing" a gaming board. Whatever I do I always find that my experiments wind up looking completely unnatural.

For example: When making a spot of grass... I put on a bit of glue and then some turf. But the end results looks completely strange. Just a blob of grass with an abrupt stop. There should clearly be some fading.. but how is this achieved?

Do you go for large blobs or small ones?

How on Earth do you guys apply all the different kinds of prefabricated foilage materials?

Do you start out with the big parts and add smaller things afterwards?

[Hammers]

Hi there,

I'm REALLY eager to learn the business of "grassing" a gaming board. Whatever I do I always find that my experiments wind up looking completely unnatural.

For example: When making a spot of grass... I put on a bit of glue and then some turf. But the end results looks completely strange. Just a blob of grass with an abrupt stop. There should clearly be some fading.. but how is this achieved?

Do you go for large blobs or small ones?

How on Earth do you guys apply all the different kinds of prefabricated foilage materials?

Do you start out with the big parts and add smaller things afterwards?

I've never had a problem with that abrupt stop. That's what patchy grass look likes from a distance. Check out Captain Bloods boards and you'll see it looks just fine.

What you could try to do to make things look more realistic is to apply thicker, taller grass in the your patches. Only machine cut grass is even. Even pastures have spots of taller grass since grazing animals leave plants which are bitter/coarse/poisonous.

There are several tall grass products from terrain firms (I favour Noch) and you can, as been  shown by others, glue a tuft, or whole area, of teddy bear skin to the board and then apply glue and normal static grass around it.

[OSHIROmodels]

Water your glue down and don't 'blob' it where you want it. Almost drybrusing with watered down glue works really well. The other trick is to use different textures and colours sparingly. I find that after the ground work has been painted tealeaves go quite well for the first layer and then grasses and flocks can go down after that. Try not to put to much on in one go, build it up as you go and then you can stop whenever you're happy with the result.

cheers

James

[Dr. The Viking]

Water your glue down and don't 'blob' it where you want it. Almost drybrusing with watered down glue works really well. The other trick is to use different textures and colours sparingly. I find that after the ground work has been painted tealeaves go quite well for the first layer and then grasses and flocks can go down after that. Try not to put to much on in one go, build it up as you go and then you can stop whenever you're happy with the result.

cheers

James

How do you apply glue on the second layer? Without ruining the first?

[OSHIROmodels]

Wait till it goes off and then lightly brush/dab on the second layer. For large areas I use a mist sprayer (you know the sort for watering plants). Make sure you wash it out thoroughly after though or it won't work 

cheers

James

[Dr. The Viking]

Wait till it goes off and then lightly brush/dab on the second layer. For large areas I use a mist sprayer (you know the sort for watering plants). Make sure you wash it out thoroughly after though or it won't work 

cheers

James

Hmm ok. You don't seal it with anything afterwards?

[OSHIROmodels]

Sometimes with spray matt laquer from the local art shop but usually not because I'm quite lazy 

cheers

James

[Dr. The Viking]

OK I tried doing a test piece now... I mixed up some different kinds of stuff and put i on using watered down glue.



I still think it looks a bit dull...


Any ideas for improvement?

More of this?! Less of that?

[Super_Gibbon]

That looks really good. If I was forced to think of different things you could do I imagine you could just break it up a bit with some different lengths of grass, perhaps a rocky patch here or there, but really it looks good to me as is. A tree would look cool in there, especially with the larger litter debris you have mixed in the grass. Also some foilage growing up the ruin and in its cracks and whatnot could be nice. But like I said, I think you conquered foilage for the most part.

[Super_Gibbon]

Since I am rambling on, Woodland scenics has some nice tutorial videos you can watch. I think one of the big points with those things are using layers of differerent sizes of stuff and using the scenic cement spray all over as glue and sealer.

[OSHIROmodels]

OK I tried doing a test piece now... I mixed up some different kinds of stuff and put i on using watered down glue.



I still think it looks a bit dull...


Any ideas for improvement?

More of this?! Less of that?

That does look good. I would say that it needs to be a bit more random, the flower bushes and rock are too regularly spaced and I think some very slight bare patches to show the ground work underneath 

Oh, loose the building, I never did like those GW ones 

cheers

James

[Big Sexy]

Personally, I really like the look of static grass on a board.  You can find different lengths and colors and can mix them up.  A neat trick I found on the railroad forums was using a static grass applicator which give the grass a static charge and really makes it stand up.  The commercial ones are very expensive but I also found some info to make a home-made one out of an electric fly swatter and a  tea strainer.  It actually works.  I had some trouble re-locating the original site I found but managed to find this.

http://www.howcast.com/search?q=Fly+swatter

All you have to do it lay down some watered down PVA, stick a pin in the board (I use foam), clip the lead to the pin, hold down the button, and sprinkle the grass through the stainer.  The closer you hold the stainer to the board the more the grass will stand.  Don't allow the strainer to touch the pin.  The strainer will also hold a charge even after you release the button.  

Warning:  I read not to use spray on adhesives for the grass because they are flammable and a spark could start a fire.  

Idiot Warning:  Don't touch the strainer to the pin.  You will cause a nice arc and a "pop", and as a result you will jump and fling a strainer full of static grass all over the place.  

[Ramshackle_Curtis]

Glue your flock on and while the glue is still wet get a damp brush and feather the edges. Its simple and looks fine. Also works with sand. You have to do the flocking in small spots.

What I found to be most effective is glueing a clump of browny green flock down, feaher the edges, wait for it to dry. Then apply a smaller, more green bit of flock in the middle. Then add smaller blobs of static grass. That way it looks like the grass around the edge is having a hard time, while the center of the plant which retains the moisture  is greener and longer.

[Antenociti]

may help:  http://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/gbu0-display/artofflora.html

[Captain Blood]

OK I tried doing a test piece now... I mixed up some different kinds of stuff and put i on using watered down glue.



I still think it looks a bit dull...


Any ideas for improvement?

More of this?! Less of that?

Good grief young Thorbjørn, that looks fine. Really jolly - although I'm not a great fan of all those little coloured bits. I look at the grass in my garden and the fields around, and mostly I just see a pretty uniform green, not lots of little red or yellow bits. Unless you're specifically going for a wildflower meadow - and I think I'd approach that somewhat differently....

I concur with most of the advice given above - I drybrush neat PVA onto the ground surface, then hand scatter a mix of Woodland Scenics turf. I generally try to use a mix of 2 or three textures / grades - fine and medium at least - but stick to one colour. I generally mix in a bit of static grass with the 'turf' too.

Having applied my first layer of grass mix, I then tap off the excess and seal with a sprayed misting of 'scenic cement'. I'm pretty sure this is just watered down PVA, sold very expensively by those clever folk at WS...
This more or less seals the first fix of grass - although if you dab more PVA on top, yes, it will lift in places, so you have to be careful and patient. But it should let you add further layers where it's a bit thin, or to add new patches where you didn't grass in the first place.

Once the grass is down more or less to my satisfaction, I add 'scrubby bits' (don't know if that makes sense in Danish  ) - little bits of clump foliage / furze, sprigs of lichen and the all important grass tufts - again in colours which tone in with your grass and bare groundwork. Each piece is glued on with a dab of superglue, and yes, that does take a long time, but I think it's this level of detailed secondary dressing (along with pools, rocky outcrops, twigs for fallen logs etc) which adds the visual interest and sets good scenery apart from mere flock grass.

Then give the whole lot another spray over with said 'scenic cement'.
But do be aware that the scenic cement not only helps all your scenic materials stay in place, but it does also darken them down a couple of notches when they dry.