Simulating ground leaves


mantua mike said:
Dyed sawdust?
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I actually did try this suggestion, not for ground cover but for grass and such. What I found was the saw dust would "clump" fairly badly and end up in piles rather than a layer of grass, leaves, whatever. Perhaps it was the way I did it, not sure but didn't work too well for me.
 
Sawdust does clump badly if colored. I sift my sawdust with a kitchen sieve before coloring and throw the really coarse stuff away. That's probably 1/4 to 1/2 of it. Then I dump some of it in "My" blender and not "Her" blender. I add some acrylic craft paint for color and then enough water to let the mixture flow enough to completely color the sawdust. Then I dump the colored sawdust back into the sieve to drain some. Once it drains I dump it onto several layers of paper towels in one of those plastic trays that meat comes in. I stir it a couple of times a day until t dries. It does clump as it dries. To take care of the clumps I dump colored sawdust into a very old flour sifter that I inherited when my grandmother died. Every so often I squeeze the clumps against the side of the sifter to break them up. Last I have a very fine sieve and sift again using it. Using that I end up with fine sawdust which is about the size of Woodland Scenics fine turf and coarser sawdust with nice varied texture for ground cover.

If you have a workshop with a dust collector or know someone who does then get some of the dust from the filters and use that for fine turf.
 
I have seen real leaves ground in a blender and then glued down like any other ground cover. Looked really good.
 
rlundy90 said:
I have seen real leaves ground in a blender and then glued down like any other ground cover. Looked really good.
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Hmmmm? could be on to something there. I get an unending supply from the park over the road in my front drive, Maybe a booming cottage industry right at my doorstep?
 
The tea is a great idea! I was going to suggest buying some dried spices, like oregano or thyme, but the used tea bags is ultimately cheaper and essentially the same. Fresh spices might also double as potpourri.
 
I use tea bags, my fiancé drinks tea, I'm a coffee guy. She loves chai and orange peko and I found the colours inside work very well for dead fall colours. Mint and camomile teas are good for dying leaves and dries out foliage.

Wait for the bag to dry and cut it open! Heck if you aren't a tea drinker you can still buy cheap teas and it's still cheaper than buying WS turf.
 
The tea idea looks good and it does work. I also went out and bought some spices - Dill Weed which is a dark green and looks like ground cover, fallen leaves, albeit a bit big for the scale. A large container of that cost me $3.99 (plus tax of course) but have enough of it to do two layouts.

What I need to do is get myself a blender so I can ground this stuff up smaller - that is becoming obvious if I want to get things down to scale. Any suggestions for a good HO Scale Scenery Making Blender? :)
 
Stoker said:
Coffee was (is) also a staple for scenery in addition to tea leaves. It keeps it's color forever (even after use) and when dried it does not mold or attract bugs.
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In another thread, 'twas asked what would keep critters off the layout. Could do double duty. (the bugs obviously know something about coffee we should!)
 
Our club in Mobile used to make our own died foam and grind it up in a blender. Depending on the coarseness we wanted, we ground it anywhere from a couple of minutes to several. We ground it while it still was wet with Rit Dye. Worked very well.

The guy who came up with these ideas we had in Mobile was an extremely smart architect. He came up with using foam insulation as basic scenery forms back when the only foam sheets on the market was beadboard. He also came up with the idea of ground foam for ground cover. He even used texture paint for basic scenery forms over the foam.
 
I have a tea stainer with small diameter holes on top of a tea container. I put real leaves in the can for the strainer and a AA battery. Shaking the can breaks the leaves into pieces that can be sifted through the strainer. i use these for HO scale. Oregano can also be used. After taking a fall excursion train on NJ Transit, i noticed that the intake grilles on the U34CH locomotives were stuffed with leaves. The oregano looked great.
 
X2 on that catt I have used tea leafs before I always try to make as much as possible for one thing it's cheaper, like the yellow and white lines on the roads electrical tape and a piece of glass I cut my own lines works perfect and you can make a lot of lines with a roll of tape. Just little things like go a long way.

Chris,
 
I gather pine straw and oak leaves out of the yard and put them in the blender with some water and hit Hi until its finely chopped. Strain in a collander and put it in the microwave for 5 minutes or so and finally bake it in the oven on a cookie sheet untill its completely dry. To apply it: I use white glue, spread the glue around and sprinkle on the leaves.Spray on a little alcohol and sprinkle on some more and top it off with scenery glue or diluted white glue.
 
Stoker said:
Ground leaves and straw in the microwave for 5 minutes? I think you are most likely going to have something called a "Fire" if you do that, unless you have the weakest microwave on the planet.
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I'm sure most everybody here has the forethought not to put it in for five consecutive minutes...
 
That does sound like a "risky" way of drying the leaves and straw. Usually heat V's Straw will equal fire. Why not just let it dry out at room temperature and remove any potential risk? It might take longer, but I would think it would be a lot safer.
 
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