Woodland Scenics Ready Grass?

[nwdrummer379]

Does anybody have experience with those readygrass mats you can get? Since I'm on a tight budget that seems to be the best bet for my little 4x8. Can I get some information on reliability or anything? Thanks

-Jeff

 

[UP2CSX]

The WS readygrass mat works fine. It's tough and durable and is easy to lay and conform to any layout contours. The only problem is your whole layout will look like a freshly mowed golf course. The best basic gound cover is some cheap brown latex paint. Use a color that's a close match to the color of the soil in your area. Paint the whole layout first so you don't have any bare foam or plywood showing through. After that, get some dirt from the yard or a nearby empty lot. Sift it to get the size you want and run a magnet through it to remove any magnetic materials. Putting it in a microwave for few minutes to kill any unwanted critters is also a good idea. You can then spread the dirt out and secure it the same way you would ballast, with a 50/50 mixture of white glue and water. Wet the dirt down first with a spray bottle filled with a 30/70 mixture of alcohol and water. Finally, use the $29 you would have spent on the grass mat to buy some WS fine truf, blended turf, and a couple of bags of clump foliage in different shades. Gets your roads and structures in place first and then fill in with the turf and clump foliage. You'll end up with a much more realistic layout for the same money you would have spent on the grass mat.

 

[AllenB]

The WS readygrass mat works fine. It's tough and durable and is easy to lay and conform to any layout contours. The only problem is your whole layout will look like a freshly mowed golf course. The best basic gound cover is some cheap brown latex paint. Use a color that's a close match to the color of the soil in your area. Paint the whole layout first so you don't have any bare foam or plywood showing through. After that, get some dirt from the yard or a nearby empty lot. Sift it to get the size you want and run a magnet through it to remove any magnetic materials. Putting it in a microwave for few minutes to kill any unwanted critters is also a good idea. You can then spread the dirt out and secure it the same way you would ballast, with a 50/50 mixture of white glue and water. Wet the dirt down first with a spray bottle filled with a 30/70 mixture of alcohol and water. Finally, use the $29 you would have spent on the grass mat to buy some WS fine truf, blended turf, and a couple of bags of clump foliage in different shades. Gets your roads and structures in place first and then fill in with the turf and clump foliage. You'll end up with a much more realistic layout for the same money you would have spent on the grass mat.

Jim,
How do you get the foliage to stick? For example, I've got a city park I'm creating and have layed down the grass (spread a 50/50 mix of glue/water) and that looks fine. But then when I add/sprinkle on foliage, how do you get it to stick? If I spray it with 50/50 glue/water, I think it'll cause everything to lay down. I can't glue each piece separately because it's too fine.

 

[John P]

The method I use is a 50% mixture of white glue and water, with a drop of detergent in it. Paint your ground brown, and spread the diluted glue around with a paintbrush. Then sprinkle various colors and textures of ground foam into it, then a light sprinkling of sifted and cooked dirt from my back yard, and likewise some "Colorado dirt" (it's a lighter color) that I bought at a show. Finish up by spraying water out of a perfume dispenser, again with a drop of detergent. Then don't touch it until everything dries!

If you want to add material to something that's already done, I'd try spraying with water to damp it down, then dabbing glue right over what's there, then add the new material. Sure, some of the old material will come loose, but you can replace that at the same time as adding the new stuff.

For spreading ground foam, I take the subscription cards that come in magazines and fold them 90 degrees to make a V shape, and put a little of the foam in the fold. Then from a few inches height, gently tap the card and let the material flow out of the angle. It helps to get a "random" appearance without big clumps.

Lately I've been adding occasional tufts of fake grass made by the German company Silfor. The stuff's expensive (those Black Forest craftsmen don't work for pfennigs) but you get a lot in a package, and it looks good.

It comes out like this (Silflor tufts near the front):

 

[OCN Guy]

I've got to say, I used the grassmat on my first HO layout, and was a little unhappy with the result after a few months. It looks good and is easy to work with... but as you go along dissatisfaction creeps in over the uniform height of the grass.
Although I will say I lived in a neighborhood where if I went outside and started mowing, all of my neighbors were mowing their lawns by the time I was done so that my lawn would not look better than theirs! So it's not completely unrealistic to use a grassmat.
An alternative might be to start with the grass mat, then get WS grass materials later and add glue to the bottoms (after cutting them to size) and planting them on the grass mat in various spots to create areas of higher grasses. This might be an option, since you're on a budget.

 

[Motley]

Ya I've already started with the ready grass, but like you said, I can go over it later with clumping of some grass to make it look better.