Where has the time gone?
I told myself that I wouldn’t let the blog slip into history this year. We’ll so much for keeping promises to myself. It is October and I am on a “forced” vacation. What I mean by “forced” is that we travel once a year to Island Park Village Resort to use our once a year week. The Resort is part of a time-share that we purchased from my in-laws. It is a use it or lose it situation. If you don’t use it you still have to pay for it. Anyway, that’s the reason I’m writing now. The reason I haven’t been updating regularly is ONE: Pure laziness and procrastination. TWO: Work and other activities. Work, unfortunately I have little to no control over. Other activities have been through the local model railroading club (Utah Society of Railroad Modelers) and the Northern Utah NMRA division. I regrettably have cut out most of the club and division activities until work settles down. Hopefully soon! On to the fun stuff!
Playing Mother Nature
Since I built the static grass tool, I have used it only a few times. The following photos show the Denton area where I have filled in a lot of areas around the new depot and in-between tracks. I am using a custom blend of static grass from Scenic Express. The two colors I use are 2mm, 4mm or 6mm Autumn Green and 6mm California Gold. Why so many different sizes of one color? A batch of grass is created when I’m ready to add it to the layout. Each time I mix a batch I will use a different size to create variation in the overall texture. At times I will add more of one color to add more variation.
Click on the photos to enlarge them.
Creating Your Own Grass Tufts
I wanted the random tufts of grass to closely match the larger areas of static used elsewhere. Especially in areas like the dirt road and in-between ties. Since the color of grass is custom, I need custom tufts to match. I heard on a podcast that someone made their own tufts by using non-stick aluminum foil. These tufts are made using slightly diluted white glue. If the glue is diluted too much it will bead up into small puddles. Sometimes that is not a problem, but if you want a longer row it can be difficult.
Click on the photos to enlarge them.
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