Accepted Compromises

[Stephen Rainsbury]

Stephen, I'm most interested in the static grass results when you get to it. I've been toying with the idea of getting a Noch grass applicator but they are not cheap.

I will certainly report back, mine is Peco and was a Christmas present, but we decided to move shortly afterwards so it was packed straight away.  I have experimented with using dyed hanging basket liner and scotch brite pads for scrub and hedges and will be continuing with that once we have moved.
There was an article in this Months Model Rail (page 101) on tree armatures, and I am going to try a set of Woodland Scenics armatures, and a pack of Seam Foam from Noch.  Hopefully they will give different results, as I want to create mixed woodlands so don't want them all the same.
John Wilkes (Oxford 009 Soc) uses "found" twigs and plants on Coleford, and that looks really good. If I can find something useful I will be giving that a go too.
I also had a bit of luck when clearing out our loft, I found some plastic Fronds(?) for our plastic Christmas tree from 30 years ago. Hopefully these with a coat of paint and some very short static grass could make passable fir trees.

[Stephen Rainsbury]

I've now collected a ridiculous number and variety of those static grass tufts, so it will probably be doable to cover my layout's grassy areas in tufts and not need an electric shock device.  ???

If you are worried about it then I have heard that connecting a 1MOhm resistor in the earth wire gives total protection. In normal use thee is no current flowing so the voltage to the mesh is not changed, but if it shorts the resistor limits the current to just a few milli amps.  It sounds good in theory.

[Graeme Dunbar]

A bit like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkzLwS5n5c8

[clayliner]

Cheap plastic 'weed' sold for aquaria is also worth investigating for tree armatures.

David.

[Stephen Rainsbury]

Cheap plastic 'weed' sold for aquaria is also worth investigating for tree armatures.

That's a good point, I used quite a bit of that on my Sci-Fi Dioramas, especially the garish colours for alien vegetation.

Having said that in the last year I have bough marble dust, which came in small snaplock bags, a pair of small digital scales, 2 lots of snaplock bags, and a spice grinder. My wife is already worried that I am now on some police watch list so if I tell her I am buying weed she won't be able to sleep!

[Robin Webster]

Having bought Noch sea foam 3 years ago in the hope of having a selection of trees I ended up with small bushes. The stuff is extremely brittle. I had "branches" snap off like a hurricane had gone through the box and on my table. I did all that fancy spraying with their glue as shown on the box and sprinkled ground foam but in the process of planting a tree I had a stub instead.  Perhaps I am all thumbs but this stuff is not for me. I still have a half box of bushes .... trees.

Robin.

[Peter Boulter]

Cheap plastic 'weed' sold for aquaria is also worth investigating for tree armatures.

That's a good point, I used quite a bit of that on my Sci-Fi Dioramas, especially the garish colours for alien vegetation.

Having said that in the last year I have bough marble dust, which came in small snaplock bags, a pair of small digital scales, 2 lots of snaplock bags, and a spice grinder. My wife is already worried that I am now on some police watch list so if I tell her I am buying weed she won't be able to sleep!

Hmmm. Several small bags of powder,  small digital scales and a spice grinder. If the police stop you and find those in your car you'll be in the custody suite of the of the local nick before you know it. (and that'll be before you mention going to buy some weed).
:police:  :police: