Was working on a sceniced section of the layout today I was about to put down some turf ground cover and took a step back and looked over at the shelves I have set up under the bench work containing two full shelves of Woodland Scenics ground cover and thought well now this is kinda of boring. The only thing I have that is not from W/S is from my own backyard real New Jersey dirt. before we get all the jokes about toxic or radio active soil in New Jersey it’s just plain old sifted clean dirt my Geiger counter says so. So in an effort to escape the mundane does anyone else use anything besides W/S ground cover? Some of their stuff is ok some is down right scary but would just like to try something different
Depending on what time of year you model, you could always use dried leaves. I used them on my last layout and had decent results, you just have to make sure they’re ground up extremely well.
Also for tall weeds I boil bundles of jute twine, then soak it in 70/30 mixture of water to forest green craft paint. I’ve gotten pretty good results with that.
Hope this kind of helps.
Jake
Thoroughly run a magnet through the dirt. You don’t want anything getting sucked up into the magnets in your engines.
Chip, been sifted, baked and run though with a magnet,learned that lesson by watching a couple of old geezer know it all’s down at the club. They took dirt right from the lot behind the building of the building and sifted it man you want to talk about a mess. We had ore trains with dead shorts etc. I solved that problem with the big shop vac.
I’m sold on ground goop- a witches brew I first heard of on this forum. The formula is:1 cup of ground colored latex paint, 1/2 cup of Elmer’s white glue, 1 cup of Vermiculite (fine type unless you are into O gauge), one cup of Cell-U-Clay, and 2 spoonfuls of Lysol (to keep it from getting stinky). Stir all that up until its all the same color, thick yet spreadable. I like its ability to cover up seams in the scenery and holes due to my less than perfect foam carving. Throw a few twigs on it and its a great forest ground cover or use some of your trove of W/S foam sprinkled over it for variety of ground types. Keep it in an air-tight container and it will outlast most mummies I suspect. When spread out it takes a day or so to fully dry. Once dried it’s rather permanent . Roy
Thanks for the recipe Roy an old family secrete perhaps…lol I have heard about ground goop and often wondered about making some maybe I’ll give it a try. I have been using hydrocal thinned to the point of a soupy consistency but before I add the water I mix in several different colors of brown tempra paint so the hydrocal is colored earth times so you don’t get any of those nasty white patches showing through. My scenery work is like yours it needs a lot of camouflaging to put it loosely.
Along with Woodland Scenic’s ground cover I’ve also picked up these brands:
JJT
Scenic Express
Noch
Each company makes turf that is different in color from what WS provides. I like having a variety.
Here is an image showing JJT Fine Grass at the top and Scenic Express Green Grass Blend at the bottom:
This color of JJT grass has a little “blue” in it, which came closer to matching the grass color found on the backdrop.
One challenge I have with Woodland Scenic’s colors tend to be a little too vibrant in my opinion. The light green is very bold with the medium green being a little less so.
The colors offered by Scenic Express are a little more muted, they not only look better to me in person, they seem to photograph better also.
I use Ground Goop and also dyed sawdust. The sawdust works really well on hills to give a more textured look. I paint the hill, then dust on brown sawdust and let it dry. Next I spray on a white glue and water mix. While that is wet I sift on the WS ground foam, fine first, then work up to coarse and wet it again. Don’t cover everything with the coarse or you will hide the textured effect of the sawdust. I haven’t tried the sawdust over Ground Goop yet, but I will soon.
I use WS products, but first I glue down a layer of sifted dirt. It’s a mixture of garden dirt and potting soil. That ensures that any bare spots in the WS grass shows as dirt, which is the way it is in nature. I make a mixture of different WS grass colours so that it isn’t a uniform colour that looks like a painted lawn. And a few specks of yellow for dandelions makes it look more like my front lawn!
Ground cover is where I’ve found a use for good old lichen. I chop it really fine (no pieces longer that 1/8 inch using scissors, then put it in a jar and shake it up. I sprinkle this stuff on top of WS ground foam and dribble thinned white glue to hold it down. The effect is pretty convincing natural debris (sticks, bark, etc). It does a good job of reducing the “Golf Course” effect.
That’s a good tip about the lichen.
Lichen is like the forgotten scenery item.
Clump foliage doesn’t have any “structure”. I think that’s where lichen shines.
Chop up real ground cover like sedum, that works well and looks very realistic.
Scenic express has a great line of product and they also have excellent customer service. You place an order near the end of the day and they still find a way to get it out the door.
Real dirt will not end up the same color you started with because real dirt dries a darker shade of its original color once treated with glue mixes, etc.