I’m modeling a forest for my logging line, and I need a light-brown turf for ground cover.
I’ve seen a few modelers-turfs which specialize in modeled wood ground cover, though I fear I’ll be spending too much money in the long run ($3.99 for a 2oz bag is bad news).
Question: Would it be such a bad idea to purchase some wood shavings from a pet store, the type you use as bed nesting for hamsters, gerbils etc- throw a handful in a blender, dice it up really fine, and use that as ground cover?
I know many modeler’s products are constructed with chemicals that won’t absorb moisture.
As far as I know, the wood shavings I’m talking about are meant to absorb moisture, though are there any types of chemicals or sprays I can add to the ground cover to solidify the texture and prevent mold on my layout?
Do you guys think my idea is worth a shot, has anyone ever tried this before?
I had a number of 2 lb coffee cans filled with died wood shavings from large power saws. I say “had”, for I found them to be much less desireable as compaired to what Woodland Scenics or other mfgs. have to offer.
I really spent a lot of time dying and drying the “oversized sawdust”, and while they add a little variety to groundcover, they just don’t look right for larger areas.
I “lichen” my efforts on the above to my attempts to restore Lichen a number of years ago. What a mess it turned out to be, with very poor results.
You can try the stuff in the pic below. It falls from the trees around April and May (does anyone know what kind of tree?) You can leave it on the strands so it looks like underbrush, or rub it around in your hands to remove the “leaves” from the strands. Best of all, it’s FREE! You just have to wait until spring.
Making your own turff is a good idea over all. With what you are talking about and the bedding material is not. Have you tried Scenic Express? They have several forest blends in 64 oz containers for $15 you should look at http://www.sceneryexpress.com/prodinfo.asp?number=EX897C
This is my no cost, no prep forest litter. It’s weathered, about 1 year, mulch that washed out onto the drive way. I just picked out the big pieces. DJ.
You can definitely make your own ground covers, although since ground foam (the current material of choice) is pretty cheap in bulk, I personally think it’s a lot more trouble than it’s worth.
As far as your specific question, I wouldn’t use the pet store shavings. For one thing, many of the pieces are much too large. Ordinary sawdust (pine or hardwood)is OK if you’re trying to model big, chunky stuff like coal, gravel, iron ore, etc., but pet store wood shavings are usually made of western red cedar, which is great for keeping moths and other insects away, but not so good for your layout.
You can make your own ground foam by chopping up foam rubber (available at craft stores for stuffing pillows) in an old food processor (which will never again be usable for food) and adding paint or dye.
You can also use leaves and / or dirt from outside – but you should bake this stuff at 250 degrees for 30 minutes to kill anything organic which might be living in it. After baking, go over dirt with a magnet to get rid of any ferrous particles, then sprinkle or sift onto your layout. Leaves can be ground and dyed as above.
Another often overlooked way to simulate low vegetation is to use felt in an appropriate color and scrape it with a pet fur brush to make the surface fibers stand up. The only problem with this method is that you have to do something to make the color less uniform.
I’ve not seen homemade ground foam get as fine as the finer commercial stuff - perhaps an appliance that grinds finer than a blender is needed?
I did the sawdust thing many years ago, my Mom wasn’t too happy although I really left no mess when I was all done dying and drying it. It turned out ok when placed on my layout at the time, byt by that time the use of ground foam was coming about and the pictures in the magazines all looked better than my layout, so my next attempt, this time in N scale, I switched to the ground foam and had what I thought was a pretty decent layout. It still exists, I should maybe try to restore it and update it, as I have no pictures of these early attempts, they’ve all disappeared somewhere, and it was long before digital so they were all Polaroids.
Dave Frary in his book Scenery for Model Railroads has info about coloring sawdust and making your own ground foam. Way too much work for me so I use Woodland Scenics and Scenery Express. Also, in one of the Dream, Plan, Build dvd’s, Lou Sassi shows how to grind up leaves in an old household blender and then drying the result in the oven. I have the leaves and blender - now I need the time and the nerve to do it.
Try using the newest landscaping and scenery products from JTT, I have 3 of their products in my scenery bin along with several other brands and find them the most economical and life-like. Check out my photos on this site as well as FB.
Remember forests are seldom perfectly flat. I’d start with a ground goop base, then add a few flat pebbles where rocks may be.Since most heavy forest floors are mainly covered with dead leaves, unless, of course you’re modeling pine forests, using a blender to grind up dead leaves,then dry and bake or cook on a gas grill in a foil pan would be your best bet. After you dry leaves, sift through a flour sifter, keep both the fine leaves and course. You will want to intermix the two, plus add a few bigger dead twigs to simulate dead fall. The you could use some sparse green foam for occasional grass and use real dirt, also baked and sifted. One of Lou Sassi’s scenery books covered this in detail, I’d recomend getting it, it’s full of scenic tips.
That’s why you bake the stuff at 250 degrees for 30 minutes. It won’t burn at that temp, but nothing alive will survive the process (interestingly, a variant of this method is being used to eliminate bedbugs in commercial hotel rooms).
Yes – a food processor (Cuisinart, Kitchenaid, or similar) will give you as fine a grind as the commercial stuff… if you’re willing to stick with it for a while.
As I said (and see a couple people agreeing with me above), too much effort for a minor cost savings to suit me.
