I am less than pleased with my first attempt to apply static grass to a portion of my layout. I now want to remove it. I tried soaking it with water and then scrapping it off with a putty knife, but this did not work well and left gouges in the foam base. Is there some better approach? Do I need to soak it longer, like hours rather than ten minutes, before trying to scrape it off?
I am tempted to use my beard trimmer and shave it off!
Before I tried applying static grass on the layout, I did several experiments on some spare foam varying the lengths of the grass. These turned out well, but on the layout the longer grass just laid down and refused to stand up. I am using a Woodland Scenics device, glue, and grass. Any suggestions for my next attempt would be appreciated.
Elmers white glue is water soluble. There are a variety of other glues that may or may not be and the OP has left it up to the crowd to guess what was used.
If longer soaking doesn’t do anything, I would consider sanding. If you have to sand some foam away, at last you have a smooth surface instead of gouges.
The only info I can find is what is on the bottle, “Water Soluble”.
I wonder if using “wet” water, water with a bit of alcohol, would do the trick.
Henry’s suggestion is an option.
Did you paint the surface before appling the grass?
I guess I’d stick with the soaking and scraping, and if any of the foam surface gets damaged, that’s an easy fix with a thin layer of something like drywall mud, or patching plaster.
JPD, have you tried placing wet (not dripping) paper towels on the area in question? Let them cover the offending area for a few hours (4-6) and then try scraping off the unwanted scenic material with a plastic putty knife. Depending on the thickness of the glue, you may need to re-wet the towels as they dry out.
Thanks for the suggestions. I will give them a try. However, I have to put off working on this for now. I am now laying tracks in my expanded around the room layout. I will get back to the scenery on my branch line after I finish the track work. I will report back when I figure out the best way to remove the static grass.
Putty knife should be sufficient to scrape off the “grass”. Chisel is way overkill and would be easy to gouge the underlying surface. You’re not actually needing to mow the grass.
The reverse is true which is why putty knives exist. The thin and flexible blade is designed for exactly the process needed to scrape off the “grass”.
The rigid blade of a chisel will not work.
Not to mention that no carpenter and especially no joiner would abuse a chisel in that manner. I mean we all have and keep such “chisels” but nobody I know would bother to keep a proper edge on their junk chisels.
So you are saying a sharp chisel will not work to cut a thin layer off of foam board?
[(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D]
You really are just too much. I guess ten plus years of building CosPlay props with my daughter out of foam board I just imagined how we shaped the stuff.
JPD had an honest question, and I offered a suggestion worth a try. I have shaved thin layers off of foam board with a sharp chisel many, many times.
Don’t the static grass applicators require a battery? I would think that putting the battery in backwards would un-static the grass and it could be removed with a vacuum[N]?
“So you are saying a sharp chisel will not work to cut a thin layer off of foam board?”
Well, you know, we have a difference of opinion about this. We almost always do.
Whatever I post you contradict. Often flatly. You also feel free to quote me but refuse to allow me to quote you. That is flat out weird behaviour.
I only reply to your posts to point that out.
A carpenter’s chisel is designed to cut wood. It should not be used for any other purpose.
Putty knives are not used to install window putty much any more, what with silicone sealants and vinyl gaskets being more commonly used to seal glass windows these days.
Putty knives are ideal for the task of scraping adhesive off flat surfaces. Chisels are not.