Anyone have experience with static grass applicators from various manufactuerers. Researching and found they range from $25.00 to $150.00. Not sure the advantage gained by paying for a high end one when all I want to do is stand the flock up on end. Thoughts?
I followed Luke Towans video and it turned out very nice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO1jrUL_PLU&t=608s
I have about $18 in mine.
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Here are my two and they both work great, the cost was $4.00 flyswatters and crap that I had around the house.
The second one I made to enable me to get closer in to structures and mountains. It was a big improvement for that reason. I may make a third with an even smaller (narrower) piece of ABS pipe to get even more control.
Jeez, $4 vs $150??? I know u get what u pay for, but… I thinl I’ll just try and put one together!![swg]
I built one from a fly swatter, total cost lest then$10. Served me well for 3or4years, then it up and died.
At the same time; my’’ go to’'on line hobby shop had the Woodland Scenics Static King on sale for $75 free shipping. I happened on some extra cash at the same time, so got it.
The Static King preforms better then my home made unit, but if its $60 better, is your call
I bought a Gras-Tech applicator for about $25. It works fine. It runs off 2 D-cell flashlight batteries. I’ve had it for years, used it quite a lot, and it still works great.
And, it’s still running on those original 2 D-cell flashlight batteries.
I like the Silflor static grass, mostly in the 4mm length but with a few bags of 6mm as well. Get a good selection of colors, too, and note that a natural static grass area will look best if you use a mixture of lengths and colors. I model in HO. I find the 2mm grass from Woodland Scenics to be too short, and results in a fuzzy appearance rather than a grassy field.
I bought the Woodland Scenics. I think it might also be the same as the Static King, not sure. I really like it. Better results than I was expecting. I like the changable screen size.
No experience with anything else, so I can’t compare.
How does screen size relate to grass length?
I seem to be the only one in the forum who built there own and created a matted grass applicator. [:'(]
There are “how to” videos on You-Tube.
Woodland Scenics specifies the large disc for long grass and the smaller for the shorter lengths. They also supply one with both small and large openings on one disc plus a divider for the bin so you can “plant” two different lengths at the same time. I haven’t tried that yet.
Exactly!! Why do you think there are so many build your own plans on the internet? Many of us didn’t want to cough up the $$$ for the Noch applicator. Going back 15 years it was only Noch and it was expensive ($150ish) and had some problems depending on who you talked to…
Since then all kinds of manufacturers and inviduals have stepped in to fill the void and you have a range of options.
Woodland scenics finally jumped in with a system last year after waiting for the dust to settle…their new grasses and applicator fills in some holes in the Silflor/Noch/Hekki/Gforce 9 lines and gives us a pretty good set of options for grass lengths and colors.
I built my applicator from plans on the web for about $20. It works great and will zap spiders at 30 feet…
Guy
Built a number of the fly swatter type, on one I didn’t even soulder stuff and it still worked.