That was where AggroJones showed how to mass-produce HO scale trees by using fibers from furnace filters. I hinted that have been experimenting with floral foam (the green stuff that cut flowers can be stuck in and watered), and somebody emailed to ask me to elaborate. So here it is…
Floral foam comes in blocks about the size of a brick, sold in craft stores for about $1.25 apiece.
Using a coarse file, small fragments can be ground off…
…and collected, and clumped together…
I tried glueing some onto a ball of furnace filter fibers as described in Aggro’s instructions, but it didn’t occur to me that the stuff is FIBERGLASS until… I got a gazillion fiberglass splinters in my fingers! So I grabbed a leftover ‘undecorated’ WS tree trunk with a green cotton-like material on it that I picked up in a New Jersey hobbyshop a few years ago. I sprayed matte medium on it…
…and covered it until it looked like the the real thing:
As I’ve mentioned earlier, I’m still a ‘novice’ when it comes to modeling things that occur in nature. But I figured this could be a cheap alternative to buying WS Clump Foilage at ~ $4 a bag.
That looks like a good material to try as a replacement for the W$ ground foam I’ve been using. Do you think it’s possible to change the colors with dye or something? Need varying shades of green up in these woods.
A Sureform tool might also make quick work of that green brick. (I need to make thousands of trees.)
Ken–did you buy the natural fibre furnace filter, or fibreglass air-vent filters? I got the stuff from Home Depot and it’s all natural fibre and works really well–no splinters or anything. But like Aggro says–make sure you have STRONG scissors–I’m using poultry shears, and they work really well. Neat idea on the floral blocks–with the number of trees I have to look forward to, I could owe WS the National Debt by spring!
Tom
You might want to try recycled cellouse fiber,installation material non asbestose,you can buy a 50 bag for allmost nothing,white glue and rit dye used for dying t shirts etc.ths stuff is amazing ground cover. Three years ago I started using this ,50 lb bag and still have just under half.Everyone from the div super of the nmra who has seen this on my layout ,has commented on its realistic apperance.Now if I could only figure out how to upload picture.
I’m not sure this is a good application for this material. That floral foam is fairly rigid and ultimately turns to dust when ground. The little chunks in the photo look nice, but a more spongey foam is probably better.
If you don’t like Woodland Scenic’s prices, it is possible to make your own ground foam. I once made small batches of custom colors, using old foam rubber cushions, latex paint, and an old hand cranked meat grinder.
Break the foam into small chunks that can be stuffed into the grinder. Dilute the paint slightly with water, and soak the foam. It is a good idea to use rubber gloves, and squeeze the chunks of foam to ensure the paint saturates them. The chunks need not be fully dry before grinding, just squeeze out the excess paint, and get cranking. A set of sieves is handy for sifting the material to size. Too coarse? Just run it through again.
Ever see blue or purple ground foam? Flowers, not trees. Try pink for cherry blossoms.[swg]
However I would be leary using fibre glass as it is now rated as cancer causing for the same reason as Asbestos. Craft stores sell fibre fill, a big bag at a reasonable cost.
Actually it was a discarded, used furnace filter I pulled from my trash can. I missed the phrase in Aggro’s opening paragraph that specifies natural fiber filters.
I was attracted to this stuff because it grinds easily, but that same physical property will probably make it deteriorate over time. As I mentioned earlier, this floral foam is an experiment – I wanted to stimulate an online discussion to find the best way to make cheap foliage.
A while back I started to make some of the thousands of trees I will need for my layout. I started using the woodland scenic / Scenic express ground foam. After I went through 4 or 5 cans of this stuff I figured there had to be a better way (read cheaper). Remembering that I read somewhere a while back about making your own at home from foam padding and water based craft paint I decided to give it a try. The picture below shows the results. The two piles will each fill the container in the center. Total cost for the two piles is $2.00. The majority of the cost for this is the foam rubber. I am going to contact a local furniture upholstry shop and ask about scraps of foam from their jobs. I am sure they will probably just give it to me. I have posted a complete how to on my web site www.DansResinCasting.com . Just go to the “How to” link and there will be a link to the page this is on.
I would do this, if I didn’t already have an abundance of ground foams. A few years ago, I bought lots of foams and they got hidden away. And I bought more and more. All kinds of shades and texture I thought I would need. And when I’m go looking through my containers I discover new bags of scenery stuff I forgot I had. Result-- I have enough ground foam to cover anything!
Scenic items is another reason to check out model railroad swap meets/train shows: while most folks go there to get trains, often folks are selling off opened/slightly used packages of scenic materials for pennies on the dollar. I have a burgeoning shelf of scenic material, some of which may date back quite a while but was purchased far, far below retail.
These threads do encourage one to keep an open mind about checking out alternate sources for model railroad supplies–the furnace-filter idea dates back to a mid-80’s issue of MR. There are ways to make this a fairly cheap hobby, and creativity (and willingness to break the mold) is the key!
