Faux fur grass

[Anglian]

Following an enjoyable discussion that grew from Douglas' thread that details his beautiful 2mm recreation of Dulverton GWR we began to talk about creating areas of grass land. I showed an image of my own experimentation with faux fur. Douglas suggested that this experiment was worthy of its own thread here in the scenics section. So here it is…

 

 

As I've mentioned in the other thread for anybody who is interested in working with faux fur I strongly recommend that they buy a back issue of MRJ No186. In it is the best single piece I've read on using fur to represent grass. However, the methods I've developed during my own experimentation are different to those discussed in the article.

 

The fur most favoured is a type called Wolf, it is available from Swindels (perhaps Swindles) in Birmingham. They also sell via ebay. This is the fur used on Retford and Leamington Spa. However, I prefer a softer finer fur called Pampas. I bought the end of roll (about 5m) some years ago from a wholesaler near Manchester. As you would perhaps expect it is the pale colour of Pampas grass. I have since bought a sample from Swindles also called Pampas but it's not quite as light as the original, although I think it would still work.

 

I found the fur impossible to cut with pet clippers so I bought a cheap pair of hairdresser's scissors and I mean cheap as the real deal will cost hundreds of pounds. With the fur hanging over the edge of a table you can cut into it easily. I then used a pair of small sharp scissors for the detailing cuts. You must keep varying the angle that you cut at. The cut edge is very good at mimicking the clumpy effect of grass that you typically find in meadows.

 

I'll be honest and say that I have literally spent many hours looking at the grass meadows around my village and observing how they change over the seasons. 

 

I colour the pale fur using ordinary household emulsion paint that is applied very watered down. I chose this route as the paint is inexpensive relative to acrylics but to be honest were I to do more I think I'd go for artists acrylics as you use so little paint. That is one secret to my approach, I think if you get the fur wet you've ruined it. I tried brushes and an airbrush but in my view nothing is as good as using your finger tips. You gently just rub colour into the tips of fur. If you look at long grass only the tips (say 6") is green anyway, the rest being brown where the light doesn't penetrate. I guess it's perhaps like the rolling motion of making a cigarette (I don't smoke so this is a guess). I can't emphasise enough just how little paint you should apply. You do need to work delicately.

 

When cutting the fur I left areas of long grass. I want to model high summer, say late August early September, with the trees in full leaf but the grass showing the ravages of the burning summer sun, hence leaving areas long and pale. At this stage no further detailing has been carried out – this is the basic material cut and coloured. I don't use the 'Waterman method' of burning the tips of the fur – for my late summer I want all those long bits left in place.

 

Currently, while I try to decide if 2 or 4mm suits me, I'm trying to develop my scenery making skills – at this stage grass and trees. The approach detailed above would I feel be most suited to 4mm and 7mm but Douglas has told me about another type of faux fur called Plushfelt. This is already short at just 3mm long and thus more suited to 2mm modelling. However, most importably the base fabric doesn't have a weave pattern and so it will be far more suitable for cutting down further.

 

I hope this is of interest to others.

[The Bigbee Line]

I like the tip of using finger to apply the paint.  Do you have any more pictures?

[Anglian]

I do but they feature model soldiers and I'm not sure they really suitable to show here but I'm happy to put a couple up if folks disagree with that sentiment though. 

[Giles]

I don't think we're particularly worried about the fact they happen to show some model soldiers - the grass is interesting....

 

We all have various hobbies, and the cross-over between them is often very useful!

[Anglian]

A couple more images:

 

 

 

 

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The grass can be 'tufted up' for best effect, something I neglected to do before taking these pictures! The second image looks quite harsh partly due to the lighting. Something I need to try to get right is long pale grass more widespread and not just in clumps. I think a light touch with very pale acrylic straw colour may achieve this effect.

[Douglas G]

Hi Anglian,

 

Thanks for starting this thread and sharing the results of your experiments with faux fur or teddy bear grass. The results really do look good and I like the muted colours you have used and the variation in texture you have got by cutting the fibres with scissors. I also tried electric clippers and found they didn't really work as the fibres are too bendy.

 

It is worth mentioning there has also been discussion of teddy bear fabric recently in the 2mm "whats on your workbench" thread, where TomE has shown similarly impressive results with "Raw grass" fur fabric from Treemendus:

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/65499-whats-on-your-2mm-work-bench/page-20

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/65499-whats-on-your-2mm-work-bench/page-21

 

There are also some interesting articles about using faux fur on this US site:

 

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/4x8/

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/fur_grass/

 

Douglas

[allan downes]

Some of the best scenic effects I've ever seen, thanks for sharing.

 

As the worst possible modeller of grass on the planet, and after looking at some of these really superb efforts, I'm off to Mars to eat worms.

 

Cheers.

Allan

[The White Rabbit]

I have tried using this type of material for a thatched roof and painting it with a brush just resulted in matting the material together, looked like the proverbial dogs dinner. As Anglian suggests above, I found the best technique was to dye/stain it using fingertips and working the paint into the material - my analogy would be from the kitchen, rubbing/mixing flour into butter to form a breadcrumb type texture for baking. (Ask the wife!)

[Douglas G]

For further reference, there is archived discussion of teddy bear fabric in these threads:

 

Teddy bear fur for OO scenery

http://www.rmweb.co....for-oo-scenery/

 

Faux fur grass

http://www.rmweb.co.....php?f=5&t=7643

 

There are some interesting comments that teddy bear grass on some layouts just looks like what it is, teddy bear fabric. But I don't think you can say that about Anglian's experiments!

 

Regarding colouring teddy bear fabric, there is a product called iDye Poly, that is intended for dyeing polyester artificial fibres by boiling the fabric in a pot for 30-60 minutes:

 

http://www.thedyeshop.co.uk/acatalog/Polyester_Dyes.html

 

I have tried the green dye on some samples of teddy bear fibre and it did take up the colour, but I think I would need to give it longer in the dye for good results. The fur sold by Treemendus is already quite dark so gets darker with the dye (more like moorland grass), and the Pampas fabric used by Anglian might work better. I did try the dye on some yellow teddy bear fabric I got from a local shop, but for some reason it came out a bluey colour.

 

Douglas