Looking very promising James... I'd not considered the grass mats, but from what I can see in your photo, it looks good. I might just give that a go 'cause I wasn't happy with what I'd managed on my test plank with scatter.

Very nice Loco James. The loco looks like the one done on Model Rail Magazine.

Thanks guys - the loco was done over a 18 months ago for the article in Model Rail - it's one of my favourite. I've got some more stuff on the workbench (a Heljan 58 and Bachmann 66) that will start to make an appearance on here as I get more work done over the dark winter nights when the garage is to cold to work on the layout.

Jon - the static grass mats from International Models, Mininatur by Silflor, are expensive. I used 'Spring' but now I'd use Winter I suspect as this green is very vivid.

What products and process were you using on your test plank? I found that using Woodland Scenics fine and medium turf as a base glued down with dilute PVA/scenic cement and then when dry applying Mininatur static grass (4 and 6mm fibres) using a puffer bottle and strong hairspray gave good results.

The key with the puffer bottle is not to put to many fibres in at a time - and to alternate between 'shaking' and 'puffing' action. It takes a few coats of fibres / hairspray / fibes / hairspray to get a good coverage, and the Woodland Scenics fibre underneath gives an uneven texture which helps give the fibres some undulation and less uniformity.

Cheers!

Hi James, Sorry, missed your reply and questions. Thanks for the suggestions, I really need to practice with the puffer bottle - I just used it for scatter... that's not right is it?! I'll try some short fibres (all was woodland scenics) and puff that on... i'd just stuck small tufts on and wasn't convinced with the look - hence there's nothing on my display "plank"... yet. Will post a photo after next attempt... when I get around to it

Jon no problem! I'd suggest it's worth an online order to International Models and pick up some of there products - the 'two colour tufts' are good, and they do the Silflor mats as well. You can also get a couple of boxes of the static grass fibres, I got short (4.5mm) autumn and long (6mm) winter grasses.

Jon no problem! I'd suggest it's worth an online order to International Models and pick up some of there products - the 'two colour tufts' are good, and they do the Silflor mats as well. You can also get a couple of boxes of the static grass fibres, I got short (4.5mm) autumn and long (6mm) winter grasses.

James, thanks... will look into that after this weekend's expenditure outlay at ScaleforumB)