FIVE PRODUCTS TO MAKE GRASS AND WEEDS

YOU CAN BUY READY-MIXED SCATTER MATERIALS TO HELP YOU DEPICT A PARTICULAR SEASON OR LOCATION

All layouts, even industrial ones, need some grass or weeds on them. There is now a huge selection of scenic materials on the market to represent grass and weeds for our layouts. Visit your model shop and browse the adverts in Model Rail to see the sheer amount of available products. They enable us to make realistic-looking scenery quicker and more easily than ever before. The oldest established method is to use sawdust-based scatter material in varying colours. While this is probably the cheapest method of covering large areas of model terrain, it can also look a bit flat on the landscape. Better quality scatter materials made from finely chopped pieces of foam in various sizes are available, often categorised as ‘very fine’, ‘fine’, ‘medium’ and ‘coarse’. There’s a huge range of colours, and an equally large number of firms making them! You can also buy ready-mixed scatter materials to help you depict a particular season or location. Mixtures include ‘heather’, ‘spring flowers’, ‘moorland’ and ‘forest floor’. These are all suitable for background scenes on a model railway. Tufts and strips of grasses in a number of colours and heights are available, with grass in the different seasonal colours, and others with coloured foam pieces to represent flowers. These can be useful when you need to vary the height of a flat scenic landscape covering. There are some very good quality grass mats on the market that include gravel, weeds, plants, rocks and other textural variations moulded into them. These mats are a very convenient way to make cornfields and fields. Static grass has become very popular, with its carpet tuft appearance, and it’s the best way to make realistic turf in the foreground scenes of a model railway. Grass fibres are available in a large number of heights and colours and can be easily and quickly planted using a range of tools. Starter kits are available from £10, and they are a cheap way of learning how to ‘plant’ grass effectively. Visit your local model shop to see what is available, and look at the ‘How To’ articles in Model Rail to see how to get the best out of these products.