That topic title makes everybody curious. Anyway, I was looking through my Scenic Express catalog and noticed all of the expensive static grass applicators which use electricity to make the grass stand up. Here's my question.........has anyone ever used a balloon to make their grass stand up? After the grass is spinkled into place, if you rub a balloon on your head (if you have hair ) and hold it over the grass, the static electricity should pull the grass upright.

If this has been discussed before, please forgive me, but that suddenly struck me as a good possibility. What do ya'll think?

Patrick

yes that could work. but all the grass that is not glued on solid sticks to the baloon(hmmm how do you say that #:-) #:-) ). that would be very hard to get off...
ill give it a try!

greetzz martijn

Yes this has been discussed before- probably 2 years ago though - so no big deal.


I have tried a balloon, I have tried a silk tie over a pvc pipe, I have tried a 2 liter cola bottol, and none work very effectivly or over a large enough area to make it worth my while.

What i do is to use PVA glue on my base and add the static grass.

Knock all the excess grass so it can be used again.

I keep a bit of scrap wood/cardboard etc and put some PVA spread as thick as on my base - this helps you judge how sticky the glue is and it can be tested without fear of messing up your base - it is also a good indicator for when the glue is fully dry.

When the PVA is just about to form a skin (so the top layer is no longer sticky) i turn my base upside down and rest it on a couple of paint tins (where there is no grass/PVA covering) untill the glue is totally dry - overnight is good.

The grass naturally hangs vertically so, when the glue is dry, and the base is the correct way up, the grass sticks up.

The base can be angled also to achieve a windswept look - flat grasslands or beaches etc.

Hope this helps,

John

I keep my static grass in an old plastic cheese package (jar type, not tub type) with the shaker holes on the top. Shaking it a little before sprinkling on the base inparts a good static charge, I then turn the base over, tap the bottom, and return right side up. Usually 90% of the grass is standing, and the stuff that fell off is put back in the container.

I also use Scenic Express Matt Medium for glue, it's cheap, premixed, and I'm old and too lazy to play with mixing white glue and water...... nice part is it dries to a fairly Matt Finish when dry.

hey John that is a really simple and straightforward technique, I will try that on my base when I am adding the grass, thanks for sharing that