# Refurbishing an HO Scale Trainboard



## [email protected] (May 9, 2016)

I recently took my son's 35 year old train board, built by his Grandpa, out of storage to refurbish it for my grandson. Much to my surprise the green grass mat that is covering the board is no longer green. It has faded to the point that it looks more like sandpaper. My question for anyone that could help me is "can I paint the grass mat green and if so, what type of paint should I use? Should I spray paint it or paint it by hand with a paint brush? There are mountains, along with cork bed and track already permanently mounted on the board, so replacing the grass mat is not an option.


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## shaygetz (Sep 23, 2007)

Welcome...it sounds like Pap used Life-Life scenic grass mat, which is a dyed sawdust applied to a paper backer. If it is, anything used to refresh the scenery will have an effect on the paper underneath. Water will make it curl and peel. Do you have any pictures?


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## 3.8TransAM (Jan 13, 2016)

If its that old it might be wise to bite the bullet and replace the mat itself if you are going to go that route.

The sawdust will be coming up and the paper itself will be weak as well.

You could also remove it and improve upon it better than the mat for probably not much more money as well.

I don't know how old the grandkid is, but if he is a functional age, he would love playing with some plaster strips/plaster and scenery stuff.


Edit: Hey mod! Can u move this guys post to the proper forum


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## shaygetz (Sep 23, 2007)

3.8TransAM said:


> Edit: Hey mod! Can u move this guys post to the proper forum


Done...:thumbsup:


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## The New Guy (Mar 11, 2012)

[email protected] said:


> ...There are mountains, along with cork bed and track already permanently mounted on the board, so replacing the grass mat is not an option.


If you want to try paint, I'd suggest sealing what you have there first. Bin might work - the shellac not the latex. Once that is done you can go over it with the latex.

But I'd probably cut around everything that's permanent and remove it.

HTH, and good luck.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

[email protected] said:


> There are mountains, along with cork bed and track already permanently mounted on the board, so replacing the grass mat is not an option.


Oh, ye of little faith. It's only "not an option" if you're not willing to do it.

I have redone parts of a "finished" layout several times, usually because as my skills improved, I was no longer satisfied with how something looked.

I will second what several others have said. Things in this hobby have changed a lot in 35 years, and trying to rehabilitate something that old is likely to end in a less than satisfactory result. If you are absolutely dead set on leaving that old grass mat in place, and don't really care how realistic something looks, then you could get an airbrush and repaint the "grass". Don't use a rattle can, because it's too easy to use too much paint, which will saturate the mat and ruin it. Use one base color and highlight with several darker and lighter shades.

What I would do, though, is remove the old grass mat and use a better product. Ground foam and / or static grass flock makes wonderful landscape. You can buy vinyl grass mats that can be form fit to your terrain contours. You can use felt and tease it up into convincing long grass. I would recommend exploring various ways to make grass, then strip off that old grass mat and refresh the layout.


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## [email protected] (May 9, 2016)

*Refurbishing an HO scale train board*

Is static grass flock the same as blended turf? I spent some time today at our local hobby store. The owner convinced me it would be better to use blended turf with some sort of glue/cement rather than try to paint it. I was going to apply it on top of the old grass mat, but it sounds like that's not a good idea either. Do you think the glue will make the old grass mat buckle?


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## shaygetz (Sep 23, 2007)

[email protected] said:


> Do you think the glue will make the old grass mat buckle?


In short, yes...paper simply does not take water well. However, if you're careful, and don't do large areas at any one time, you should be OK. Just alternate from one section to another, allowing the previous sections to dry before working next to them, and don't use any more glue than necessary to do the job...


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Most of us use diluted white glue or matte medium to apply scenery materials (Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement is nothing more than dilute matte medium).

Blended turf is a ground foam product. It will work fine, but I'd remove the old mat first. Static grass actually uses an electric screen to impart a static charge to the grass particles so that they land upright, resembling growing grass. Very good looking, but harder to apply.

There are many ways to apply blended turf. This is just one. Paint an area approximately 2 square feet with full strength matte medium. Shake on blended turf to cover the glue. Allow to dry. Spray with diluted alcohol (35% isopropanol), then dribble diluted matte medium (1 part mdium to 4 parts water, add two drops of dishwashing liquid per cup of solution) onto the area using a pipette or dropper bottle (I use an old glue bottle). Allow to dry (overnight, usually). Patch any bare spots. Then add some clump foliage or grass tufts to simulate larger plants. You can substitute white glue for matte medium if you wish.


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## santafealltheway (Nov 27, 2012)

cant you simply cut out around the cork and scenery with a razor, then scrape up the areas you want with a small paint scraper?


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

I use the cheap 1/4" (or so) paper covered foam
from Walmart's craft section
to cover the plywood of my benchwork. I paint
this in various colors for streets, roads, lawn and
rough areas. I use water base paints. I have never
had any wrinkling or other distortion of the paper because of
the water.

That may be what you could use to cover your
old discolored grass sheets.

Don


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

ooops, error post.

Don


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## NAJ (Feb 19, 2016)

Do not know how high you are looking for the grass to be but when I did the Christmas layout we needed something that would not fall off or get damaged when put away so we used artificial grass that is used on outdoor decks.
It come's in a large roll (Home Depot) and you can cut to fit and even place it over the existing mat.
I also used the same grass mat when I helped my three seven year old Grandson's build their small layouts.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

My primary concern with covering the old grass mat is that these were made of multi-ply paper, and I worry that anything applied over that would begin to separate from the layout fairly quickly if the adhesive didn't fully penetrate the old mat. 

I think it would be far better to remove it.


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