# Grass texture question



## Janus (Dec 5, 2013)

Hello, I am currently working on an N-scale layout on a 2x4 surface. I have given it a base coat and painted the exposed granite bedrock where it "cuts" through the land. The painting was not an issue for me... what is, is the grass texture. I have two shades a nice deep green shade (woodland scenics fine turf weeds) and a lighter almost dead grass shade (woodland scenics fine turf yellow grass). What I want to do is have sort of a natural look where the dark green is very prominent with yellow mixed in like you see. What is the best way to accomplish this? Also for Ballast... should I use a fine ballast or a medium ballast with n-scale. Which has a better effect? 

Thanks.


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

its a matter of personal choice and preference, everyone has their own..
on my 'in progress' layout, I did a solid greenish brown undercoat with ordinary latex house paint, to give a 'base color', and to seal the plaster terrain.. and then I used ordinary spray bombs of olive, tan, and a rusty brown to give some variety and emphasize the difference in sloped areas.. I then used ordinary sheet moss [from walmart], through a blender to give flatter / rougher terrain areas a base color / texture coat..
when this dried I filled in with the same moss, but run through a meat grinder to make it much finer, some was pre dyed medium, or dark green, or medium brown , and gave , what I feel, was a good textural variety, I also added some medium talus and let the fill in mix build up a little around the talus, I then crumbled some dark green ground foam between my finger for small shrubs, and then applied a thinned white glue and alcohol scenery glue mix, a top sprinkling of brown fine talus, and using a small squeeze bottle as a 'puffer' to apply small puffs of fine earth blend turf.. it may sound complex, but pretty easy and quick to do, I worked in around 6 by 6 square inch areas at a time, to get it down before the base white glue started to dry...
I'm quite pleased by the final result, and in areas that I wasn't happy with, a spray of water and it all comes off easily to try again.. so experimenting isn't really 'permanent'..

hopefully the photos will explain this better??
enjoy...


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## Janus (Dec 5, 2013)

Ok, that does help. I have used the turf on miniatures for table top wargames, but, this is a much bigger model where a mistake is easily seen and hard to hide and to make matters worse I am on a timeline to get this done by Christmas for my dad.

I noticed on you layout and in a few magazines that track is laid out before all else is done. When is the best time to place the track?


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

i put the track on after the foam, before terrain [plaster cloth and screen], you can use 1 1/2" wide masking tape to protect the track from scenery drips..
if you don't like some parts of the scenery turf, it can be scraped off, dry or prewetting with water spray


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## Janus (Dec 5, 2013)

Is it better to place the track prior to the terrain or is that a preference. I only ask as I put mine on after I had did the base plaster cloth and base coat of paint, but before I added the grass.


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

it doesn't matter a great deal,
personal preference..
if you are happy, it's all good...


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## Janus (Dec 5, 2013)

Thanks for your help guys.


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## spiralcity (Sep 21, 2013)

Of course it comes down to preference, but it is best to get your track laid and running the way it should run before worrying about scenery. This will save you a ton of headaches in the long run. 

There is nothing worse than laying your ground work and placing buildings only to ruin it because you realize you need to fix a bunch of track. The old adage "measure twice cut once" should always apply.


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## Janus (Dec 5, 2013)

Yeah, I almost found that out the hard way. After seeing the above pictures and WVGCA practice I went ahead and laid it out then I did a test run with just the locomotive to see if it would even work and found out I had a track piece too close to the hillside cut. Had to move the track a number of times to get my placement correct.


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