DIY Grass Weeds Tufts

                     

                                      DIY Grass Weed Tufts

To make these grass weeds tufts you will need the following:

-Woodland Scenics Field Grass (Light green, medium green and natural straw. You can purchase packets of these from any stockiest of Woodland Scenics products either from a hobby shop or online, for around $10-$15 and of course if you purchase them of the internet then there is postage handling. For the straw colour I have seen that some people used a fake blond wig. I didn’t use this only because way back in 2004 when we started collecting stuff for our train layout we had already purchased our grasses).

-A craft cutting mat.

-A small pair of very sharp scissors.

-PVA Tacky glue. (You can use just normal PVA glue, the reason I used PVA Tacky glue was because when you place the tufts into the glue you need the glue to have already started to dry a little, so that the tufts will stand up and some will fall a little to give you an uneven grass tuft).

-Glad bake or baking paper. (Once the glue has dried you will be able to just peel of you grass weeds tufts and will stay stuck until you pull them of).

-A pair of long metal craft tweezers.

First cut and layout a sheet of baking paper on a surface that you can leave for 24 hours to dry completely. I used some craft cutting mats.

Then place very small dots of varying amounts of PVA Tacky glue in 2 to 3 lines at a time across the baking paper, with at least 2 centimeters between each dot. This space will give you room to fit your fingers in between each of the grass weed tufts without disturbing the other tufts.

Next pick up some of the long grass tufts in between your thumb and your index finger, being careful to only pickup small amounts at a time and varying the amount each time, so that your tufts are all different thicknesses.

 Now twist the grass tufts around with both the thumbs and index fingers on both hands. And then while the grass is twisted around you cut them. Making sure to cut them at different lengths, different angles, even try to cut them in semi circles, and even trying to cut them in up and down motions to make them uneven lengths.

As you cut each one you place the tuft straight into the PVA Tacky glue dots that you have placed on your baking paper, this may require a little bit of support for a second or two by using the end of your tweezers or your finger tips.

Continue on until you have filled the whole sheet of glad bake with your grass weed tufts. I did 3 rows of straw colour, then 3 rows of light green and 3 rows of medium green and even mixed the 3 colours together. Then you just set them aside to dry for at least 24 hours.

When you want to use them just place your index finger and thumb above the dried glue on the bottom of the grass tufts and gently pull them of the baking paper. I cut some to the dried glue from around the grass right up to the grass and then place some Tacky glue on the bottom of the dried glue and place where you need them.   

I didn’t use as much of the medium green grass tufts in the bush scenes and the areas that would only depend on rain to water them. But around the well watered areas like buildings and parks I used more of the medium green than the straw grass tufts.

These are very easy to make but you will need quite a lot of them. One sheet will not be no where enough for you train layout of dioramas. I hope you have fun creating these little things as much as I have.