Static Grass Applicator

This post really should of gone up a month ago but a combination of things including a couple of trips have kept pushing it off. Better late than never, so here it is.

I finally managed to knock together a bargain static grass applicator. It's nothing fancy just a re-purposed electric flyswatter. I generally followed along to one of the many plans you can find online they're all pretty much the same. I decided to not integrate the strainer into the handle as I thought it would give me more options. It might have been a mistake as you need to hold down a button to make it work. I ended up retrofitting it with a rubber-band to handle that task for me.

Not real fancy looking but it works.

I'm going to use it for static grass application on terrain and models but also for making some grass clumps. These are my initial experiments. I have three different colors so tried to make some with one color predominate but still mixed with the other two. 

Some early experiments

The basic method is pretty straight forward. Just paint some watered down glue on wax paper taped to the base plate. The applicator has one lead attached to the metal base and the other to the strainer. You just dump your static grass mix into the strainer and shake it through onto the glue. It initially looks kinda humped but after the glue dries it flattens out and you can just pop them off to use. I'm still experimenting with the glue to water ratio and how to paint it on to get organic looking clumps.

Close up on the clumps 

I've since ordered and received some longer static grass both 4mm and 6mm as opposed to the 2mm I had on hand. I think these will look better with different lengths mixed together. I'll try to make a few more with the new grass soon and then get to work actually using them on terrain.