May seem expensive at first glance but you get a lot of it in a box. Many prefer to make their own of course.

Silflor Tufted Grass.

Very good link that Bob those tufts are not that expensive really.
It may be worth looking on wargamer sites as they do scenery and there may be other products that could well be usefull within model railways.

cheers Brian.W

Excellent find, Bob.
I've used silflor, but up to now have only been able to get the small sheets they talk about.
It's excellent stuff, but looks even better when it's protected by the container and it's cheaper too :!:

Now I wonder who they are referring to when they talk about "other stockists". :wink:   I am only aware of one stockist in the uK that sells Siliflor. I see they onlyhave the tufts and not the sheets though.

A superb product. The 'winter' colour is probably the most realistic. www.internationalmodels.net are the UK supplier.

It was used here extensively, the sheet version that is….

The grass is extremely good and those scenes are superb.

 Mike

Cheers! The trick is to rip the sheets up (it's dense tufts of 'grass' on a loose gauze) rather than try to lay the whole lot in one go, which would be too even.

7 years later and there has been no fading whatsoever. For a show layout, it can survive 'gerfingerferpoken' from the most active of young children and grannies.

It takes paint too, if colour adjustment is needed to create variation. It is easy to blend in with other more established materials like carpet underlay or hanging basket liner (which is basically carpet underlay already dyed green).

Although Siliflor is expensive, relative to flock, it is a far better medium.  It is definitley worth paying for.  The effect is unbeatable.

Neil Wood said

Although Siliflor is expensive, relative to flock, it is a far better medium.  It is definitley worth paying for.  The effect is unbeatable.

I suppose three sheets will cost about the same as a 4-6-0 steam loco. Think how much more these sheet of realist grass will do for your layout than another loco  (of which we all have too many no doubt).

Funnily enough, the link that started this thread refers to a supplier that claims to be very much cheaper than the others.
If you compare the price per square inch of both suppliers, there is very little difference in cost for the large sheets.
The advantage of "International Models" is that they have gone to the trouble of prepairing small "tester sheets" for anybody that has no experiance of the product.
That's what I've got and I'm very impressed. I think everyone who's serious about a good scenic display should try some :!:

Incidentally, it would be most useful if you could post a brief demonstration on how you've used the full sheets, Chris (Nevard), as I would imagine that the product is more versatile than my way of pulling off small clumps to make "highlights".

In the past I've just pulled off bits of the sheet around about 2 x 4 inches or therabouts depending on where and what it to be covered. Scissors may be a better option to avoid stray strands of the webbing, still cutting in a random shape.

The base underneath is genereally first painted in some kind of earthy organic tone to avoid white baseboard, plaster, newspaper or whatever showing through. PVA/ White woodworking is ideal for sticking the Silfor down.

Thanks for the clarification, Chris.
It was just that looking at your photos, it seemed like you had used almost full sheets and I wondered if this was the way it was intended to be used.

Is it any good for N scale or is it a bit on the big side?

On the site shown in the link there are 2mm tufts but it could be that they are larger ones with a haircut.

i was trying to do something like this with hanging basket inner, didn't work. i have seen these done with static grass and blobs of PVA. they did look good. the bloke used the static grass applicator

Scenic Express Model Landscaping Supplies
the results are great but at 149 dollars or from the UK at 117 quid :shock:  :shock:  :shock:  i have seen the puffer bottles but i have heard these are not so good. i suppose if your layout is quite large with a double track running through sweeping fields and lots of scenery then spending the money may be worth it.  :D  when i get in the new house i want a layout with double track running through sweeping fields and lots of scenery mmmmmmmmmmmm. maybe i should budget for one when i price up the shed :D  and if you are going for the tuffs it is only ten sheets and you have your applicator, you could then produce tuffs and flog them on fleebay 8)  8)  8)

if buying these tuffs would the 2mm scale look better with 00? like 2mm scatter ballast looks better :wink:

Matt, I've bought a test size sheet of each length and the actual thickness of the grass is the same throughout. The 2, 4, & 6mm sizes refer to the length of each clump.

Lawrence, I think that the 2mm size (shortest) could well be OK for N gauge. I'd buy a sample size sheet from International Models and try it out, if I were in your position.

Gwent Rail said

Thanks for the clarification, Chris.
It was just that looking at your photos, it seemed like you had used almost full sheets and I wondered if this was the way it was intended to be used.

You're right, I do use full sheets, I just break them up when covering a large area, for some reason it looks better sticking it down in smallish segments like a mosiac. Inspiration as to how it should look? The real world works for me :)

Combwich my 10'6" x 2'3" layout used 2 sheets, £35 or so well spent I hope? Once you've used this stuff, Woodland Scenics turf will never get a look in again. Grass is fibrous, not scale bath sponge sized lumps of bright green foam 8) Sorry, I get rather passionate about scenery…LOL!

Don't apologise for "getting passionate about scenery", Chris.
I sometimes think I'm a bit like the "odd man out" when I pass a layout with lots of trains running and no scenery, to spend 30 - 40 minutes in front of a layout like Combwich.

I sometimes wonder "if locos suddenly stopped working forever, would it affect my enjoyment of the hobby" :?:
The answer is "less than 99.9% of all modellers I know".  :wink:  :roll:  :roll:

Scenery is a bit of a passion with me too Jeff, thus the time spent getting the trees I've made so far for the layout.
I am soooo looking forward to getting to the stage where I can work on scenery rather than roadbed, track and electrics…
I'm still having a lot of fun but it is such a sloooowww process.

The Silfor and MikeC's dusting cloths look well worth spending some experimenting time on.

Some more Silflor pic's.  This one has three different types to show a field with pasture, moorland and heather.



This is pure moorland.  One sheet



This is long pasture again one sheet



Its a fairly extensive range and covers many types of grass and moor. Its worth getting a couple of the samples to see exactly how good it is.