"Flock Box/Static Grass Applicator?" Topic

Hello all:

I would like to make my bases nicer and I have seen several examples of people using flock boxes or the hand held grass applicators.

I want to be able to do bases for my 15mm and 28mm and also be able to do flock on some of my terrain pieces and possibly work on some 2' x 2' tiles.

My son is doing a large ACW army for his school project and I want him to do a good job with his first bases so it may be time to invest in one or a set.

What is my best choice? I found some articles from 2014 in the forums but know there are some new products out now.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Skip

The applicators are popular in model railroading (another, sometime hobby of mine). Here's a decent review:link

I wanted a flock box. But they aren't being produced now. I watched the Red Beard Baron on YouTube. He was doing a video on making tufts. They were quite nice. So I bought the same static grass applicator he used. I plan on using it this weekend. I ran 39.99 dollars on ebay.

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Have you tried applying static grass without a box/applicator? For whatever reason, I've always had great success without those tools.

My static grass comes out fine using the following method.

Paint and varnish the base to your own taste.

Decide which areas are to covered in which static grasses.

Cover an area with PVA glue using a nozzle applicator.

Keep your static grass in a box big enough to fit your hand in.

Scoop up the static grass with the PVA'd base in your hand face up. Repeat several times turning the base until the area is well covered. Knock off the excess.

If you are doing several different shades of grass do this again.

Leave it all to dry, usually overnight.

Add any tufts as appropriate.

WWS makes a "flock box" type unit The War Pro Grass Box and they also have some hand applicators.

I usually keep my grass in a sandwich size Tupperware container.

I put my glue mix on my base and then hold it over the container and use tweezers to put large clumps of the static grass. It looks ok but very few of them are standing up and look like real grass. I have seen the static applicators (a plastic bottle that you shake up and cause static electricity to build up) but I'm not sure it would be much better than what I'm doing.

Thanks,

Skip

Noch (model railway people) make a static grass applicator – it's a plastic bottle with holes in the lid. You have to squeeze the bottle over the area you have applied your glue, and voila! Works pretty well, better than sprinkling by hand, almost as well as the electrostatic devices. Good for small areas. If doing large areas I'd plump for the electrostatic gizmo