"Sealing flock to terrain without changing its colors?" Topic

Does anyone know of a way to seal flock to terrain without the flock darkening and losing its colors?

The flock that I used on some of my hills has quite a bit of yellow mixed in with the green so it looks pretty interesting and flows together nicely.

I tried sealing several pieces with a pva glue and water mixture and some with a matte dullcoat.

Both techniques caused the terrain to darken so much that the yellow shade of flock almost disappeared. I suspect that it is getting lost in the darker color of the green paint used to hold it down in the original base layer.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Mix a 50/50 water to white glue and a cheap spray bottle. Then give a couple of coats.

I did try a 50/50 mix of white glue and water.

The light green and yellow flock lost most of it's color and turned a dark green similar to the paint/glue mixture used to glue it down initially.

That's the problem.

I have never had this problem when using Woodland Scenics flock. Are you using a different brand?

I attach my sand and flock with a 50/50 mix of craft watercolors and Titebond Carpenter's glue, I give it about 30 seconds to adhere and then tap the loose off. Once that has dried overnight I shoot a heavy layer of cheap hairspray over it so that it soaks in. I haven't noticed any darkening and the flocking never falls off. If the coat of hairspray is too heavy and it gets shiny you can always knock the gloss down with your usual matte spray. I use a mix of Woodland Scenics Fine Turf and Static Grass. It looks like this when it is done.

I flock before hitting the entire model with Flat/Matt spray. Keeps the flock in place and I've never had any issue with color changes.

found this to much better than anything else as flock coming off is a mess and certainly does change the look of the model.

I agree with the matte spray approach. Soaking tends to affect anything that is colored with water based dyes.

Additionally, if it something like sawdust, the water often will break down the binding agents (glue) as well as the pigmentation. PVA glue is also known to yellow fairly rapidly and is broken down by water/moisture. The net affect is that adding water can cause it to all run together (flock absorbing paint, etc.). To prevent that, prior to flocking, seal your paint layers.

I'm fairly certain it was Woodland Scenics flock, but I have had it in a can for quite a long time.

The hills were basecoated with some leftover brown house paint. The flock is a combination of normal green and a yellowish color. I used a mixture of Apple Barrel English Ivy craft paint, Elmers glue and water to hold down the flock.

I dumped it on and let it dry for about an hour, shook off the excess. The hills look really nice as they are now.

I wonder if the English Ivy paint shade was too dark for the mixture? At any rate it seems like there is nothing that I can do to seal in the flock and maintain its current colors.

I suppose that I have to use them as they are and hope not much flock comes off from use.

I have found that the best way to affix flocking permanently, is to use straight white elmers glue (over a painted base coat – I find flat spray paints are the best primer/base color for this). Paint on the glue heavily and then cover with flock. Wait until the next day to shake/knock off the excess. I never need to seal it after this, and I have created 1000's of terrain items this way. As someone else mentioned, most of the dyes will run if you use any watered down method, and paint is not a great way to affix flock to a surface.

I used Woodland Scenics' snow flock, and found that it turned yellow.
Yellow snow! No-o-o-o-o!

Grelber

Cheap hairspray.
Some have a sheen, but the first cheap one I bought was matt.

TreeGirl recommends and uses extra-hold cheap hairspray. Yes she does overspray, but on trees a little bit of shine is fine for the leaves.