"Woodland Scenics Ready Grass mats" Topic

I bought a roll of this a while back.
Has anyone ever made swamps or something else out of this?
How easy is it work with?

I am thinking of making some nice long lay-flat streams or flat swamps from it.
Any sneaky hits appreciated.

I think I had the same idea as you did when I first saw these. I got a few of the smaller ones when they first came out and have to say I wasn't impressed.

After some time spent messing around with them I determined I could have done something better on my own.

Maybe I totally missed it here and someone can show me the light as well.

I've had one for the last 7 years, and I'm still trying to figure out what to do with it.

I have never seen one in the flesh. Can you describe what these are like?

It is a 40" or so wide flocked mat on a thin vinyl paper.
The instructions on the sleeve mention rubbing off the flocking with water and painting. It does not go into detail on how to do this, however. Obviously, there is an optimal way to get good results, but I would not like to waste a lot of it on failed experiments.

The sleeve also mentions making hills from it, by putting the sheet on crumpled newspaper and hitting it with a heat gun. (hair dryer, paint stripper, etc.)
Again, this has "waste and disaster, buy another roll and try again" written all over it.

So, the nice looking roll has sat there for years.

Here's a video on making hills and how to remove the flocking for roads, but it will work for rivets/swamps: link

That was a pretty sorry looking hill the "expert" made.

I have two of these and use them as the "ground" on which I put down terrain. Never occured to me to use them as something to chop up and modify – seemed I'd be better off just starting with a blank canvas.

Is the Ready Grass mat covered with static grass or foam flock?

I watched the whole video in the highest definition (480P) but still can't tell. Darn video compression algorithm.

@donrice – They are covered in a very very fine flock. It's finer then th WS turf.

@TheOFM – I'm just starting to play with this. First thing I have found is it takes very little water to remove the flock but once lifted you can get a clean edge to work with. The base is a bit plain but PVA sticks bits down OK – just cover the whole mat with glue else it will lift which the slightest wetting.

Hi, I actually have used a large one to make hills from. I also picked up the heating tool. It works pretty well. The hills come out decently. If you don't glue them to something you can use flock or foliage to disguise the bottom. They will work fine with based 15mm and plastic 1/72 figs. 28mm metal would need the hills reinforced. I may try gluing talus to them and seeing how that works. Overall I think they are pretty cool. Plus you can use a 40% off coupon to buy them.

Thanks,

John