How to make Flock cheap
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- Опубліковано 17 лют 2017
- How to make flock from wood pellet cat litter.
This flock method gives great results at a very cheap price
To see what I am upto please check out my Facebook page, information at the end of the video - Ігри
Genius! Thanks Steve. Living in the Outer Hebrides we have to get creative at times when you can’t just nip to the model shop. This is perfect! Thank you.
Great I could help , same for me as in a small village in the sticks
So Good! I desperately needed this to finish off my doll house in an inexpensive way. Thank you so much -would give you a hug - lucky for you I'm in Australia!
Great to know I have helped , I have a dolls house to refurbish for my daughter as she destroyed it when she was younger. You might want to look at the rock face hill video to see the flock used and the leaf scatter flock might be of intrest. Good luck with your dolls house .
Good job on the video Steve. Can't wait to try this.
Thank you for saving me a ton of money. Great video!
I'll have to try this technique, the results look great!
It might be easier to add the paint to the water before adding it to the litter/pellets.
Thx, check out the rock face hill video to see the flock used
I tried this today as I was having trouble finding local sawdust, and it works a treat, thanks!
Boiling water on the cat litter pellets makes the process of breaking them down almost instant.
Looks like I have enough stock to keep me in sawdust for about 3 lifetimes, all for £3.50
Great to hear and thx for the tip I try boiling water on my next batch
That's brilliant, thank you! It will be ideal for when i do my fairy garden 👍😊
Always intresting to hear how diffrent terrain building techniques are being used from tabletop games to model doll houses
This is SO good!!! Thank you so much for making this video!!
Thank you for watching and subscribing .
Steve's Small World You absolutely deserve it!
If you want to see the flock used on a build check out the cheap rock face hill video , it also uses the leaf scatter flock.
It is verry easy to make, im gonna try in home!! Thanks for the tutorial 😆
+Seflyzarr let us know how you get on , also please have a look at the cheap leaf scatter video as uses the same pellets
Wow, wonderful work Sir! Thanks for sharing this.
Thank you for watching
Great video, thanks for the tip!
I use a very fine flock on my automotive builds, it looks great for carpet but your flocking looks great for ground coverage. I really like the coarse section .
I was surprised how fine the fine flock was when I used it on the rock face hill build. I could see it working as carpet in diffrent colours.
Omg i use this allready as i saw the wood pellets in my rabbits litter tray that she had soiled and decided to try (with clean stuff in water oc) to see if it would work! I also use it for gravel and stones on muddy tracks as i do alot of farm scenes (i work with model horses not trains) and its an amazing technique im glad to see im not alone!
Very versatile base material great to hear somone else is experimenting with its potential
Brilliant. I’ve got 4 cats and a ready supply of future flock 🥰
Saves a few pound , working on sculpture mould using paper pellets used for animal bedding atm. Just a challenge to film anything atm.
Good video, Steve. Well done.
Thank you , it was great to use this flock on the rock face hill build that is on the channel.
Thats what ive been looking for. Nice Idea! I have to try it. Thanks
Let us know how you get on.
Thanks alot, that is really cheap and easy to make. Amazing.
Thank you for watching , this is my goto method when I want cheap flock specially a mix of colours.
i like to make the stuff in a couple of slightly different shades and then mix it.
the minimal variance in colour makes it look even more real.
also: grind the sawdust down to a finer grain, chose the appropriate colour and add a pinch of green and a sprinkling of gold glitter to make very cool looking moss.
also i like to use spent coffee grounds prepared pretty much the same way to use for
soil where sand would be too fine and uniform.
also another great alternative to sawdust could be spagnum moss.
that stuff is easy to grow so one purchase could provide a renewable flock source.
I did a mix flock in the leaf scatter video using food colouring instead of paint. This flock worked great on the rock face hill video when mixing it with other colours. I am Looking at growing sea foam for flocks and trees atm. Moss could work well .
i have been experimenting with sponge for tree foliage.
look for a video called 'cheap and easy clump foliage'.
i have gotten very nice results with that method on some wire trees.
Davey Jones I have made clump foliage but never done a video on it. Somthing I need to do as have been asked about it a couple of times. The cheap coloured dish sponges and a car sponge work great for clump to give colour and texture variation . Want to have a play with making the sponge hard after a wet blend then grind it before reforming to give a finer foliage.
Excellent idea this will work on trees as well I think, cheers , hard to get stuff for railways here mostly RC cars and boats. Mike Thailand
Thanm you, There is a video on the channel using the same base material to make leaf scatter.
Wow! You are awesome!!! Im going to try this!
MRae thank you ,check out the leaf scatter video then the rock face hill to see both flocks used.I am stuck doing the vlog atm due to time but will be back to tutorial videos soon.
Coffee grinders have so many great uses!
A cheap but great tool , don't think I will use this one for coffee after the amount of things I have stuck in it :p
@@StevesSmallWorld yes! So important to have two...and not mix them up! :D
Amazing! I'm already using that chalky cat litter (crushed w a pestle and mortar) for rocks and adding texture to bases, so using the wooden pellets variant for flock is a natural fit! I will have bases and boards modelled with 100% cat litter!
I am working on a sculpture mould atm to use paper pet bedding pellets hope to film and get up in next couple of weeks
@@StevesSmallWorld nice! Look forward to it!
Just came across your video,Good Option mate,tks for sharing 👍☘️
Thank you for watching. Hoping to get back to terrain videos soon.
Looks like a very interesting way to make flock, all the best Garry
Thank you , always good to find materials anyone can get to make stuff.
Thank you ....i make micro mini houses. ....
grass..bushes just cost so much ! I cut up sponges for bushes and cut green scratch pads for hedges ! Now I can add your idea. 👍
Great I could help, I know craft supplies can be expensive so it always good to look for alternatives
I can see by the Pot Noodle that you are a man of wealth and taste, ;-) Ha ha, seriously, a very informative upload, thanks.
I like pot noodles but always remember Red dwarf with the choice between a pot noodle or dog food when they are stranded.
The rock face hill build video I used this flock , texture paint and leaf scatter all home made and videos up on the channel.
I've been looking for a way to do my own flock thanks!
If you can get fine sawdust it will save a step , I did it this way as somtimes it can be hard to get hold off
I've never seen flock made from wooden pellets from cat litter. I usually use ground up sponge rubber; but, hey, whatever ya have at the moment will work. Nice job, mate.
They work great for various grade flock , I tested it out on the rockface hill video the results were great. It can be hard to get fine saw dust so looked at this as a option that would ge available to most people.
One thing people, if using an electric gadget, turn it off before putting your fingers in near the blades. Other wise a great video. Thanks.
Thx , perhaps I should add safety banners were required
That's great!
Thank you very much for your tutorial )))
You are welcome , the leaf scatter video uses the same base materials but with food colouring .I am working on a clump foliage tutorial atm .
Thanks for the video. I'm interested in making my own trees and ground cover for my layout as I'm on disability and not in good financial condition to buy expensive commercial products. I don't know if we have wood pellet cat litter here in the United States, but one way or another I'll be making my own. Thanks again.
I have heard of people using the wood burner wood pellets *Bio mass) in the same way
I use a badly weathdred piece of mdf which has got very fluffy. Break into small pieces, put into your coffy grinder dry and it gives good fluffy material. Add a small ammount of artists acrylic paint directly from the tube to the fluff in the coffee grinder znd give it a whizz. Product is almost ready to use. After a short drying time, a quick pass through the coffee grinder will ensure any fibres stuck together are separated.
HELPFUL HINT: You can pre-color the first round of water with the paint (or, at least, a base color) so it absorbs right away and, hopefully, no mixing later or, only, color adjusting. Your tip ROCKED.
This also works great with food colouring pastes , I used it in the leaf scatter video to make a autumn leaf blend. You can see these flocks used on the rock face hill build.
@@StevesSmallWorld Ooo!!! Thanks! I've not tried that!
damn good show mate!
Thanks for the tip.
glad I could help , anything that saves money in this hobby is a bonus.
I have used furniture foam in the past but short of tearing up the sofa I need to find a new source or material lol, so yea the cat litter was a great help.
Thank you.
Good Job Steve.
Thank you
@@StevesSmallWorld , I have been using the foam from seat cushions. it is Great to see more options. Keep up the Thinkin.
Fantastic!
Thx , I used this flock on the rock face hill video if you want to see how it comes out on terrain
great tip !!….thanks
Thanks. You might like the leaf scatter flock video I made using the same base materials but food colouring., I used this flock on the rock face hill video.
I make static grass using MDF that has been out in the weather and is falling apart. I grind it up in a coffee grinder similar to the one you use and colour it by adding acrylic artists paints to it in the coffee grinder
Works ok for me and is inexpensive and effective
Just have to be carefull with mdf as toxic fibers. Have played with using fluff from the tumble dryer but still working on a good colouring process without the fibers clumping
The formaldehyde glue used in MDF is not good but wearing a mask takes care of the small amount of dust generated. Once the paint is added there is not a dust problem. Exposure times are very short and only occur when the coffee grinder is opened at the end of each pre paint whiz up.
Brilliant.
I do the same with sawdust. Use the same type of fine metal strainer "rub" the sawdust agianst the strainer and you can get very fine grain.
Using a solo cup i mix the paint and water adding the sawdust gradually and stirring it in gives you a lot of control over the shade of color. Darker the shade less dust lighter more. If you go until the dust has absorbed almost all of the liquid you can get a lighter green with some of the brown of the wood still showing giving you a "autum blend".
The more coarse sawdust I dye using the same method but in vibrant colors like red, pink, yellow, blue, whatever to use as flowers. After using the green flock for the bush, trees or grass just LIGHTLY sprinkle the colored dust onto it for the appearance of flowers.
Ive made pink azalea bushes, white dogwood trees even apple trees in this technique.
If you are not a woodworker you can go to your local cabinet or furniture maker and ushually they'll happily give you all the sawdust you'd want.
Food colouring works well for autumn blends. Alot of builder merchants won't give you sawdust in the uk as they also cut mdf . Not many saw mills left
@@StevesSmallWorld
I use sawdust (from sawing pine, oak, poplar, etc), grade that in a sieve, then dye the color using RItz fabric dyes, dry, separate again, etc. But soaking wood pellets is a new one to me, as I have huge amounts of sawdust from other projects.
PVA is ok, I use Acrylic Matte Medium (Liquitex) as it has a dull finish should any show through the flock.
A lot of saw mills cant give out sawdust if they cut any MDF so pellets are a great alternative. I find as long as the pva seal is thin it does not get a shine.
Very good!.
Thank you
Cheers thanku very much..
Thank you for watching
I actually do the machines that make these bags! Haha will be even cheaper for me, thanks
Several years ago I used a fabric dye to create flock. I used one 50g pot of dark green and proceeded to dye 5 batches of sawdust. Each batch became lighter as the dye solution became weaker. Ended up with about 1Kg of flock.
+Glyn Devonport I have to give it a try . Did you use salt to fix the dye ? Food colouring is cheaper than fabric dye for small batches.
+Glyn Devonport I used food dye in the base colouring in my leaf scatter video.
No didn't use the salt, but it was stable. I don't think it really needs it as it will not be going through the washing machine like fabrics will.
I hadn't thought about using food colouring for small batches.
I think that the use of food colouring would be great for creating scatter for flowers etc.
I have also used poster paint in plaster/polyfiller for the scenic shell. That way any damage to the scenic shell is less obvious and does not stick out like a sore thumb.
I'm making a back drop for one of my Aquariums out of polistyrine/builders foam & sand then paint it with Wet cement to look like rocks, wonder if I can use this idea to make the rocks look like they have moss growing on it.
Looks good.
The best flock for moss is sea foam flock it is in a very early video i think walls part 2 , Luke's aps does sea foam flocks in the uk .
Depends whether it’s going under water or going to be humid in there. Wood chips will decompose and fall apart in water. We also don’t know what chemicals the pellets might have been treated with. You can buy artificial moss made for fish and vivarium use.
👍
Sorry, there's a 12 yr old inside me giggling when you "squirted the brown."
The 40 year old thanks you for your tip on how to make greenery for modelling though 👍🏻☺️
There is a child in all of us , just need to remember to let them out now and then.
👌👌👌
Steve add the paint to the water first then mix then add wood chips or maybe if u haven’t got a cat buy a sml Bail of saw dust from pet store and use that save waiting around great idea though colin
Agree that adding water to the paint after the pellets are fluffed works well, it can be hard to get saw dust as alot of wood yards are not allowed to give it away due to mdf dust.
good vid
Doing this now currently in the green pudding stage lol
Good luck hope it turns out well for you , let us know how you get on .
Question..what about the condition of the blender and it becoming clogged up after continued use of this method?
If the flock is dry it is easy to brush the blender out, I would have one blender for crafting and one for coffee tho as you do get dust in parts you can not get at.
nice video and good tips but please look at the LENS of the camera where "WE" are! Thanks!
This was a early video I did when still getting the hang of things, later videos are better.
Hey, sorry about my earlier comment. It was a long day at work then a long battle with a "simple" car repair! haha thanks again and My apologies! Wasn't trying to be rude!
Np , you were right tho , took awile to get use to thinking of the camera as just someone sat in front of you , you are chatting to.
wood pellet horse bedding is even cheaper for the same thing. About $1 aud per kilo
I have a look when in the animal supply store , thanks for the feed back
Gotta get a cat but my dog does not like cats. What should I do? 😁
Great tip, thanks!
How come all of these terrain & flock videos are by British guys? You sure love your miniatures.
I expect it is because it is normaly tipping down with rain so have to find somthing to do. This year is the exception where we are struggling to paint cast etc as it has been to hot.
Have a 5kg bag left from last years burner fuel, guess ill go ahead and make me some,thank you. :)
Could ash be used for anything ?it works quite well for making extremely realistical pebbles of my own shape, but nothing else and i hate throwing it away to the plants- the ground is extremely overfed and plants are pushing the concrete even in front of the houses 🤔
Not sure what to do with the ash terrain wise as high potasium and lime content . I have seen is can be used like slug pellets to protect plants instead of digging it into the ground .
why not grind up the pellets first? i am gathering tips for christmas town. thank you very much!
You can grind them down dry to start with but it will swell up when you add water and paint so will need grinding again .
It would be too tuff for your grinder.
Do people ever put herbs and spices in the coffee grinder to make leaf cover and flocking? I’ve got lots of shades, but maybe they fade or something?
Lots of people use herbs but expect they will fade over time , if sealed with pva they might keep there colour .
Steve's Small World thank you, it makes sense that acrylic would last better.
might be worth mentioning not to use the best forks or the sunday roast tin . your missus will have your danglers for earings if you do . I used our blender to make flock once ...once ... she went ballistic .
I need to get a cheap blender to play with clump foliage, last time I tried it the blender started to smoke so thought better of it
lol I bet that was a bit of a arse clencher . mind you I suppose it is a bit above and beyond the manufacturers terms of use ... and the warrenty lol
I imagine you could grind it up by hand in small batches.
The coffee grinder works well not tried it by hand
I dont know about anyone else but that wet sawdust was making me hungry!
My cat is overly interested in anything I make and occasionally steals things from dioramas. I hate to think what ideas using her litter as flock might give her!
This was great. Except what do I do with the cat droppings in it? The water reactivated the droppings and spoiled the paint colour...
If you add some coffee grounds you can cover the smell well :p
@@StevesSmallWorld lol. Cheers mate. Seriously though thanks, this will save me a small fortune.
The clump foliage and leaf scatter videos might help you , I am trying to get around to a video for cheap sculpture mould atm. The texture paint video is also a good one for saving money or your builds.
@@StevesSmallWorld thanks, I just subbed, I'll have a look through the playlist. I'm just new and spent a fortune on stuff that's soo overpriced and then found you and the terrain guy today. Great content m8
Do u cover it up in oven or just on tin foil in a baking tray stir every so often is it ? An how long exactly in oven hour or 2 on 100 degrees
I leave the top open and give it a mix every 30 mins . How long it takes depends on how wet it is but when it is feels dry I leave it out on a side to dry more and mix a couple of times in the day. It must be completly dry before putting in a sealed box .
Try putting it in a plastic tub after its cooled for a while, then zap in a micro wave oven for about two minutes. It really dehydrates well. I do this for drying out small twigs and tree trunks for model dioramas too.
Thx I give it a try
What about starting with sawdust instead of soaking the pellets?
If you can get fine sawdust it works well , pellets are just a easy option
@@StevesSmallWorld sawdust from a builders merchant/timber mill or a pet shop.
wood pellets ?? how did they get so soft ???
ok...i saw at the end, he said cat litter
What is the music name? That was amazing
I am not sure now as was awile ago, it is one of the sound tracks in cyberlink power director .
Steve thank you for your comment. Also, I appreciate sharing your method of creating flock :)
Would you in essence get the same thing if you put the wood pellets in a blender?
Not tried is but expect it blends better already being puffed up as it would puff after grinding and need grinding again.
@@StevesSmallWorld thanks again
I’m in the uk my low temp is 50’c
Slow drying and give it a mix and more drying is the best , the summer this year can stick it out side and let the sun do it saving some money
Where do you get your acrylics from and how much are they?
I tend to get the acrylics from the range or the works. the green was 2 for £5 in the works
3:14 ....it does look like something else
Think I would get a visit if I left trays of this out in the sun :p
bake in what temperature?
As low as your oven will go safer to bake it slow and mix and bake again than risk burning the flock.
very nice sir this grass can be used in fish tank ?
The paint and glue will reactivate when wet so not suitable for use in fishtanks
@@StevesSmallWorld Thanks sir
any other solution
I would look at cheap plastic plants or use real plants
How to make it real fine dust
The coffee grinder will take it back to a good size I then sieve to split the size of the flock and regrind the course flock if I need more fine
anyone know if you can do this with the wood pellets you use for smokers?
+Chris K I expect it would work but don't know how fine the wood is in them. Give it a try and let us all know.
So I finally got around to it and YES, it works!
+Chris K great to hear you will be making the leaf scatter next.
Chris K nice! I wondered the same thing. I work in a big box hardware chain, so i can just hit the lumber guys up for bags of sawdust, but they empty the thing when they have time and i don't always get the timing right. We do sell the wood fuel pellets though. I could just have a bag on hand for when i had time. Probably much less messy than lugging a bag of sawdust through the house to the basement.
The only issue i am starting to notice, is that my coffee blender is really thinning it out too much (its a little bit clumpy)
Put it in baggies and drive real fast by a cop doing radar and watch the fun begin
Need to be smoking a extra long roll up for the full look :p
Autant utiliser la sciure bois directement ! C'est quoi ce truc ?
Bad bad, I did this. Now my cat 🐈 won't stop poopin on my layout.
Roflol
Check woodprix mates. I love it to my wooden projects.
I look it up thx .
@@StevesSmallWorld Welcome friend. Best to you!
That ain't flocking, it's woodchuck cereal.
Roflol
you can buy big bags of sawdust from the pet shop .
moebius most pet sawdust is wood shavings I found that the wood pellets were finer when ground. You might be able to get sawdust from a wood yard but alot won't let you have it if they also cut mdf due to health and safety.
I had heard about the mdf ,its bad stuff to be breathing in . I have tried making flocking from old foam sponges . depending what paint you use it can work well . with the cost of model railways increasing as much as it has [although quid for quid its probably not that bad its just were all getting older and thus compering it to the ... good old days lol] ideas and vids like yours can save money . its also a sense of achievement and I suppose its recycling in a way . especially if you materials that can be found , and at 3 quid a bag for the cat pellets that's as cheap as chips . nice one .
I am looking forward to getting the industrial terrain out the way to get back to rural terrain . The rock face hill uses this flock and the leaf scatter. I will always cast my own rocks as cheap and always a random look.
it would be nice to see your layout on her . I will subscribe . cheers,
I don't have room to do a train track layout as 6 of us in a 2 bedroom house, I had my dad's tri track oo gauge set as a kid but it got filled with water when the cold water tank overflowed. My wife has trains at her mum's so somthing I would love to do again if we move to a bigger house. Mainly build tabletop games stuff but would love to build a big set scene in future as table top stuff has to be a balance between esthetics, durability and playability were a railway build you can go that extra mile. I could look at doing some diorama builds to allow me to come up with ideas and the finer details you can add to somthing that is not moved about and played on.
Thanks for the great videos! I recently completed a diorama with working lightning bugs. Would be honored if you'd check it out. I have my own UA-cam channel. Thanks again!
Can you link to the cat litter?
+Kevin Watts I used this one but most supermarkets and pet stores do their own brands.
www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/252867475
You may be able to get the same stuff cheaper as "wood fuel pellets." Depends on what's near you i suppose.
Добрый вечер. Что это такое?
Only problem is you need a coffee grinder , cat litter, oven
You can let it dry natrualy over time just mix it every day. Wood pellet litter is very cheap and a coffee grinder under £10 so soon make back any costs in savings.
Come ci chiama la roba ciao rispondere
The base material is wood pellets used for cat litter can also be used in some wood burners
I thought this was a video about Sheep
Roflol, I am from devon so have many a flock down here . But no sheep in this video sorry
Buy a cheap bottom blade blender from Goodwill and grind all that stuff up in one swoop. Goodnight
I have started using the blender on the old kenwood mixer for big batches now. The little grinder is still better for very fine flock
@ 3:09 I'm so not going to say what it looks like....
Think I would have issues drying trays of flock out in the sun without getting raided.
@@StevesSmallWorld same here in Germany.
Fucking brilliant
Zenno Zangetsu thank you .
I tested the flock out on the rock face hill build with the leaf scatter , it worked very well
I am making paper clay nature elementals and there are no hobby shops within 30 miles of me. This is going to make them turn out fantastic!
Or you can go to a carpentry shop and buy some sawdust, they may be glad you take it and give it to you for free.
If they cut mdf they are have to dispose of it safely so cant give it away.
I work in a cabinet shop. I get sawdust from osb to MDF. The MDF makes a fairly fine flock
I tried this my only problem is it takes FOREVER to dry even in the oven
Give it a mix every 15 mins helps it dry faster , best option is a hot day and spread it thin on a tray to dry in the sun
I did this , now my cat shits all over my diorama
Lol normal for a cat, I suffer from the cat trying to grab the paint brush or sticking its backside in your face when crafting.
What is that
If you watch the rock face hill video you can see the flock being used
@@StevesSmallWorld actually i want to askd what did u used
The base material is wood pellet cat litter ,I used a cheap supermarket brand. I use it fot anything I need fine wood chip or sawdust to make.
unplug grinder before poking around or you will get reddish flocking! YOU WILL GET FLOCKED1
Hardwood sawdust for smoking meat is what I got. Uniform already. No pine pitch.
I want to try this method with bio mass wood pellets sometime but dont know anyone who uses them .
Thanks for sharing another source of sawdust.
100 Celsius
I purchased it as low as my oven will go. I want to get a small oven at some point for drying stuff and softening plastic that can be used for crafting only.