Static Grass Applicator

A nice base for a miniature helps it pop. Throughout my miniatures painting journey, I’ve gone through all steps. Started with just plain green painted bases back in the ’90s, upgraded with glued upon dirt from the backyard. Now, when I started again back in 2019, I began with experiments using cofee grounds, then modelling sand, birdsand and flock. Flock doesn’t look that good for 15mm miniatures compared to static grass.

But wherever I looked upon how to apply static grass, I saw only expensive applicators, or DIY electric versions that I did not feel like risking my own safety to build and use. What made a difference was when I found NOCH’s puffer bottle. This is a simple soft-walled plastic bottle, with a “sieved” opening. The concept is that you shake it well to generate static charge, and then “puff” it out by pressing the soft walls. It was way cheaper, about 10 euros at my local rail modelling store in a bundle with a big bag of static grass, and the respective grass glue.

I loved it. Application was easy, grass stood up, and wasn’t flat, but after using it for a long time, I’ve identified two issues. Firstly, the soft nature of the plastic, gave in, and the “sieve” cover falls out, and doesn’t catch anymore, I had to DIY rubber bands to keep it in place. Secondly, the mess. While for terrain it’s great (I applied static grass to all my hexon pieces using this), for miniatures it’s less than ideal. I have to use large containers and newspapers to gather the grass back, and still need to vacuum all the surrounding area afterwards.

At some time when I was bored, I just used adhesive putty to stick a miniature inside of the top cap of a plain jar filled with static grass, and shook it to avoid cleaning up. It worked, however the grass was a bit flat compared to when I used the puffer bottle.

After thinking it over, once I acquired a 3d printer, I designed a 3d model to incorporate all my ideas together.

Features:

  • Closed jar concept
  • Static rods inside the jar for extra charge at static grass housing
  • Integrated sieve at miniature housing
  • Option to add a tin foil under miniature housing for extra directional charge

I’ve tested it and it worked fine, and got similar feedback from other users. I’ve used it in the latest big batch of Brite Minis I’ve painted.

You can grab it for free at makerworld. I’ve included some instructions both in description, in pdf and gif format.

Hope it works well for you also. Any feedback if you use it, is appreciated.