I went to both Lowe's and Home Depot and they both gave me large bags of saw dust. I sifted through it and painted it and it looks great.

I use to have a bug and lizard problem with my diroma. They would crawl into those small little spaces and make a shelter out of it. That is until I discover lemon grass. The smell from this plant drives them crazy. So usually before flocking I would dry some lemon grass under the sun and blend them till it becomes as fine as the flock and mix with it.

"If you somehow have a lot of time on your hands..." Well i'm in lockdown so...

Great stuff! Worth adding after your safety video, do not grind up floral foam, ever, has some nasty chemicals in it and the dust is no good for the lungs.

Woodworking specialty stores will carry flocking in large quantities as well. It's used to line things like jewelry boxes, drawers, etc.

there is also the aspect that premade gives you consistency but you can get different shades and textures from homemade...so I use both in aspects for which they are useful

The fairy garden fad has been great for making materials available too. In the fake flower section of my local version of 'Michaels" (Spotlight here in Australia), I've picked up bags of fake moss, flocking, and jars of sand, gravel and 'snow', super cheap.

A simple and cheap source of sawdust would be to go at a big hardware store such as Rona or Home Depot. Those type of big box store usually have cutting rooms for clients who do not have tools to cut their material. Those cutting rooms have air purifying systems that collects sawdust in big steel drums and usually end up in the garbage so you could get sawdust off their hand for cheap and easy.

For some reason, I've only just got around to this video. I'm happy that unlike many, you address the issues of the cons of making things yourself. So many videos are like "hey this is easy" But don't consider those main points of time, space and availability. I actually enjoy crafting, but many times the amount of time I've spent... I could have earned more at my job and just purchased something 😂 Also my dining room table and cupboard are taken up by my hobby stuff!!

flock flock flockidy flock

I'm going through all 120+ of your current videos, and the first time I heard the word "flocking", I was all - "what the flock?!"

Pretty long time ago explored a cheap source of sawdust for flocking terrain/bases in granulled pressed sawdust for cat litter. Its availabe in any pet shop. Just buy it, pour some water, then let dry to make granulas disperse - and voila, you have a pile of great sawdust that perfectly fit for flocking

Flock is awesome - I got into the hobby as a model railroader. The hobby shop my big brother would take me too started carrying DnD stuff and he bought me some of it for my 8th birthday. I've been using premade railroad stuff for years, I can't ever see making my own. I'm with you - I wanna make stuff, not make the stuff to make stuff. ALSO - big props for pointing people to supporting local business. Local businesses help keep the hobby alive.

I’ve been loving watching your videos over the past few months and I’ve learned so much! I’ve finally had a go at painting minis for the first time this week and I feel pretty good about going into it, armed with all the painting methods and techniques I’ve picked up from watching what you do. Thanks for the inspiration and wisdom!

Thank you for your videos! I am just getting into D&D and creating. All your videos rock my socks off!

I ordered a separate bag for my miter saw specifically for pine wood which I cut regularly just to make sure it’s clean now thanks to you.great videos,sir! I want to improve miniature making for practical effects and these types of videos are so useful! Thank you for them!Happy new year!

Agree with all. One more pro of home made is that you can tailor the flock colour to a specific need.

The irony here is that making your own actually makes more sense, at least economically to the train guys.

Bard's Craft uses dill as grass flocking. idk how durable that is, but it seemed like a good idea. he also uses tree bark, chopped to the desired fineness. the bark looks great as rocks or boulders. i use hemp twine that can be painted green or left natural and cut in small pieces. unroll the bits of twine to get clumps of grass for mini bases or terrain.

Equine bedding turns into sawdust when wetted. They're just pellets of compressed sawdust and water breaks it back down.

The pros and cons are definitely spot-on. Making your own flocking is very time-consuming and messy. So far I haven't been very happy with my own efforts making green flocking, and I've tried almost all of the materials you mentioned (pencil shavings, sawdust, tea...I even tried dryer lint). I'm kind of at the point where I might be buying a couple different shades of green flock. Nice use of sound effects in the vid too! I noticed and I liked!

There was a time, many moons ago, when I considered trying to make my own flocking; then I realized I didn't hate myself nearly enough to do that (not saying everyone who makes their own hates themselves, that was just my process because obviously I have issues). There are still some things I buy from gaming companies, but admittedly that's for doing individual miniature bases and not pieces of terrain; otherwise Woodland Scenics pretty much all the way. - If you have a local Hobby Lobby, its worth checking there as well since they usually carry some Woodland Scenics products in the isle with the diorama making supplies. - I also highly recommend the website Scenic Express; they're based in Pennsylvania and they ship to the US and (I'm pretty sure) Canada though I don't know about internationally. They offer some great deals like 48 oz Eco-Bags (that's what they call them) of flock mixes for about $9; the color mixes are great and that's enough to last you a *long* time. I've also purchased some leaves from them, still trying to get a feel for that particular product.

Sawdust is often readily available in a pet shop as bedding for pets like rabbits, hamsters and gerbils etc.

awesome videos! always enjoy watching and learning from your videos! keep up the good work!

I watched most of Your videos. I found them really valuable. Like this one for example. I do have some saw dust and I was considering making my own flocking but a space is something I'm lacking with. So thank You for sharing Your knowledge in this subject. Highly apreciate it. Cheers.

I used to make it. Takes a lot of time. I have a local family owned candy store who's owners happen to be rail road modelers. I like supporting them so I get it there. They also can answer a lot of terrain questions.

Can you review Lukes Aps ground coverages and flocks?

My local Michaels use to sell the woodlands scenic flocking and bought mine with the 50% discount for 6 bucks. Unfortunately they only carry tiny packages of flocking now

A comment you made in another video about the flocking lasting for a while and covering a lot of area convinced me to just buy it. it was perfect timing for me since I'd just had a failed homemade flock making experience. And after all that work I would've only had about 1 tablespoon of flocking. So discouraging and frustrating. I would prefer a wood flock, but, the woodland scenics flocking is just fine if I never have to try to make that stuff again!

I have a portable sawmill and it makes heaps of perfect sawdust for flocking. Maybe I'm doing it wrong but it was pretty easy for me to make it, I didn't have to flatten it out to dry or anything I just mashed in paint as needed with a fork and kept it moving til it was dry.

I'm gonna share a really cheap and easy source of flocking we use in the doll customizing community with a fine, fuzzy sort of texture. -Get some cheap acrylic yarn, red heart brand is great for this, tons of colors, available basically anywhere that sells yarn, whatever it is it MUST be 100% acrylic. -Get some small spring loaded craft scissors. You can do it with regular scissors but scissors like these will halve the amount of strain on your hand and wrist, and you're gonna be cutting for a long time. It's. Worth. It. trust me. Basically you cut off a bunch of pieces of yarn the same length and start making very very short cuts off the ends. The more yarn pieces you have bundled together to cut, the faster this goes. This flocking texture may not be suitable for everything but you really can't beat how cheap it is to make! And for shaven doll heads you really don't need much :) If you need a specific color you can't find, you can always buy a white acrylic yarn, some synthetic fabric dye, and dye your own too! Dyeing and drying yarn hanks requires a lot less babysitting than dehydrating other shredded material. Hope this is helpful to someone! I'm a long time maker just getting into DnD and hoping to DM, love this channel :)

Bard's Craft channel also has some neat flocking videos and ideas. Dill for grass, oregano for leaves, pepper for sandy gravel.

thank you for making sense to me

For sourcing my sawdust, I only use sawdust I collect from my orbital sander with attached collection bag. I empty it out between changing the grit of sandpaper to keep the coursenesses apart. Still going to buy some woodland scenics stuff soon, but the sawdust flocking gave me a good little stock of a variety of colors when starting out.

Great list of PROs n CONs for handmade flocking but bear in mind sourcing and buying the machine to break down the foam is a one-off task. Once purchased, you have the machine (until of course it dies on you ... ) Another PRO is that it can be tons of FUN to make your own flocking. It’s great to have a go 😁

One way to keep flocking from clumping while it dries is to use a ball mill, like the ones used for gunpowder drying.They're easy to make and saves you a lot of headaches. Use few small glass marbles so you don't end up with a drum full of tiny green dust :V

I found a great mix for a leafy ground cover (forest/jungle floor). A jar of parsley flakes mixed in with the contents of 6 tea bags in a Zip Loc container. An extra coating of watered down PVA ensures it stays in place. I later added in a jar of chopped cilantro to add an extra shade of green when I found it on sale for $1 US (same price as the parsley flakes). Also, my local hobby shop sells empty Woodland Scenics bottles, so that's something else you can look into.

Depending on the size you can use a screen to dry. I've used an old food dehydrator.

Great Video man!!

you mentioned that you have a video on how to apply and utilize flocking, but i couldn't find any links or find it in a search on your channel. is there a link where i can find it? been playing DnD for years but just starting to get into custom terrain building.

Great contrast between buying or making flock.

Good point as usual, I bought mine too.

What is the praxxon machine behind the wire cutter in the background? And thanks for another great video!

Used coffee ground is marvelous. You just need to wash it with cheap mouth wash. Let it air dry. Then bake it for 45 minutes at 250 celcius. And it keeps for eternity. Its perfect to mix in your jungle basing materials. I love to use dried herbs and coffee grounds. Ive built entire jungle boards with them years ago and they are mold free. Even after sealing it down with watered down pva. If you put varnish on top after that dries it becomes amaaaaazing.

awesome, now I just need to know how to make the grassy terrain hehheh.

Can you add color to premade flock if you just need a small amount of slightly different color

our local cabinet maker has a vacuum that shoots the sawdust into the dumpster out back. imagine, a city dumpster overflowing with sawdust every week. so i can get a bunch and throw it in the cement mixer and hit it with a spray bottle full of dye of my choice. score lol

Hey! New to the channel and watching this Playlist and I had a question: when you talk about pre-made flocking, have you ever thought about substrate used for reptile enclosures?

I think I bought a woodland scenics variety pack.... About 12 years ago. I still have half of it left, and I've only bought like two of the smaller packets since. Granted, I mostly use it for miniature bases, and I can only see needing the bigger bottles for doing an entire wargame table that's like 6'x4' or something similarly huge. Making your own in bulk, I can't imagine what you'd be building. Maybe recreating murkwood from scratch?

Have you used the sand/concrete/paver base that DM Scotty uses? Easy to get, all you have to do is paint it? Best of both worlds?

Do you have a video or could you comment on what method/s do you use to apply the Woodland Scenic product?

I used wood cat litter pellets to make flock did a video on it.Takes time but works, also great when you want reds and yellows for tree litter.

Thanks for the tip

v I have always got woodland senic it works just fine and to me saves time.

I'm glad I don't have to feel guilty if I buy a tub of it now ^_^

Have you ever actually worked with sawdust moss? Will they get moldy if I don't dry them in sun after coloring?

Even though I make and use homemade flock, I couldn't agree more! I *much* prefer premade flock for the reasons you've touched on. :) I use my homemade flock (made from tea and herbs, dried in a cheapo dehydrator, stored in dried parmesan cheese shaker containers) to represent leaves and other debris on top of the premade stuff. I place it sparingly for effect, rather than covering terrain with it entirely. I think this is really the strength of homemade flocking- as an accent material.

Knocking on businesses doors with strange requests for their garbage sounds like a fun afternoon to me. I'm a chef and when my friends are moving I'm always like drop by my work at 10am when we get our order and I'll have boxes for you.

Fine, I'll get the shaker jug! Ive made alot with the coffee grounds - smells great - but its a mess and doesnt look as good as the premade turf

I recently found cat litter made from 100% southern pine sawdust. Takes about 5 minutes in a bowl with water to break down. Sorts to about 4 different sizes and costs about $9 for 20 lbs off the shelf.

This is a dumb thought, but could you make it out of table salt? It is a fairly standard shape and dirt cheap.

Great video as always , thank you ! How do you feel about using pet pedding(hamster chips ,aquarium sets , rocks and natural spices like dill , oregano ,pepper , parsley ) also wood chips and natural dirt and sand natural stuff from the woods thanks for your reply and your videos are always appreciated

I would recommend putting in some sound dampening tiles to get rid of room echo. It's not too bad here, but it's noticeable.

I can sleep later...

Can u static flock pla from 3d printed terrain

how bout applying the sawdust flock natural and then brush paint it on the terrain? can this be done

I saw a video on a channel where the lady makes miniature models and she made her flocking by unraveling twine, painting the twine green with acrylics, and then once dry she chopped it up into little pieces with scissors. The hardest part was unraveling the twine. Everything else was quick and easy.

Can I use green glitter, and matify it somehow?

I was just wondering if you can make flocking the other day and poof you make a video, thanks BMC

The discussion of homemade vs premade is an interesting one in this unique context, as most people don't make money off of the process of making crafts. When one makes video content about crafting the situation is different because the homemade component is fundamental to the act, whereas with people who are crafting just to have models it doesn't have to be homemade at all. If the goal is jut to have a model its probably more cost effective to just buy models and terrain, even to commission someone to make them for you, than to make it yourself. So probably the majority of people who are watching want to craft for its own sake to a degree, and thus the idea of saving as much time as possible shifts to spending less time doing boring things and more time doing fun things, rather than getting the best monetary value for your time. Prepurchased flocking seems like the right choice in either context for most situations. Going around collecting consistent flocking is probably pretty boring in most settings, and could be stressful if you can't find what you're looking for. It maximizes time spent in the creative component of crafting to have premade stuff, though of course the process of making things itself is a creative process, as thats the overall process itself. It kind of goes on forever recursively. It's creative to put together a model, its even more creative to build all the pieces of the model yourself, so it must be even more creative to make all the paints and gather all the materials yourself, so it must be even more creative to discover all of the materials and pigments used in your components, so it must be even more creative to invent the chemicals needed to construct the materials and components, so it must be even more creative to set fourth the rules of physics which allow the construction of physical forms. Really the discussion of homemade vs premade comes down to the question: to what degree would you like to play god? lol

I use an electric coffee grinder, small animal litter and dollar store paint takes about an hour to make a pretty large batch enough to cover at least a surface of 1m by 1m This method cost me a little bit of money 30 euro's for the grinder a 1.99 for the animal litter and the same for paint but still way cheaper than buying premade flocking Granted it's not easy to get a consisted color but this just adds to the realism in my opinion Another plus to this method is that i will probably never have to buy new materials so far i've made 6 large forest scatters 4 large hillside scatters 5 woodlandhouses with base and a bunch of small tree and bush scatters and i havent even used up 1/8 of the litter

You can pick up a 40 lb bag of wood stove pellets for like $5-$10. Dump like a 1/4 cup of water on a big handful and let it soak in. Each pellet is just a compressed little bit of sawdust. Get them wet and they puff right up into a mess of sawdust... but then you have to let it dry.

In Idaho we have a store called D&B Supply, and you can get bags of sawdust.

Circular saw, a big stick and a bathtub = flock :D I made some yesterday haha

quick Mr Hat, lets head to our flippy floppiddy flock!

You can get saw dust in the form of kitty litter. I bought a 10lb bag of pellets (about $7 US) When you get it wet, it immediately breaks down. Once dry, you can screen it and get large and small particles separated out of it... Definitely takes time to dry out, but for me, a finished product that included 2 sizes of particle and 10 different colors, give it a good week.. Then you will have all the flock, in 2 sizes and all colors for a very long time. It was worth it to me, especially considering if i were to buy 20 containers if pre-made.

That woodland scenic flocking is around $25 AUD per container here in Australia. Definitely not cheap especially when you consider you want a variety of colours and textures for most scenes.

Waka flocka, waka flocka! I love these basics videos. They're great for us who are beginners in the crafting game. Do you ever use the moss they sell at the hobby stores?

if you have a local woodworker (hobbyist, carver, furniture maker, etc), he's inevitably got a ton of dust; or a DIY guy/handyman with, say, a circular saw, a large two-sided rasp, or a hand sander of some sort (three common tools in a well-stocked garage) and say "hey, i got this 2x4 i need turned into dust", that'd be a good source for sawdust. i'd recommend against cabinet shops or large drum sander shops, 'cuz you're bound to get stuff like melamine, thermofoil, or corion mixed in with the sawdust. there is no harm in going to a shop and asking for their waste products. the shop i'm at occasionally has people who pick up our off-fall and recyclable bottles; we just got a shop sink in the same manner. i don't know of anyone who's asked for our sawdust, but if *I'M* not the one who has to dump the damn dust collector over my head into the dumpster (i'm short and have t-rex arms), i will give you the entire 3ft bag full of sawdust if you want it as long as you had a place to put the dust, just so that i don't have to haul it off to the bin. ...if you just want a little, i will hand you the broom and dustpan and say "have at it, hope you have a ziplock, have a nice day". ...sure, the guys next door are complete assholes, but there's a few of us in the complex i can think of offhand who would have no problems with someone taking our trash away for free.

Sawdust is my go to! I make huge batches at a time. I’m not made of money and getting into making war game tables. It would be 100s of $ if I bought woodlands scenic to cover the same tables

4:33 what is that squishy crunch noise?

In Australia we have to go with home made versions due to the price of such things like flock. You can buy woodland scenics flock shakers and the like for $12 Canadian but unfortunately here it is $20 dollars Canadian or $22.49 Australian (these prices were some of the cheapest I managed to find!). Still doesn't sound much but when you add up 3 or 4 flock shades for grass for example, you are getting up to $100 Australian or Canadian very quickly! I even found woodland scenics realistic water sold at my local hobby store for $61!

I volunteered at stables to get free horse back riding. If the stable uses sawdust bedding in their stalls. You could ask where they get it.

i know its a video 3 years old but just want to point that woodland scenic floking in a bottle is now 30$ canadian on amazon :/

There's no such a thing as hobby shop in my country, so no source for pre-made flocking and if I decide to purchase it worldwide, it will cost too much. Our money is pretty invaluable. So I have to make my own flocking. I wanted to know if using homemade flocking would look cheaper or unprofessional?

Carpenter here as well. But I get my sawdust from a mobile home manufacturer out on the highway. And I dunno, it doesn’t take me long to make flick and I keep a formula to stay consistant

I don’t know what these miniatures are for? Are they just for display or for fantasy gaming like D&D or both? I’ve been digging this channel anyway, just watching this dude make really cool stuff out of nothing though. Seems like a really cool hobby, was just curious how it started? His workshop is awesome too. It’s like a smaller, cleaner, more organized version of Adam Savages’.

You should have added "Motherflocker"....I personally think that for fine flocking it is really hard to do yourself, ready made is the only viable option. For coarser grades, I managed to do some flock that looked better than the premade stuff. One final pro for homemade is that you can make as little as you want. Need only a couple of tea spoon of purple flock for your tyranid army? You mix it in 5 mins, let it dry overnight and done. Try to find purple flock at a decent price...Very good breakdown, pretty balance and good recommendation for the videos on homemade flock.

Yup, I'll be buying flocking. Thought about making it cuz I can get sawdust by the truck load from work buuuuttt. I work 12-16hrs at a time, so 12bucks for a bottle on Amazon would save me a ton of faffin about lol.

Alot of the time i prefer baking soda on top of the sand like gw sand whilst being stupidly expensive the granules of sand are too large for the scale of standard 32mm minitures.

Woodland Scenics $56 international shipping for a $7 bag of flock... 😱 Im going to try the teabags technique! 😇

So the one in the description is the one in the video?

Oh my! You are breaking my heart, there are no railroad modeling stores in our city, and AFAIK in Ukraine. But flocking is selled in handmade hobby stores... $5 for 20 ml (it's not an error, it's twenty milliliters) My last hope is the fact that some businesses cover automobile cabins in flocking (inside). They should have some access to the stuff in right quantities

If you live near a university that has a theatre program and a scene shop you could probably ask whoever is in charge there for some sawdust.

the easiest way I have found to get sawdust is at my local feed store. they sell bags of horse bedding pellets. all it is is little pellets of compressed sawdust. just add water and it expands and breaks down into sawdust again. it costs me less than $8 for a 40lb bag. You can also buy the same bags of pellets at pet stores like petco or petsmart but it is sold as pine pellet cat litter and it is much more expensive, at about $40-$50 a bag.

While I'm totally with you on the ridiculous cost of GW scenic supplies, the grass flock they make looks so damn good.

anyone have a source for premade colored sawdust groundcover 20 years ago i could just buy it through model railroading catalog but not no more

This has probably be mentioned dozens of times,in the last 2.5 years since this video got released, but... Trouble getting saw dust??? Well i think saw dust for small pets might be one fairly widespread option (which would have to be processed some more i guess). Or try odering saw dust for BBQ-Smokers, those are super clean and can be ordered in different 'grain' sizes... no grinding no sifting debris or anything. pretty much ready to be coloured and dried...

sawdust can be made by smoker pellets added to water and bleach or white acrylic paint & time

I tried making a small batch of flocking while watching this vid and realised I will need to buy flocking lol.