Indoor/Outdoor Carpet or Astroturf other than bright green

Your best bet is marine deck carpet, like that available at this place:

http://www.boatcarpetoutlet.com

Thanks for the tip Allan!  I will check them out.

I did make it by Home Depot, and in their commercial section they had some stuff by TrafficMaster called Greenspace.  It was the darker shade of green I was wanting, but unfortunately it was 18"x18" carpet tiles.  A shame cause the texture was good, kinda like thick felt, and it didn't look like it would shed much if at all.

Robert

Could someone please explain to me why indoor/outdoor carpet is always recommended? The "fake grass" look is certainly not to 1:48 scale. Even non-grass outdoor carpet seems to have a "plastic" look, IMO. I have found that a tight-pile indoor carpet in muted green is almost an exact match to Scenic Express "grass" in both color and texture.

Well I went by another Home Depot to grab a couple samples and compare next to some track.  As y'all probably know some stores carry a different variety than others, and I found one I hadn't seen on the rack before that I think might suit my needs...

...it's the one on the far right.  You can probably open this in a new window and get an even closer look.  Similar to the traditional type on the far left, it's not nearly as shiny in person (camera flash).

The outdoor carpet in the middle is too dark, but even in lighter colors it would have this plowed & planted row look that doesn't quite work for me.  They did have some TrafficMaster that you can order that's off a roll and not tiles.  It also looks good, but again sort of like a thicker felt material, so it also has a 'fuzzy' look to it.

Like Joe said, the fake grass I like is made to look more like real grass, and therefore not to scale (except maybe for British Open rough  ).  Still I think it could work for now, and give some texture to what's basically going to be a flat layout for the time being.

Although it's not cheap either...$1.29 - $1.70 per square foot.  I still like the look of the classic bright green with vintage model trains, just has the right feel to it.

Wonder what you guys think of the stuff pictured above.

Thanks,

Robert

I did also check out the Bachman and Woodland Scenic grass mats online, but they don't look like they would be sufficiently durable for my purposes...disassembling and reassembling the layout at least a couple times a year.

I like your choice it has a very postwar dealer display look to it. Can you give me the Home Depot part # and or description for it?

I got my indoor/outdoor carpet, not the plastic stuff, from Home Depot. I also did not like their color choices but I was able to special order more of a medium green. Here is a picture of what it looks like.

Consider making removable vignettes with the grass mats from Woodland Scenic, then you can just pull them, box and stack them for storage. If you make buildings and other tall items removable they won't take up much space.

Hey Brad, the back of this swatch says:

TURFevolutions

Style/Color: Luxury/Spring Green

Order SKU: 910-664(6')/877-965(12')

One of the two Home Depots near me had it in stock; cut from a 6' roll it was ~$10.20 per linear foot (1'x6' section), so that works out to be ~$1.70 per sq ft.  They did have some TrafficMaster brand 12' commercial outdoor turf that was very similar to this and cheaper @ ~$1.29 sq ft, but it was special order like Joe mentioned (it wasn't the 'Greenspace' I mentioned previously, as those were tiles vs off a roll).

From the side the pile on this probably 3/16"-1/4", so if I tried to set a Railking figure 'down in' it, the grass would be close to his knees, but the blades are very thin, yet densely packed so I think track and models will mostly sit on top of it.  Another big plus, scratching and rubbing on the sample, it doesn't seem to want to shed at all.

BTW that's a real nicely finished layout Joe, very cool!  This turf might be slightly darker, but I'm not sure cause the colors never look the same in pictures as in person.

Thanks for the tip Russell!  I'll probably have a couple diorama type scenes that may have their own landscaping.  I just want a large single piece of roll up carpet to use for now to give an easily setup impression of landscape even without structures (or with very few) on the layout.  This stuff can be used on top of my modest 4'x8' layout table (that's only covered with the faux diamond plate rubber pads pictured above), or setup as a carpet central, on the fly.

Thanks guys,

Robert

So finally I've restaged the table (still re-arranging furniture) and thought I would post a full size pic of indoor/outdoor fake grass I chose...

This is for my smallish sized 4x8 layout for now, but the fake grass looks a lot better than the faux diamond plate pad I was working from before (I kept the pad and just laying the carpet over it).  I'll add some structures and track of course, but need to be able to deconstruct the whole setup on the fly as it takes up a lot of space in this tiny 'guest' room.

The two table tops break down to 4x4 and other than leaning them against the wall the whole thing can be condensed to a roughly 3x3 space.  The color actually looks a bit darker without the flash, but not as dark as it appears in some pics.  I think it will work nicely for now.