One Man's Trash: Making flocking material

 

This may look like its just some dirty bucket of garbage ...

 

... And unfortunately, it is. 

But as they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure. 

A few days ago, I set out on a mission. That mission was to finagle some poor unsuspecting Home Depot of the saw dust from their lumber section. I had watched a random video on making flocking powder out of saw dust and my lizard brain was compelled to try it. 

I went to 3 Home Depots before I accomplished this task. The first store refused to help, the second offered a powdered cement compound instead of saw dust. At the 3rd Home Depot, the employee asked me what I wanted it for, and when I explained to him that it was useful for art and dioramas, he was eager to help. I was taken back to a massive 50 gallon barrel full of sweeping compound, not quite sawdust, but it'll do the job just as well. I took about 3 gallons of the compound, hopefully enough to make more flocking powder than anyone could possibly need, but just in case, I struck a deal with the employee that would allow me to come back for more. 

Alright, saw dust secured. Next I need to acquire a cheap blender.

Done. Now to mix green paint and saw dust into the blender, making sure not to overload the blender with saw dust.

Before blending the stuff I found its helpful to mix it a bit first. Its especially helpful if the blender's lid has a detachable cap for adding stuff mid-blend so that you can continue to push the compound into the blades as it blends.

And this is the result. I'll leave it in the garage a bit to let the paint dry.

Once it's dry I'll sift the flock into a container. This may require some elbow grease, as a lot of that flock will be clumped together and will take effort to push through the sifter.

And there you go, I have a light and dark flocking done! And I only used about 1/6 of the free tub I received! I think next time I'll make a dark and light brown flocking also. 

And I know just what to do with this stuff.

I took the SOG minis I recently painted, hit them with some brown texture paint, then added some tufts and my flocking powder. And that is it, I now have more flocking powder than I could ever need, and practically for free. Can't wait to start making a bunch of terrain pieces with this stuff! What should make first?