Scenery to cover wiring?

[lyle_styles]

First off I would like to say thank you to everyone who has posted in this forum as I have learned many things on almost every topic. Kudos to all.

My question is that when I see these great layouts in CTT, why do so many of them have the wiring exposed for switches, accessories, and other things instead of trying to conceal these wires?

I am thinking of using lichens in some form to cover up mine as this may also be an easy way to remove them if anything needed changing or fixing.

I asked the guru at my LHS about using lichens to do this to see if there would be a problem with heat or current or something else that may go wrong with this idea and he informed me that it shouldn't be a problem doing this.

I am thinking of using a heavy gauge wire to bow over the contacts or wires and just string the lichens on the wire kind of like stringing the popcorn at Christmas time. LOL

I surely would appreciate any suggestions as what all you would do or have done.

Again thanks for all the great posts and info for us rookies.

[daan]

Well, you're not alone with that opinion. I too don't like to see the wires and switchboxes all over the place. But it's toytrains, and a lot of people like the look of the big mechanics. There are a few tricks I used on the Salt River Canyon RR. From "Bush", a german brand of scenery they sell foilage which is like a spiderweb covered with small green flakes. It can be used as a camouflage blanket. Also I used some hollow rockmoldings, which have been painter and flaked just like the area around it, but they sit over the bowdencables I use for switchthrowing.
You can also cover the surrounding area of the thing you want to hide with woodglue and stick hairs of a paintbrush or something in. After a bit of paint the hairs will look like long grass and the ugly part is behind it, not visible from a normal angle of sight. I used that to cover ugly scenic places where moldings and walls didn't join together nicely or where landscape colors change that abrupt that it didn't look natural.
Other things I though of are: Build a small stone wall from pebbles around the thing you want to hide, Make a small forest around it or a X-mas tree seller with his X-mas trees gathered around your object. Or a hollow building, hollow vehicle and the last idea is simply take of the lid of the mechanic aparatus, reshape it with a hairdryer (plastic gets soft when heated) into a rock formation and paint it. However make sure that the lid fits back on it.

[lyle_styles]

Thanks Daan,

Many great ideas to work with.

I'm sure I'll have more questions and this forum is the greatest!!!!!

Thanks again

[Anonymous]

You can use lychen, if you care to, but my preference would be for the ground foam products available from Woodland Scenics, Scenic Express, and others. The foam is very easy to work with and will hold up better, over time, than lychen. Lychen was the old standby in the earlier days of the hobby, and while it's still in use today, it generally has been replaced by foam products as the landscaping items of choice.

I, too, agree that disguising exposed wires in some way is a very good thing.

[poppyl]

A couple of suggestions in addition to those already mentioned. Try to drop your wires through your underlayment and benchwork as close to the switch or accessory as possible. If you are using either homasote or foam as your underlayment, you can create a small trench for the wiring using a utility knife. Once the wiring is in the trench cover it with masking tape and joint compound, sand and repaint.