More Tree and Scenery Making Tips

[Anonymous]

I'll definatly have to try that.

[FJ and G]

Doug,

Cool. Here’s some pix to illustrate forced perspective, using smaller-scaled scenery in the background and in another photo showing larger-than-scaled scenery in the foreground.

The first shot shows a distant mountain with snow shimmering on the peak. In actuality, it is about 18 inches away; but the eye doesn’t know.

In the second shot, you can see how I’m scaling the trees with the larger in the foreground and smaller tree in the background closer to the river and to where the toy train will be running when the track is laid, hopefully in about another month before the sizzling, oppressive summer heat and humidity sets in on the South.

[cnw1995]

I pulled all the trees from my N scale layout to re-use on this one. In the background, they're great for making the layout seem longer - just as David noted.

[FJ and G]

Jim,

N scale trees look fine in the further you go away from the tracks towards the backdrop, and indeed are preferrable, as the eye naturally scales down distances; often called forced perspective. Matter of fact, you could place larger than O scale trees, trucks, cars, etc in the foreground in front of the tracks to add to the effect. Not many folk know about or have tried both techniques in combination.

Thus, you could have on your layout, everything from G to Z scale. It all depends on how you arrange them; and indeed, your layout would be enhanced and look Much larger than it really is.
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BTW, I never could figure out the words to some of the Beatles songs or those of other groups. I just happened to know about the Day in the Life song from listening to the BBC last week when the commentator spoke about Condy Rice's visit to Blackburn England and actually discussed that song and the meaning of the words.

[Jumijo]

QUOTE: Originally posted by FJ and G

Yeah, JO,

That pothole btw, looks all too real. [:(]

BTW, anyone old enough to recall the Day In Life Beatles song and the lyrics about counting the holes in Blackburne, Lancashire? Those were, I'm assuming potholes.

Honestly, I always pictured those holes to be in a stone wall, David. You see them as pot holes? I really have a hard time interpreting music.

"The girl with colitis goes by"? Or, "the girl with kaliedascope eyes"?

"Excuse me while I kiss this guy"? Or "excuse me while I kiss the sky"

And Elvis was great, but I can't understand half of the words in his songs.


Although the site is modeled in N scale, I think this guy's techniques would translate well to O scale.
Jim

[mickey4479]

Very cool. I am going to try the trees first.

[Sturgeon-Phish]

I made some really neat trees cheap. From shrub pruning I salvaged branches that looked "tree like" trimmed them down to about 6" tall. I took some of the clay that hardens when baked and made bases for the tree trunks, then baked them base and tree trunk. Then took moss from walmart and glued it to the branches to look tree like. Painted the baked clay tree bases to match the trunks, then green for the grass. While the green paint was still wet I sprinkled grass in the wet paint. Finished it all off with a liberal dose of cheap hair spray.
Jim
Jim

[jefelectric]

That is a neat site, even if it is N gauge. How do you find this stuff?

Thanks for sharing.

[crip]

Great ideas !

[Dr. John]

Thanks for the link, Jim. Great site!

[Buckeye Riveter]

Great website. I also bookmarked it.

As to those wooden skewers, you can buy those real cheaply at the grocery store. Look for shish kabob skewers. [:D]

[FJ and G]

Yeah, JO,

That pothole btw, looks all too real. [:(]

BTW, anyone old enough to recall the Day In Life Beatles song and the lyrics about counting the holes in Blackburne, Lancashire? Those were, I'm assuming potholes.

[johnandjulie13]

I thought the "cracked" asphalt was incredible. I have that site bookmarked for future reference! Great stuff.

JO

[Jumijo]

The trunk painting technique is really cool. And it makes perfect sense to paint the wood with stone paint so the wood will look more like a tree. [:D]

Jim

[FJ and G]

Nice. You could try that technique with the furnace filter material as well. I've never before seen that cool trunk painting technique.

Check out the dude's prairie grass as well.

[laz 57]

Way COOL JIM, thanks pretty easy.
laz57

[Jumijo]

The followng link takes you to a web site with some great, low-buck scenery tips. The tree and the road sections are amazing.

http://home.cablerocket.com/~crowley/easy_trees.htm

Jim