Track plan is done. Benchwork is done. Track is laid and 80% painted. Wiring is done. Operations are good. All in the great desert plains... I don't think I can avoid scenery much longer, but the paralysis has set in again :-(. I may need a nudge here. I don't really have a plan that includes structures, trees, or roads. Anyone else get stuck at this point?
BTW, im in HO, late 70's, freelancing a shortline which serves an island community via a car ferry. At the north end, Utopia yard takes traffic from CSX and Conrail from the West and East. One train a day delivers cars to the Northport freight yard at the south end where cars go to and from an off-layout island via the ferry. There is also a New Haven-ish steam excursion that runs round trips between Utopia station and a recreational area at the Northport Harbor.
I'm not looking for you folks to bail me out with a scenery plan, just looking for a little encouragment.
Merry Christmas, and thanks for listening!
Jim
if you have structures already, put them where they will eventually become part of the scenery. Make temporary fences and foliage with colored construction paper glued to bits of wood (used as bases, so the paper won't just fall down.) Chunks of small boxes, quick-painted with cheap acrylic paint from W******t and detailed (windows and doors) with a marker, can substitute for more substantial buildings. A paper grocery bag filled with wadded newspaper can become an instant hill...
The idea is to put up something from which to get an impression - quick, cheap and expendable. After you've played with the broad-stroke picture, then you can start converting it to more substantial, durable and accurate form.
I'm still bumbling around in the netherworld. Once I reach the surface, that's what I intend to do.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
For 30yrs and 50 layouts, scenery always scared me. I used to think my efforts would not measure up. Who cares, it's your layout, it's my layout and there are heaps of articles in this great magazine and great support on this forum.
I am just starting on the scenery for the first time and having fun building a mountain, cliffs { which I am about to buy rock moulds } a waterfall and river and using plaster moulds, I will be building 2 viaducts and a flour watermill with a wheel. I don't know where the roads are going yet but I don't have time to procrastinate as the grandchildren will be visiting in 7days!!!!!!!
Get stuck in, go for it and have fun and I look forward to seeing your efforts, as I hope you will see mine soon.
God bless you and have a merry Christmas and an incredible new year, Alan.
With your track plan already set, you probably need to plan roads next. Grade crossings are best done on straightaways, and away from turnouts. If you can, make them at right angles, but that's not always possible, either.
Buildings that interact directly with railroads are next. Stations, depots and factories with loading docks will also want to be on straight tracks, so you're going to have competition for available space.
Most structures in the Walthers catalog have measurements included. So, if you have an eleven inch space, you can find a building that will fit in it. Don't feel constrained by the product or company name on a factory in the book. The "brand name" is generally applied with decals, and it's easy to add your own signs and details to the walls and loading dock.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Nudge 1. Get some WS plater cloth, roll up Sunday's newspaper and lay on layout and make the scenery you want. When it looks about right, lay the plaster cloth on top. Paint and add some ground foam. It will take about 2 hours and if you don't like it, take it out and try again.
Nudge 2. Get some styrofoam and a steak knife and carve up some pieces that look about right and hot glue them in place. If they don't look right, take them out and try again
Nudge 3. I am no artist, but look what I did. You certainly can do as well.
My Grandson made this with plaster cloth.
We will be waiting for pictures of effort one. And then two. My prediction is you will get addicted and surprise your self and us with what you can do,
Here's the MR Forum thread, "Question on cheesecloth scenery," that may be a fruitful exercise...
http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/1224005/ShowPost.aspx
...if only from this regard: You will see the contours shaping up.
You don't necessarily need to use cheescloth scenery, as much as to begin some process, even if only using an old sheet, to visualize the layout's potential, if by just tacking the cloth to the edges of your finished roadbed for a "look-see."
If you do decide to actually use the cheesecloth technique, you will find smooth transitions between track and terrain to be a primary benefit. Check out the weblink pictures.
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
I myself plan to install the industry, trackwork etc. Once that is set in stone so they say, I will start slowly with streets. When the streets are done, then sidewalks etc.
Once I reach the edge of this area, grass, brush etc followed by trees and hills.
I find scenery a little daunting but have this as my plan and will first follow the track and work outwards. Fortunately in my limited space 2 to 3 feet wide, I dont have to do too much.
You can work from the water front first and work outwards changing slowly from Urban to dirt/grass/trees as you go. The last buildings at the edge of your town should be a small area where you can blend.
If you try a small area first, dont like it and do it over until you think Hey! It's good enough.
Taking digital pictures with a camera will probably help a little. Sometimes photos will reveal jarring and unnatural placement of stuff.
Use the structures presented in the catalog as a guide, not a absolute must for this or that business. If you visited my home and saw my growing industrail area you will recognize instantly the Sterling Dairy Kit and the Tannery Kit which are being built and slightly modified as I go.
I place one building, sit down for a few days to think about that building and all the things around it. For example the Team Track needs truck access to the laydown pad next to the track. I personally like to allow enough space (Approx 80 scale feet) so that HO scale big trucks and swing and get to and from the pad under the crane.
That is how I deal with my scenery. I try to avoid wild problems like a Palm tree next to a Oak one.
Goodluck!
Jim,
I agree that you need a basic plan for area, structure placement and overall terrain. You don't mention what your actuall looking for and didn't descibe the type of benchwork and scenery base. Flat decked w/ ply or foam? Do you have open grid? All these factors are important as to where you go next for your scenery base and contours.
As far as deciding on various techniques for scenery base, ground goop and ground covers, If you're not sure and hesitant to just jump on any one method, I would suggest practicing on an unimportant area or even do work on a simular prepared surface or module.
There are just so many methods to choose. Many will be determined by the prerequistes described above and what you find does the best for your prototype and abilities.
Planning the scenery is priority now, using mock-ups for contours, roads and structures may help better in finalizing a plan. I have found that even the best laid scenery plans have always changed as you are in the middle of the process. This plan need not be cast in stone, it is only a basic guideline. Many layout are designed for best operation and trackwork with little regard for scenery at those planning stages. My club in particular. Basic ideas for scenery were there, but now that I try too plan some of these trouble spots, it becomes very difficult to accomplish the visions of what most really want for the finished product.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
Lots of good recommendations here - Thanks! I guess I've made a start. Today I cut out some 1/4" foamboard to make an asphault platform along my station track and raise the station up to the level of the steps on the coaches. I used joint compound to cover the foam edges and create a handicap ramp up from a parking lot behind the platform. Tomorrow I'll sand it a bit and apply some asphault-is paint. Then I can start adding balast to the tracks and to the yard area. Once I get that far I'll post some photos.
Jim. Good for you.
Now begins the creative side of things - I think that is the right side of the brain.
Yes. Several good suggestions here.
One I found beneficial for me was to put up cardboard structures and 3x5 index cards naming the places. The temporary structures helped me decide if I had left enough room and two, how the RR would function there.
Regards,
Tom
Someone else recommended taking digital photos of scenes you want to duplicate. I strongly agree. The mind does not have the capacity to recall all the details that make scenes come to life. The same is true for remembering colors and shadows accurately. That's why artists either work on site or take copious photos. Over the years I have collected dozens of pictures, starting with an old Polaroid camera and progressing today to a digital. It need not be fancy--just have it handy. I also use on line images from Google.
John Timm
If scenery really scares you like it does for me since I had no clue where to even start, you can do what I did and buy Joe Fugate's how to videos. He just put out volume 4 which covers starting the scene and going up to creating a dirt texture look. Very soon he will have his next video out that will take scenery to the level of complete. He covers how to build bridges, tunnels, hills, roads. The next video will cover trees, grasses, water and other things. Not to do his sales pitch but so worth the time and money.
Here is his video website:
http://model-trains-video.com/page.php?1
Joe also is on here from time to time and always gives very useful insite of many things that pertains to this hobby.
--Zak Gardner
My Layout Blog: http://mrl369dude.blogspot.com
http://zgardner18.rrpicturearchives.net
VIEW SLIDE SHOW: CLICK ON PHOTO BELOW
Well, here it is: my first "scene". This is Utopia station on the north end of the layout. The (small) crowd is gathering as the early run of the Utopia-Northport excursion train returns to the station. The era is the tail end of the Conrail regime. The station area includes raised asphault platform areas, marked with a yellow "do not cross" line and a handicap access ramp and handrail. The car models were purchased at Walmart for a couple of dollars each. The station is a cornerstone kit I finished and built myself. This station is roughly modeled after the Valley Railroad terminal in Essex CT. Enjoy.....
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet