Please Share Your Modeling Success

[MAbruce]

While few of us are an expert on every aspect of model railroading, everyone has something they have done exceptionally well and are particularly proud of. It could be some aspect of scenery, a custom paint job, detailing, weathering, structures, etc.

I’d like to open it up to everyone here to share that one aspect in this hobby that you have nailed, and how you did it (post a picture or two if you can). So please share with us the pride of your MRR Empire so the rest of us can learn from your success. After all, that’s what this forum is here for, right?

I’ll join in on a separate post.

[MAbruce]

One of the things I have done a lot of is trees. You can either spend a pile of money on the pre-made products, or you can make them yourself. Since my last name is not “Gates” or “Rockefeller”, I chose to make my own. The product I ran across was “Supertrees” by Scenic Express. They sell tree material that (in N-scale) yields a large number of trees for the money.

Website: http://www.scenicexpress.com/supertrees.html

First, you need to purchase a bag of their tree material, a can of cheap (gray) auto primer spray paint, Matte Medium, a fine mist sprayer (a recycled hairspray bottle works great), and flocking material (Scenic Express sells this at a reasonable price too).

Second, you need to go through the tree material and prune out various tree armatures. In order to keep everything in proper scale, I would have a building and/or freight car on hand to measure against.

Third, spray paint the tree armatures with gray Auto Primer. I used gray as this best resembles the color of most trunks. You can always use any other color(s) you think would look best. I used primer as it was the cheapest, and had a matte finish.

Fourth, after the armatures have dried, dip them in a diluted Matte Medium solution and sprinkle a light coat of flocking material over them. Use the same diluted Matte Medium in a mist sprayer to mist over the tree. Repeat the flocking process until you are satisfied with the coverage. Let dry (stick them in a foam base or hang them on a clothesline).

NOTE: Some may suggest using hairspray instead of Matte Medium. While I have no doubt that it will work, I’m not so sure of the long term consequences of using hairspray (will it hold?). Scenic Express actually comes out and discourages its use.

Here are some shots of these trees in my layout:

[dano99a]

Since I used atlas snap switches and after the fact wanted the same look as under the table switches, through much experimentation I divised a way to hide them and still make it look good.

http://www.crtraincrew.com

Go to my web site and look under the modeling section, the article name is "hiding snap switches". I also will be posting my weathering techniques soon as well. I just finished that article so it'll be ready for posting soon (after the almighty spellchecker sees it)

[jfugate]

I have to admit, I'm a real fan of the Scenic Express scenery materials. Their supertrees are great, and so is their silfor grass. Here's a photo of a scene from my Siskiyou Line made using these materials:



Silfor can get kind of pricey if you have large areas to cover, so I use it to do the edges of a grass expanse since it looks very natural. Then I fill in the middle with buff colored fake fur, and then paint the fake fur with acrylics to match the silfor coloration. Works like a charm and fake fur is way cheaper than silfor. Fake fur alone doesn't work very good for the edges because it looks like some sort of fabric, which is why the silfor edges work better.

For more, you can see my web site, just click the link in my signature.

[Anonymous]

That is nice scenery work guys! I am taking inspiration from you!

Thanks.

Andrew

[simon1966]

I am going to jump in on this as I really enjoyed the above responses and I figure if this gets back up the list others may join in :-)

This weekend represented a real modelling success for me. I spent about 2 hours at the kitchen table with my 4 and 6 year old sons. They both assembled Athearn kits almost on their own (Coupler box covers are a bit tricky for little hands). But best of all they had a blast weathering them. India ink wash, doc o'brians powders, dull coat and dry brush highlight, resulted in two very grubby, highly weathered freight cars! Sunday afternoon and two very proud happy little boys ran "their" cars round "Daddy's" track. It will be a very sad day if the joys of assembling an inexpensive simple kit end in this age of Horizon hobbies and the growing prevelance of expensive RTR.

[Anonymous]

Developing a clean, successful, method of installing spline trackbed.
It took three layouts to get it right. But very simple, very clean and not beyond the skills of those of without degrees in engineering.
Required tools:
GOOD table saw
A planer is helpful
A hand drill with 1/4" bits
Lots of 10x32 3" machine screws, with lots of washers and nuts.
4 ', 2' and bayonet levels
lots of c clamps
lots of finish nails
string
templates of various radii arcs (take a piece of 1" foam, draw your radii, but out, and mark, you should have two radii on each cut out piece. I did 24, 26 28 30 and 32.
That's for tools
1/4" tempered masonite sheets (4x8), or but precut 4x4.
13/16" plywood (or 3/4, but be sure to use all the same thickness stock!)
Cut stips of masonite the exact width of the thickness of the plywood. If your table saw is not that accurate, that's where the planer comes in.
Oh, some 1x6x8' yellow pine boards. They are generally an actual 3/4 ". Rip them to 1/4 ".
What you will end up with is a 9 ply piece of roadbed, the y.p. strip in the middle, with four strips of masonite on each side of it. If your strips of masonite are all the same length, then cut some of them to random lengths so that you have overlap in the spline......but
But I am getting carried away. If anyone wants to know how to finish, I would be glad to supply details......
The question was, name a success in modelling. I call the advance from clunky cut outs of plywood to long, smooth beautiful curves a success.