Got yet another one for my Forum friends. Does anyone have a good idea how to create good looking HO scale vines like would grow on a trellis? I have a building I'm using as a school that I got from someone who could no longer model due to age. In the process of prepping it for the layout I cracked the back wall and damaged the window. I decided to put a vine-like structure on it to cover the problem. My first attempt didn't look right at all. So far I have a grid of scale lattice and will prep the building to mount said lattice to it. Scenery like this is not my strong suit, so any suggestions would be most welcomed.
I don't have a picture, but the root structure from weeds, or last years garden plants work good.
Cleaned off, hair spray and some fine foam foliage.
Mike.
My You Tube
Most of the vines I see growing on the sides of buildings aren't growing on lattice. They grow directly to the brick or wood siding. English Ivy fills in pretty thoroughly so that in just a few years, there aren't any gaps in the field of ivy.
I have English Ivy growing on the north face of my house and it has climbed all the way to the to the roof. There is just one corner of the face that has yet to fill in. The vines are barely visible. I wouldn't even bother with the vines but if you want to create that suggestion, you could glue a web of vines to the side of the building before applying the foliage. I would think a brown thread would be a good material to do that with. Then I would apply a dark green coarse material to the side. I would have mostly a solid field of foliage with maybe a few solitary vines extending out from the field. I would just spread either a white or clear glue anywhere I wanted the leaves to be and then just sprinkle the foliage material onto it. After the glue dries, brush away any material that landed on unglued areas. Be sure to apply foliage to the ground below the wall because that is where the ivy starts. You can make that border as wide or as narrow as you like.
Scroll through these pictures and see how vines grow and fill in on the surface of walls.
images of ivy growing on brick walls - Bing images
As you can see, ivy grows haphazardly at first but eventually fills in. If all you want to do is cover the crack, just a few vines could do the trick or you could create a field of ivy on a wall. Either would be realistic.
WS has a vine product, look pretty good and am using it on curant layout on some abutments. If you are doing a building however the glue method looks best to me
Here are some more vines, at a now long-gone hobbyshop...
Every time I went there, I was worried that when I came out of the store with an armload of train stuff, my car would be ensnared by vines.
Wayne
I covered up a mistake on a DPM mod building by squeezing a small amount of white glue on the wall and sprinkled on WS fine green blend. Looks great.
Terry in NW Wisconsin
Queenbogey715 is my Youtube channel
saronaterry I covered up a mistake on a DPM mod building by squeezing a small amount of white glue on the wall and sprinkled on WS fine green blend. Looks great.
I was thinking about using Scenic Express leaf foliage. I have to figure out which structure would be most appropriate to have ivy covered walls. I've seen weeds that will climb a structure or retaining wall but not spread like ivy. I've done that on a smaller scale.
What I have used in HO-scale.
Formula '500' Canopy Glue, applied with a small brush then sprinkled with Secnic Express scale leaves super leaf in spring green. Because it is what I had in stock.
You could use a darker green leaf product for most of the vine covered area and a lighter green leaf at the tops/ends for new growth.
Vines look nice growing up a pole and out the wire along the right of way.
Just looking at those vines on doctorwaynes old local hobby shop makes me feel ''buggy''.
If your vines are old growth, you probably will not see the vine's stems, or even the lattice, so your lattice would be covered all with leafs.
Below is a WS plug and play ''wood'' light pole with vines growing up it.
For those who do not know it, just click on the picture to enlarge it.
PC101 You could use a darker green leaf product for most of the vine covered area and a lighter green leaf at the tops/ends for new growth. If your vines are old growth, you probably will not see the vine's stems, or even the lattice, so your lattice would be covered all with leafs.
As I model Eastern Montana, the probably wouldn't be much for "old growth" as the vibe would freeze off year to year. So I probably will need to show some vines and they would be a single color.
Finally got the "vines" installed this evening. https://photos.app.goo.gl/PaViSQb7TJts1og46
Probably not the best interpretation but it gets the job done and some of the lattice shows through.
Yep, just looking at that wall of vines makes me feel buggy.
I've used 000 steel wool, which is gently stretched out and somewhat flattened. Then put the pieces on a sheet of cardboard and spray bomb the steel wool a flat black or dark green. After it dries lightly spray the steel wool with some cheap nonscented hairspray. Then lightly sprinkle the green flocking on the steel wool. Trim off the excess, cut to size and apply.