Scenery Stuff

[Anonymous]

Since I'm new to the hobby, my ideas may have been tried before without my awareness.
I discovered a fast way to make mountains and other topography by soaking an old bed sheet in a bucket of colored Sheetrock joint compound (plaster) and then laying that over pre-formed hardware cloth that I got at Home Depot. I bought liquid concrete coloring (Quickrete) at Home depot ( I used the terra cotta color) to color my plaster and I also put it into my plaster of paris rock molds ( it doesnt take much). Then when the mess was dry, I sprayed lightly with Krylon brown and then knocked most of that off with a scrub brush. Colorado Rockies in a pinkish sandstone!
The good thing about the hardware cloth is that it tends to retain the shape you give it by bending. It still needs some wood formers underneath though, and you can simply staple it in place. I also crushed and size graded kitty litter and then used the same terra cotta coloring on the litter to make my talus and eroded earth. Of course I let it dry a couple days spread out on old newspaper before I could use it.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the tips! As you are probably discovering, there are roughly 6 million different ways to do every job in model railroading!

Andrew

[bcammack]

Thread... needs... pictures... [:)]

Sounds interesting. If you ever get any images of the end-results up someplace like railimages, please post a link to them here so we may see them!

[Anonymous]

Still trying new things today. Cut a roadbed out of half-inch blue foam insulation board, beveling both edges with my utility knife. Since the box cutter left a ragged edge, I made a hot foam cutter from and old Weller soldering gun. Stripped a nine inch rail from a section of straight track and bent it around to replace the Weller soldering tip. Then made a square cutting loop by pounding the rail flat over and anvil. I used it to smoothe my roadbed edges. Then I ran a bead of polyurethane spray foam down a strip pf OSB board and immediately slapped the foam roadbed on top. Then I applied a coating of caulking (Alex) compound to the top of the blue polyfoam and smoothed it out with a tape knife. Then I sprayed a coating of Krylon Brown over the whole thing and pressed a section of flex track into place. Next came a sprinkling of kittlylitter ballast, size graded to 20 mesh. I pressed it in place with my fingers and brushed off the excess. And just to make sure, I gave it a top coating of Elmer's spray cement. Last I checked the thing had solidified into an impermeable mass. Once the polyfoam gets hold of either foam or wood, it won't let go. I discovered that blue foam board comes with a thin and transparent polyethylene film on both sides that must be stripped away if you want to glue the foam to anything else. Another tiring but sucessful day working on the railroad.
Bryant

[Anonymous]

Well, there is a first time for everything. I will attempt here to download a picture from Rail Images. This a test diorama on my back porch. I am new to photography too, so just learning as I go along. So Brett asked for pictures, Here goes:

[Anonymous]

Well It did not work. So ya'll can go to the rail images site and look at new member ,
album. http://www.railimages.com/gallery/bryantmansfield/aac.

[Anonymous]

Well, now it works! The stiff-looking clumps of grass came from one of my wife's pastry brushes. After cutting the bristles off with an ex-acto, I glued the clumps with white glue. I have since decided that the bristles are too big to be prototypical. The rough edges at the front are the remains of an old towel that I covered with plaster. It is supported by hardware cloth that was screwed to a piece of OSB construction board. This diorama is serving as a test bed for scenic ideas. incidentally, the smoke effects were done with PhotoImpressions.
Bryant M.
Bryant M.

[jfugate]

While its a bit more pricey, I've found nothing better than silfor to simulate tall grass. It looks very natural and you can plant it in small clumps or larger expanses.

Actually, to save money, I have found using a buff color fake fur works well for large expanses of tall grass, and then use the silfor grass on the edges because it makes very natural looking edges with hardly any work. Then I mix up a little acrylic paint and paint the fake fur to match the silfor grass color.

It's very effective! Here's a sample:


or you can see a jumbo size image here:
http://siskiyou.railfan.net/images/south_rb1.jpg

Just go into google and type "silfor grass" to see all the vendors that carry it. I like Scenic Express: http://www.scenicexpress.com/

[Anonymous]

Thanks Joe. I found some WS "field grass" that seems ok. I will check out the silfor grass and the fake fur is a great idea. Your picture is worth a thousand words. I have put some pictures up at http://www.railimages.com/albums/Bryant-Mansfield.

[Anonymous]

[jfugate]

Bryant ... cool pictures! Looks like its coming along nicely.

Post some more as you make more progress.