Hi All, First I want to say,I hope that your holiday season is filled with love, peace and unlimited joy! Now on to my question, I have seen alot of layouts that have a pole line, but they have just (brown) poles, I know on the proto type poles are either beat up looking, very weathered, or some will have the cross arms broken off, what colors should I use to make my poles look as realistic as possible, I will be using acrylic paints, my poles are Nscale also,thanks for the help!
TrainsRMe1what colors should I use to make my poles look as realistic as possible,
If the poles are older I would suggest medium grey with a thin black wash. You might want to distress them slightly with some medium sandpaper so that the wash will have some crevices to build up in.
If they are newer then you might want to use a combination of medium and slightly darker brown. The creosote used to preserve poles often is a bit blotchy.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Pole lines actually in use are generally well maintained. Broken cross arms, I don't think so.
Modern poles are a light tan or grayish color because of modern wood treatments.
Back in the day they were a deep brown when new from creosote treatment, and would actually stay that way for a long time, eventually getting lighter in color and then turning grey.
Sheldon
I guess your time period will dictate what the poles look like.
The CN mainline that I railfan is lined with long out of service poles from the SOO line days. They are left to decay with remnants of whats left of the wires.
My attempt to model them:
I "roughed up" the wood a bit, then used gray washes to color them.
I should have used a finer wire, as in real time, whats left of the wires is hard to see.
Mike.
My You Tube
A nice effect, Mike. And yes older out of service poles sometimes take on an almost pewter (dull silver-ish) color, almost like driftwood, and deeply checked or split.
One effect I recall seeing, but have no pictures of, is in-use line poles where a darker or more intense application of creosote was applied to the lower portion of a pole, with a rather clear and sharp line showing the different shades of dark brown perhaps 4 or so feet above the ground line.
Dave Nelson
The poles that came with the Showcase Miniatures kits are pre-stained, but a good representation of town power poles around these parts, I added the safety striping and guy-wire for some extra interest.
Regards, Peter
All of the above methods look great. I would add one more step for poles that will be photo central. Take a pin and poke some indents for knots from the branches of the tree. The darker colour paint will bring them to life.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."