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Mexican tomatoes and sawdust for N scale house

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  • Member since
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  • From: Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Sunday, April 14, 2019 6:16 PM

Doughless

That's certainly been my approach in the myriad of threads started by the OP.  When I see his name as the OP, I just avoid them.

I certainly think they are about model railroading.  I only asked in this particular thread because I was simply thinking that when someone starts 5 threads and 90% of the responses are from the OP, I was just curious if Kalmbach felt like they were hosting a blog for free. 

Thanks for graciously answering my queston, and I'll move on as usual. 

 

As a retailer who strongly supports Kalmbach publications, and I am the librarian of our extensive collection of Kalmbach publications, we will respond to your comments soon.

  • Member since
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  • From: Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
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Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Saturday, April 13, 2019 6:26 AM

BigDaddy

Ivy is actually damaging to your wall, be it brick or wood.  The roots or maybe they are suckers want to corkscrew into everything.  That said, you might want a more run down look to the house.

The tomatillo web reminds me very much of a sea fan, from my scuba diving days.  Real ivy is more branching than spider web - like.  An xacto blade would take care of that.

 

Now these are very thoughtful and constructive comments. I will follow this advice on future houses! Cheers.

  • Member since
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  • From: Heart of Georgia
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Posted by Doughless on Thursday, April 11, 2019 6:05 PM

That's certainly been my approach in the myriad of threads started by the OP.  When I see his name as the OP, I just avoid them.

I certainly think they are about model railroading.  I only asked in this particular thread because I was simply thinking that when someone starts 5 threads and 90% of the responses are from the OP, I was just curious if Kalmbach felt like they were hosting a blog for free. 

Thanks for graciously answering my queston, and I'll move on as usual. 

- Douglas

  • Member since
    December 2015
  • From: Shenandoah Valley
  • 9,094 posts
Posted by BigDaddy on Thursday, April 11, 2019 5:44 PM

Ivy is actually damaging to your wall, be it brick or wood.  The roots or maybe they are suckers want to corkscrew into everything.  That said, you might want a more run down look to the house.

The tomatillo web reminds me very much of a sea fan, from my scuba diving days.  Real ivy is more branching than spider web - like.  An xacto blade would take care of that.

It's a novel use of a product most of us would not think of, I see no problem with this thread.

Henry

COB Potomac & Northern

Shenandoah Valley

Moderator
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Posted by Steven Otte on Thursday, April 11, 2019 4:24 PM

The Forum has hosted extensive build threads like this before, and someone always raises concerns about their appropriateness. The answer is, if it's about railroad modeling, it's on topic, and if you don't like threads like this, don't read the OP's threads.

--
Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editor
sotte@kalmbach.com

  • Member since
    April 2017
  • From: Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
  • 1,585 posts
Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Thursday, April 11, 2019 2:52 PM

Doughless

No offense intended, but wouldn't all of these posts be better viewed in a personally maintained blog or website?

 

I model seven days a week, two of them full modelling days. Thus, my productivity is very high. I also have a very large collection of Model Railroader magazines (and others) to fuel my imagination.

  • Member since
    December 2008
  • From: Heart of Georgia
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Posted by Doughless on Thursday, April 11, 2019 9:43 AM

No offense intended, but wouldn't all of these posts be better viewed in a personally maintained blog or website?

Do you have a link?

- Douglas

  • Member since
    April 2017
  • From: Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
  • 1,585 posts
Mexican tomatoes and sawdust for N scale house
Posted by OldSchoolScratchbuilder on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 11:59 PM

I use the husks of Mexican husk tomatoes (tomatillos) and sawdust to make Boston Ivy vines on the sides of buildings. Here is what I do (see pictures below).

1. I have friends who grow these tomatoes on their farm. After harvesting most of the tomatoes there are many husks with heir intricate web-like matrixes left on the ground. They let me collect some.

2. I boil them in water and glycerin, adding fabric dye for colour, in this case green.

3. I cut out a section of the matrix and glue it to the wall(s) of interest. Here I am adding the matrix to a wall of an N scale house scratch-built from coffee stir sticks and a shale roof. The shale is from the shores of the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia.

4. Then I add bits of sawdust for leaves and the Boston Ivy is complete. I dye my own sawdust, in this case with green fabric dye in boiling water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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