Id like to model a beaver pond/dam/habitat area on my upcoming layout. Not much out there that I can find. Anyone have any good videos/sites etc about building a realistic one?
Lots of good images here:
images beaver dams - - Image Search Results (yahoo.com)
Shouldn't be too hard to find small twigs to use for material. I would create a small dam out of colored plaster, scultamold, etc., cover it with the twigs then pour your water material.
I would pour an initial depth, build the dam, and its associated 'hotel', and then add a second pour. This would help with the illusion of depth, showing that some of the beaver lodge and dam are under the water's surface....au naturel.
And after you find a model of the beaver you'll need to find models of Eddie Haskel and Lumpy Rutherford.
Believe it or not, I have actually built a beaver swamp and lodge. Here is the initial cutaway of foam from the pink foam board.
The swamp got covered with plaster cloth to smooth out the terrain, and then painted with acrylics.
Next came ground foam and turf.
Then a couple of layers of pretty heavily tinted Envirotex Lite.
There are some plants in there, too. The white squares are styrene dams use to hold back the upper levels of water so it wouldn't all drain into to lower level.
There are a lot of plants added, and also some talus put in before the resin was poured.
There are two moose walking in the swampy water, and you can see a beaver roughly in the center "walking" on the water. The beaver was added before the final pour.
With more water added, he is embedded in resin and appears to be swimming.
I am not from beaver country, so I built what would be a G-scale beaver lodge for my HO scale beavers. Next time, I'll do better.
The moose and beavers, as I recall, came from Musket Miniatures.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Mike did one of these:
https://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/275809.aspx
Simon
Thanks all for the replies.
I had been thinking I should not try to build the dam or lodge completely out of sticks and build a form and then just cover it with the sticks. I found a great picture of a diorama someone did (not MR related) that looks like an actual aerial photo which I saved but now cant find it again to see if there are procedural photos to go along with it.
Great job Mr Beasley. Thats how I was looking to go at it.
I also wondered if it would be easier to make a diorama of it and get it "right" first and then fit it in on the layout.
I like the idea of building a piece on the workbench then fitting it in. If it holds by gravity, you can easily remove it later for scenery work, storage or a move. My mini sawmill scene is entirely removable. Ground foam and weeds cover the seams.
20211009_114238 Simon Royon Flickr
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3244719275848065&set=p.3244719275848065