I'm building my second level to my layout and am using threaded rod hanging down from my 12' ceiling in my garage. From the ceiling to my layout the Rod is about 6' hanging down attaching in two places 30" apart supporting a peninsula. Has anyone experimented with what colors help blend in the rod so they won’t look so obvious? I have to use the rods but I want to try and hide them. Covering them won’t work sense this is where my Midwestern plains will be located.
I don't understand why they can't be covered with a tall stack or radio tower. Many companes had stacks that were high enough for your purpose. They just need to be above where people are looking. Namely the trains.
In the real world, tall light poles are typically painted flat black. That's to "make them disappear." One might think that trying to match the background color would be more appopriate, but it may be that the mind sees flat black and thinks "nothing there at all."
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Stand and look at it and determine the colour in the background whether it be a backdrop, wall or cluttered shelving and paint accordingly. You will be surprised at how it seems to disappear.
If that fails, wrap a bean stalk around it and have a little Jack at the bottom looking skyward.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
In my former life as an armoured (cavalry) officer, my time was largely spend in Recce Squadron. We had to see without being seen..or detected at all ideally. It meant that we had to be adept at blending into the background.
Two or three times each day we would 'go to ground', hide in a thicket or in a copse of woods, and replenish our supply of cut branches with with we liberally adorned our armoured recce vehicles (short for 'reconnaissance'). Trouble is, things that move, no matter how skillfully they are camouflaged, draw the eye like nobody's business. The grass only waves, but back and forth, and from 1000 meters, it is immobile to the eye. So are treelines, structures, still soldiers tucked up against tree trunks....but let the guy bend over while sneezing....ooooops.
One of the problems with our vehicles lay in the bobbing twin antennae needed for radio comms. We tied them back at a 45 deg angle to keep them low, but at times they had to be vertical for max range reception. They would wave like the grass as the vehicle rose and dipped over rough terrain. Left olive drab, they could be seen quite easily with binoculars from quite a distance. We learned that painting the shafts with bands of light paint, even white, all but precluded their detection! It was amazing, and I had to prove it to myself.
A long-winded answer to suggest that, if the other suggestions are 'meh', try painting them with alternating tones of greens to a certain level, low mostly, and then resort to white and sky blue. I think that might be the best you'll get.
Crandell
I don't know what color you'd paint them, but I would suggest that you cover the rods with some sort of sleeve before painting. That way you'd at least have a smooth surface without the threads to draw the eye.
You could also just simply hang long vertical signs on it with the railroad name you're modeling or just a couple of different RR names.
Springfield PA
Go to the local hardware or plumbing supply and get the pvc pipe that will cover the rods and cover them, also it will give you a place to hang your RR name and the DO NOT TOUCH THE TRAINS sign. Jim.
A mix of everything mentioned above. Makign them all water towers or silos will probbaly look contrived, so do something different to break it up. Where a tall structure will not fit logically, then just go the flat black route. It's really amazing how something right in front of a viewer disappears when it's painted flat black. Hard to judge yourself, since you know exactly where they are since you put them there, but bring in someone who didn;t see the layout during construction when the rods were visible, and see if they even notice.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Forget the signs approach-they will call attention to themselves! Go flat black-no tubes-and, if that doesn't work, try Crandell's camouflage.
Dante
Try slipping a piece of black heat shrink tubing over one and see what effect that has on their appearance.
Try wrapping one with a mixture of grey, black and white fluff, and modeling a fire at the bottom.
For the other, an `Eiffel Tower' shaped framework of structural shapes, a block building behind and those aimable microwave antennas at the top.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan, where the scenery stands on edge, in September, 1964)
Thanks for all the help guys. I've painted one rod flat black and one flat light gray and both still get my attention. I think i'm going to do the pvc pipe idea and then try painting them again with both colors. the threads on the rods may be drawing me to them. Thanks again :)
Mister Beas;
Most of the vertically built things like towers, bridges, light poles, power transmission risers, etc are painted like a blue, and that does apparently work to satisfy the reqs of most governing agencies. They even have a lot of the (gasp)! catenary risers painted over! I noticed that (most) of the time the painters don't get too close to the primaries atop the towers...
EF-3 Yellowjacket
Could you possibly construct a view box?" What this would accomplish is directing the viewer to a field of sight, while hiding some less desireble construction. The rod could be installed so that it is behind the box construction. This could also be the answer to where to put wiring for the upper level.
I dont see a tall tower in the middle of the flat plains with the old fashion grain elevator next to it. It's a good idea though :) Thanks
you said you model the plains area, how about a tornado around one of the poles
alco's forever!!!!! Majoring in HO scale Minorig in O scale:)
That would be fitting. I love all the imaginative responses. thats what makes this hobby so interesting :)