Has anyone modeled an area, forest, grass or whatever, that was burned? I'm modeling "somewhere" in the drier parts of the country and would like to include a small area that was burned recently. Most lilely I would like to do this next to, say, my logging/coal route, where a spark from a wheel or cinder from the stack caught the area next to the track on fire.
If anyone has done this, could you post a photo or two please for ideas? Though I've done wildfires each year since 1990 and am very familiar with what the after effect looks like, some "modeled" photos could be quite useful!
Thanks, Duane
Not something I have done, but since I have fought brush/forrest fires, maybe I can help.
I'd use fine black cinders for your burned area with spots of gray (fine ballast?). Depending on the severity of the burn, your trees may be anything from scorched (blackened) at the bases with some brown leaves close to the ground, to a major burn that has burned all the leaves off leaving the whole tree basically black. I'd think a good spray of flat black would look good on the burned trees. Pine or other dry connifers can go up like a torch.
Your "stop" lines can be varied. Did it stop on it's own because it came to a brook or was it put out by fire fighters in the middle of the field or near field edges. Often there are areas of burn that finger out from the main body due to drier grasses or in hard to reach places. Also, if there are buildings or other things to protect, fire fighters will keep the fire away from those, leaving an island unburned around them.
Have fun,
Richard
Sounds interesting, gives some great "Food for thought". My first reaction- take a plumber's torch to your scenery and have a fire Extinguisher ready!!! Actually twigs, brush and other armature materials could be slightly charred to show a recent fire, other old damage to still standing trunks would be quite weathered ( gray)
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
Thank you all so far for your input. I too fight wildfires each year since 1990.... just wondering if anyone else had done this and what it looked like in the model arena...hmmm?
Duane
Looks like your chance to lead the way.
Awaiting photos.
Never thought of modeling a wildfire aftermath . If your railroad is set after 1950 have some burnt homes and maybe you can use some ash from like fireplace or something.
~ Tim .
To see photos of my HO scale / 1/64 scale layout and diorama photos base in the present day . http://www.flickr.com/photos/icr140/
caballorrand maybe you can use some ash from like fireplace or something
... Never thought about using something out of the wood stove.... I wonder how ash or ground up leftover pieces of black "charcoal" would take to ballasting type techniques?. Ah, the power of the forums; this is how ideas start. I might have to try that on a piece of scrap something. It would certainly give the right colors, and could use some small pieces of lichen here and there, painted black, to look like charred bushes or something! I live in eastern AZ, at pinon.juniper level, and within 30 minutes of pine, spruce, fir and aspen country. Maybe some small branches off some of the PJ's with the foliage actually burned off them, then treated with laquer or hair spray, could work for some burned trees?
If I get a test subject done, I'll get a pic up!
Not all evergreens are created equal. In a fire, fir and pine will burn more readily than cedar, and old growth (tall trunks, green at the top) will survive when smaller trees won't.
Fir is especially vulnerable. In Japanese, it's hinoki, which translates as, 'fire tree.' I'm sure the reference isn't to its use in fireplaces! (Actually, it's the same in English. We just mislaid the silent E, and now we mispronounce it.)
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with a cedar forest, no burns)
One effect that might be cool would be to have a burned out area, like along the side of a low hill facing the aisle. Just over the crest of the hill, you could put a couple of small red LED's or bulbs with a decoder allowing them to "flicker". They'd have to be far enough below the top of the hill's far side that you couldn't see the bulbs/LEDs, just the red light. That would like like the fire had burned up the hill and gone over, and was still burning a little on the other side. Maybe have a few figures fighting the fire.
BTW I'm not a tree expert, but I'm old enough to remember when you could burn paper garbage in your yard. We had a nice concrete incinerator, and old dried out Christmas trees burned really fast!!
Musket Miniatures (www.musketminiatures.com) has tree stumps. Look under "Trees, Crops, Cactus" in their online catalog. They are unpainted metal. You might have to rough the tops up a bit, as most are sawed flat. I bought a package of them, and I use a few here and there. They're a nice detail item.
On my "to do" list is a burned-out structure. My plan is to scratch-build the foundation and inside of the basement, along with some of the first floor. Then, I'm going to set fire to the wood parts, safely outside, of course, and extinguish the flames quickly enough that I'll have a charred model. This will not be a "house on fire," but rather something that happened years ago and was abandoned.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Seen an N-Scale layout today at the train show, they are modeling an active grass fire using fiber optics and the carousel was directly underneath. It really looked very good in person.
tCIc4NyPehU
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
First of all, to Cowman and Singletrack, Kudos! I was a firefighter in the late 80s early 90s, and living in South Jersey near the Jersey Pinelands we were encouraged to take forest fire training. I'm not afraid to admit the whole concept scared the pants off me! You wildfire guys have to deal with way too many variables. I was quite happy to stick to structural firefighting thank you very much!
We did, however, see our fair share of grass and brush fires. Railroad tracks run the length of the county I served in, and you would know you were going to get some work when dispatch started toning out north end towns for brush along the tracks. This would continue down the line until thye train could be stopped and the guilty wheel attended to.
That was suburbia, but even on your back woods line I think it would be neat to have one or two areas along the tracks with evidence of small fires. Thinking it over, I would start with some tufts of straw colored tall static grass, gluing them in place. then I would come in with Cowman's suggestion of very fine cinders to represent charred ground. Finally, I would use the Cody Grivno trick of dry brushing the static grass with an oily black or engine black paint, whichever looked more convincing to my eye. Dry brushing lets you build up the effect, and with the straw color grass any that you miss will just look like they were spared the burn but died from the heat.
Originally I was going to have a dumpster fire (I was amazed to find that dumpsters date back to the 30s!), but now you got me thinking. . .
Good Luck!
Chris Ballinger
Modeling the Clementon Branch of the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines in HO scale
Thank you guys! Geared Steam, thank you- though I'm not going to model an active fire, I took close looks at what they had done for the burned parts! I've seen the led's used to model active house fires and the grass effect was pretty cool.
I've made one burned tree, using a twig from a juniper that I actually torched (lightly and repeatedly) with the oxy-acetelyne torch (I know, overkill, but it allowed me to pass the twig ack and forth through it). I then hairsprayed, then dullcoted the "tree", but have not been able to photo and upload it yet. It is sitting in the train room stuck in a piece of foam right now for some kind of "longevity" test, to see if it stays as a viable model piece or falls apart or something after the life dries out of it.
As PRSL mentioned, my area will be evidence of a previous spot along the track of my Shay route. When I lived in the Flagstaff, AZ area, I responded to many small grass fires along the then ATSF, now BNSF route. As a side note, while in Phoenix this last weekend, I saw an old switcher still wearing the blue and yellow Santa Fe scheme, with a small BNSF logo on it. I didn't have my camera available but sure wished I could have got a pic for you diesel guys!
Happy RR'ing!
First thing is to define "wildfire" an overused TV term which describes nothing but sounds dramatic, forest fire, brush fire, grass fire, rubbish fire are the true terms to use, the results of a prairie or grass fire are very different from a forest fire, so you must specify what type in order to produce the correct aftermath.
Flagstaff is awesome, keep us updated of how you do it (pictures please)