Good morning.
I am in the process of buildng scenery on my current-day HO layout, and one scene (a diner) includes a small dumpster. Now, I have the dumpster enclosed by a fence screening as most zoning regulations would require today. However, you can still see over the fencing and the dumspter looks naked just sitting there empty.
Specifically, what I would be looking to model are garbage bags and cardboard boxes. Has anyone tried this? I thought of scraps of black plastic bags for the garbage bags, but they would look like little flakes. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Trash bags: wrap little squares (3-5 scale feet square) of black or white bag plastic around blobs of caulk, twist together at top.
Flattened boxes: appropriate-size rectangles of brown paper bag (aka kraft paper).
un-flattened boxes: rectangles of corrugated cardboard (cut with a new, sharp blade) with kraft paper glued over the un-prototypical edges and/or left open as flaps. Bigger boxes can be made by gluing a couple of layers of corrugated together before cutting.
Thanks for getting me to think about this.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
If you can get the "anti-static" matt black plastic bags to cut bits from I think that they would make better model trash bags as, not being shiney, they would blend in better.
Doing the work I do I get to see quite a lot of dumpsters (one of the joys of the job )... except for a brand new location there is no such thing as a clean dumpster area. There is always a "footprint" or two where the dumpster usually stands, skid marks, spillage, crud, stains. Very few bins are completely clean either. If they are up against a fence or wall that may be messed as well... people tend to throw things at bins - and miss.
You might want to place a rat-bait box along at least one wall of the compound. Also a lot of companies put up various signs about usage, keeping areas tidy etc.
Depending on era you could have anyone from Cagney and Lacey to CSI looking into the bin for evidence...
Other trash... bottled drinks crates, diner tables and chairs (damaged), old sales display units, ripped out worktops, sinks, machines, fridges/freezers (special collection because of the CFCs... so put alongside not in - the company will not collect otherwise - they don't want a fine).
You'd be amazed the "foriegn" objects that wander in from nowhere/unseen/"I didn't put that in". Car tyres are universal - mattresses - pushbike frames - Citroen 2CVs...
Have fun
All great ideas, thank you for your help!
To be honest, I hadn't even considered the accumulation of trash inside the enclosure. I know that way back in the day when I worked at a fast food restaurant, when we heaved the garbage over the fence, it didn't always land inside the dumpster. I know, shame on me...
I'll also do some "staining" of the concrete pad the dumpster sits on and the area around it also.
Again, great stuff! Thanks for your input!
Or, you could put a garbage truck nearby, and you can say the truck just emptied the dumpster.
Brad
EMD - Every Model Different
ALCO - Always Leaking Coolant and Oil
CSX - Coal Spilling eXperts
Be sure to age dumpster with rust and grime, both inside and out, see edge of dumpster on left
for boxes, you could use small blocks of wood or styrene, and cover them with thin paper, (like tissue paper then paint them.
In the Kalmbach book BUILDING REALISTIC MODEL RAILROAD STRUCTERES (I think that's the name) Jeff Wilson shows how to make boxes using that method.
you might also put little figures of Gil Grissom, Eric Delco, etc. rummaging through it looking for evidence
(I'm a fan of all 3 "C.S.I." shows)
I recalled this thread yesterday...
How did you get on?