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Thursday 23 December 2010

Affordable Ways to Make Trees and Ground Cover For the Model Railway Layout

One of the most interesting aspects of model railroading is constructing the scenery to enrich the landscape of a layout. The scenery is what adds the personality and attraction to a layout to make it genuinely special.

There are all types of scenery accessories that you can buy from over the internet model train retailers, but a variety of components may also be produced from everyday items around the home. You do not usually have to waste hard cash when you'll find items all around you without cost.

Twigs from your backyard really are a very good illustration. They could be used for making little trees and shrubs, or be cut to resemble logs. There isn't a requirement to paint them, because they're currently the right color. Small wooden meat skewers (from your supermarket) can be utilised for making logs and they are fairly inexpensive to buy.

Precisely the same goes for adding grass on your layout. You can order some particularly first rate products such as "Static Grass Flock" to provide ground cover, or you can make your own. Some model railroaders use a blend of ready-to-use grasses from their hobby shop, and combine this, with their personal home made grass recipe.

Gather some recent mulberry leaves and dry them in the microwave oven. As soon as they're dried out, drop them in a kitchen blender and you have instant ground cover. The best point is; it costs you virtually nothing to create. Keep it within a plastic bag for when you will need it.

The one downside with creating your own ground cover is you will not necessarily know how long it is going to last when compared with the purchased stuff. A number of of the ground cover products from a hobby store will have been treated to help them maintain their coloring and withstand temperature and humidity variances over time. Several of them are non-flammable and nontoxic, which means you should choose what is key to you.

A great number of model railroaders use dried kitchen herbs for leaves and ground cover. They combine numerous herbs (eg. thyme, oregano and parsley) for various effects. When carrying out this it is best to put some newspaper below, as it can be a messy process. That way you are able to catch and reuse any herbs that tend not to stick the initial time.

Sea Foam (also referred to as "Forest in a Box") can be a popular substance for making small inexpensive trees. You may bend it to appear like bushes after which spray on some glue and sieve on some flock. It is normally best to blend several little pieces with each other as opposed to use just one piece for an entire tree.

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Fine brass wire would be used to strengthen the trunks and branches. Ripped pieces of masking tape can also be wound around the tree trunk to add some width. It will then be sealed with a mix of wall filler and PVA white glue.

You can even add sprinklings of kitchen herbs as explained previously. You can then spray the bushes all over with matt varnish, or spray them (upside down) with a mix of white glue and water. You then leave them to dry overnight.

Lichen can be ideal for creating bushes and trees. It can be particularly adaptable and appears perfect as mass foliage and undergrowth on a train layout. It's also reasonably priced and simple to work with. You can order it in a selection of hues that may be used separately or mixed with each other.

So, there are many, ways to make ground cover and trees on your model railway layout. It really is lots of fun and you may possibly want to consider some alternative ideas to see what works best for you. The thing I am really making right here; is that details on your own train layout do not generally need to be expensive. You simply need to be a little imaginative with your approach. Have fun!

Click here for more Model Railroad Scenery & Layout Construction Ideas.

Sunday 14 February 2010

Tuesday 26 January 2010

Can you help Ann?

Ann says that it is her son that is into model trains and that he has an old Hornby set that was past onto him from his Grandfather.

Ann's father has just given him some track that he has had for a long time, and we wondered if it is worth restoring it and if we can collect anymore tracks and parts for it - I dont know if you can identify it for me, i will attached the pictures of it just in case.

Here are the pictures






One piece has a stamped mark on it "trade mark GERMANY" and all the other pieces have a stamp that just says "GB PATENT.

Any ideas?

thanks ANN

Please leave any comments on this post below.

thanks

Monday 11 January 2010

Adventures in Making Trees: Part 1

Part 1: In this video I start experimenting with different methods of making trees to decide which ones I want to use on my Model Railroad.

Excellent primer for beginners: http://tinyurl.com/modelrailroad
My Web Site: http://modelrr.oakviewresources.com/

Link for Stranded Wire Trees: http://www.scale-modelers-handbook.com/n-scale-ebook.html