Lots of people model sunshine.
Fewer people model cloudy.
Fewer people model snow.
I even hear tell of a person who models a tornado.
Anyone know of someone that models a rainy day?
Just curious.
Chip,
I had never even thought of it untill I picked up Kalmbach’s The New Scenery Tips & Techniques( ISBN 0-89024-621-1).
On page 16 of the book Mr. Rand Hood talks about and shows some methods to model a ‘rainscape’, including etched back lit ‘lighting’ strikes and bolts.
Although its only a couple of pages of info for the project it is a good read and has me wanting to put it in my layout design plans… hrmmm maybe over Canyon Diablo…
Peace.
Coyote
Uh, Coyote, uh YOU’RE MODELING THE FRICKIN DESERT!
Two codgers sittin on the stoop in Winslow Arizona
“Think, it’ll rain? Kinda looks like rain.”
“Now what’d ya say a thing like that for.”
“It’s not for me. It’s for my boy. I’ve seen it rain.”
[(-D] yes yes I know ! [:P]
But Imagine a flash flood coming down Canyon Diablo as a train is passing over the bridge… now that’s Action! [;)]
Sure, I have for about 12 years.
Quite effectively, too, I might add.
In fact, it’s so realistic, my operators wear rain gear and we have to engage helpers as traction goes to sXXt when the track is wet on grades.
TOC
Any pictures? It’s not for me it’s for Coyote.
Sure, but when it rains it gets dark, and photos are hard to see.
I can give you a shot of it dry, but around these parts, nobody takes any pix when it’s wet.
Here’s just after a squall, climbing out of the 4%, double-headed…
blinks It’s for me? Oh umm yeah, right… yes… nods ummm certainly coughs
Hello Chip.
I modeled rain one time on one of my other layouts to some degree several years ago. The way I went about it was that, I took an old, stiff, 3" paint brush, dipped the tip in silver paint and made one gentle sweep at an angle on my sky blue back ground which left about 20 or 30 streaks that looked like rain falling from a cloud, then spray painted the flat white clouds above it and a little primer gray under the cloud an wa la…
Tracklayer
Thunderstorms & rain in the desert are a whole lot more dramatic and intersting than rain in Seattle. And then there are the double and triple ring rainbows. Even here in Denver (semi-arid) we get rain in the bright sunshine. Then there is the (umm what is its official name?) rain that evaporates before it reaches the ground.
For puddles I have read, and I know some on the forum have mentioned floor wax. I have yet to try.
i recently read a book about the construction of the ATSF line across northern Arizona from New mexico to California , and another about the construction of the line from Phoenix to the ATSF line . both books were filled with alternating flash floods from rainstorms washing out trestles and tracks , and fires burning down half the towns . it rains in the desert , just not very often . and because it’s so dry the water runs downhill rather than soaking into the ground . you don’t want to be in a ‘dry wash’ when it rains
When I want to model rain, all I do is sit down by the fish pond, bring out the D&RGW Rosebud Falls Branch.
And turn on the lawn sprinklers.
Not modeling per se but years ago (20? 30? heck issues from 25 years ago still seem pretty new to me) a very excellent photo appeared in Model Railroader where the guy had simulated a rain storm. The scene as I recall was as if the photo was taken of a train from inside a lean-to or open sided shed.
The guy had taken a sheet of plexiglass and carefully scribed parallel vertical lines into it and the plexiglass was between the camera and the train. The effect was very realistic, as if the train was in a driving rain storm but the photographer was dry.
Of course that was for photography purposes only not permanently modeled on the layout itself. But with these rain storm sound effects CDs being available, I wonder if an isolated “viewing area” could be constructed using this same idea where it would be like seeing the layout through driving rain.
Dave Nelson
While we are discussing rain? How about a blizzard?
The layout that used to be at Cypress Gardens had dark clouds painted on the backdrop in the corner and a detection switch that would trip an old answering machine. When the train came by the tape would play thunderstorm sounds and I think flashed a light. I don’t know if the layout is still there since the new owners came in. Anyone from the Winter Haven club here who would know?
Since the setting for my line will be Wellington, where it does rain a bit, I’ve been thinking that nice dry sunny scenery may not be too prototypical, so there will be lots of puddles etc as if it had just stopped raining.
The nearest I heard of actual rain, indoors, was a club who spray down their scenery to wa***he dust off. Most models are painted so they can stand a brief spray of water. If your scenery is realistic it should have provision for runoff anyway. So all you need is some drains at the lowest points to take the runoff. Those culverts will have to be working ones now. Presto, clean scenery.
I think I remember reading about how john allen modeled rain. If I remember corectly he took a 2 liter bottle, put some oil in it, turned it horizontal, and had it hooked to a motor so it would spin, shine some light through it and have it spin, the oil would want to stay down (gravity, duh) and the bottle would spin backwards so it would bring the oil up the side but it would run down so when the light went through it looked like rain.