Hi
I need to know how to make scenery cool for my layout I have seen alot of woodland scenics items that help you to make the scenery. What should I do put woodland sceneics grass turf and scenic cement on my layout or buy a grass mat and then put my secenry on my layout.[:D][:D]
Sincerely
Ryan LaPlaca
I would use the woodland scenics stuff and stay away form the roll out turf…the roll of grass looks too much like it’s been manicured as well as a golf course’s grass…you’re asking a question that has way too much information involved to put in a post…there are so many different ways to scenic your layout that volumes have been written about it…I’d like to suggest that you go to www.kalmbach.com and purchase a few books on scenery …maybe one for rural scenery and one for city scenery depending on what you are trying to achieve with your scenery…there 's a lot of good stuff in those books that can teach you how to do really good scenery work on your layout and they aren’t too terribly expensive…chuck
Go outside and look at the real world and try to use the scenic material to duplicate that not what layout pictures look like. Otherwise your scenery will look like a model railroad layout.
Just a thought
Harold
Start small and practice on a few square inches. I didn’t have a clue about this until I tried it, and then it seemed surprisingly easy to get really good results.
Just do it. In the past year, I’ve learned to build benchwork, install foam, lay track, ballast, make Hydrocal castings, make my own latex molds for Hydrocal castings, paint scenery, install decoders, paint and weather structures, do scenery and write inspirational posts on model railroad forums. Go ahead, have fun.
Don’t be mechcanical about it look out your window and see how random things are. Copy what mother nature did and you will impress yourself[:D][:D]
Do a little, and add, never too much at first. Several coats of foam with different colors, and more than one kind of trees and grass. Woodland Scenics has a good video to show you how, I borrowed one friom my LHS. Have fun and be spontaneous.
Layered grass and dirt is cool, but wait till you get to the good stuff like mud, dirt or gravel roads, cliff faces, road cuts, and trees (trees!, trees! - a whole artform in itself). You will have fun, learn much about how various compounds/materials can be molded and manipulated, and will be proud of your second and later efforts (the first effort - please don’t expect too much).
We have a frequent contributor who has a pretty cool website - lots of info on scenery and weathering techniques, with step-by-step instructions - give it a look-see http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/ - Hey Harold, how come you didn’t mention that site - I’m sure the OP will find something of interest on it!
Ryan, check out
“How to Build Realistic Model RR Scenery” 3rd edition by Dave Frary. The best price on this is on Amazon.com under $16.00. This is a great book and will really get you started on the right track.
The question was how to make scenery look “good”. The books tell techniques. Looking at nature makes scenery look real. If you follow the books and articles you will have a layout that looks like Dave Frary’s. Buy his new book, it is the best, for his techniques and apply them to look like what you see in the real world. Visit my site for off the beaten track ideas.
http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/4x8/
Click image to enlarge
Thank you if you visit
Harold
Try this link:
http://model-trains-video.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=157
This is a scenery clinic called ‘Building realistic scenery’ by Joe Fugate. The best I have ever seen.
Ryan,
Mister Beasley is right, start small and practice on a few square feet. I didn’t have a clue either about this until I tried it, and then it did seem easy to get really good results. Just do it.
But here is some advice that I followed from the guys at my local hobby shop who have a lot of experience and it really helped me.
First, apply a coat of green flat latex paint to the surface of your layout. You pick a shade of green that seems to realistically simulate turf or grass. While the paint is wet, apply a layer of Fine Turf Blended Grass to cover the painted surface. The wet paint will hold the grass in place. Then sparingly apply (use the shaker bottle) Coarse Turf Dark Green over the surface. Next, sparingly apply Coarse Turf Medium Green. Last, sparingly apply Coarse Turf Light Green. Then spray Scenic Cement over the entire surface to hold it all in place.
Voila! That’s it and it looks pretty realistic.
Good luck and go for it.
And don’t forget the natural elements that are right out your front door. Go to a dirt road that is well traveled and collect cans of real dirt, the fine stuff. The same for streets, you can find pulverized stone on streets, collect it in coffee cans. Don’t forget real sand, or sand box sand. Get a supply of swimming pool filter powder at Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowes, put several scoops of your favorite tint dye (powered) and mix. Or add Crayola Tempra powered paint, you can buy that at Wal-Mart or Hobby Lobby and mix it in the swimming pool powder and make any color you want. Don’t forget Teddy Bear fur, from a fabric shop. Tint it green and cut it up for tall grass, or rope cut and combed out then spray painted to make weeds, tall grass, bushes.
Gather real dried leaves, mix in water, put it in a blender and blend, squeeze it dry in a tee shirt, spread the chopped leaves on a cookie sheet and cook at 350 degrees for 15 to 30 minutes to dry out the mixture, open the oven door during the process. This will dry the leaves, then sift the material and you will have fine scale leaves for ground cover.
Remember any wild or natural earth or dirt, sand or gravel, after sifting, use a magnet to de-magnatize the material if it goes near the track.
These are all much cheaper than many of the products available, although I use those products as well, but I like to experiment, and it makes the process even more fun because when I stand back there is a sense of satisfaction that I developed something that works for the railroad.
And don’t forget my favorite, for corn fields, grass mats that you put at your front door. Cut out a section, put some sand on it, place it on the layout, fix the edges, and you got instant corn fields.
WTRR
General Offices
Three words. Layers, layers, layers. Start with the bottom layer (earth), add grasses (WS fine turf), weeds (coarse turf), bushes (clump foliage), and trees. Decide where roads should be and what kind (cement, asphalt, gravel, dirt) and lay them in. There are many ways to build roadways and every modeler has a favorite. To me, scenery is the easiest and most rewarding aspect of model railroading. Unlike track laying, wiring, and kit building, you don’t have to be too precise. My best effects usually occur by accident. And if it doesn’t look right, remove the layer and reapply until it does. Mistakes are easy to fix.
I like to do an area no bigger than about 2’x2’ at a time. Then like everyone said do a little bit at a time so if you do not like the looks you can put another layer on or start over. Then you must BLEND the scenes together so they look real. Do not use straight lines and I find that bushes and trees seem to look better in odd numbers ( 3, 5, 7, 9, ect ). Also you can try your ideas on a scrap piece before you do it on the layout.
This kind of builds on electrolove’s link.
I bookmarked this and have returned to it over and over;
(Compilation of widely useful threads)
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=1&TOPIC_ID=36405