Rain is rarely, if ever is modeled. But that doesn’t mean it is impossible; just challenging.
Wet roads can be created by perhaps gloss spray, or lacquer? Maybe some experiments would be in order?
So, how wet do you want it. A post-rain might include some fleeting clouds and epoxy puddles. A storm could include downed trees in the road and torrents of rainwater coursing thru road ditches and rights of way.
I notice that you can make the ground appear wet by simply spraying lots of white glue diluted with water onto the grass and groundcover.
To solidify the effect, some people with umbrellas would do the trick (haven’t really seen these) or people holding a newspaper over their head running. Windshield wipers on the cars can be in various up and down positions.
A little imagination and creativity and you could create the Perfect Storm.
Glad you mentioned this. One thing that I’m interested in recreating are “permanent water puddles”. As a kid in New York City, I remember that even on bright sunny days there would be large puddles of water under some of the railroad bridges that had streets passing underneath. Used to make me wonder. My guess now is that these were at the bottom of hills or the streets were sunken in slightly due to heavy truck and bus traffic. So after a good rain-soaking, it would take days for these "2 to "3 deep water puddles to evaporate.
Since I do plan on having a couple of deck plate bridges on my layout, I’ll definelty try your idea underneath them. [;)][:D][8D]
Dave- dont forget to darken the color of everything just a tad. Pavement, cars, trees etc, get the dust washed off during a good rain and look darker ( or brighter, depending on the color) than usual.
I’ve played around with glue, Antonio, and it makes ok puddles. On the layout that I just destroyed, I had a gravel access road with glue puddles along the tire tracks, but I never got them the color I wanted. I used India Ink in alcohol to simulate damp ground, it looked good, but the puddles never convinced me.
I had a slough area also, and some of it looked pretty good, but I never transitioned the wet edges to dry ground right. I guess this is where ground cover earns it’s keep.
I’ve toyed with doing this on a section of the layout. I got the idea on the old layout after gluing down the yard ballast. It looked gread before it was glued. Unfortunately, it got darker and looked wet to me after the glue dried. I was going to add some puddles here and there using artist gloss medium. It would also give you an opportunity to try something different on the backdrop…storm clouds. I also had planned to add a bit of water running along the ROW ditch on either side.
This sounds like someting one could have fun with.
Has anyone considered using the following combo:
For large puddles or tiny ponds, inserting small flat mirrors into the depressions and then applying glue or enviortex on top? The blurry reflection through the top coats may look much more realistic and give the effect that we’re looking for. Thin, mirror material should be available at glass houses and can be shaped with a quality glass cutter tool. I’ll definetly try this under a bridge, though I’ll experiment first on scrap material.
I saw an O Scale sized Christmas town set that came with irregularly shaped “Ultra Thin” mirrors (about "1/32 thick) that is for the town’s ice skating rink. When set up, it looked pretty neat.
I’m still a few months from building my layout, but I’m always looking for ideas.
Now that’s a scene! Hope the train crew swam to safety! This either had to be after a hurricane, or it’s one of those infamous “California Mudslide” floods after a serious rain soaking! [:0][8D]
Really hope that you submitted this picture to MRR magazine.
Hat’s off to your scenicking skills and imagination! Great example of [4:-)][tup] modeling!
Thats a great idea. Is there anyway you can have a big see-thru sheet infront of the laout, 2 layers of it, and send water down it everyonce in a while giving the effect that its raining?
Sorry but I did not take the picture or build the module you looked at, I should of gave credit to the the photographer and modeler[V]. Here’s the modelers who put there imaginative skills to work www.comrail.org this is a great club who has helped me throughout my modeling journey. Hats off to the guys at COMRail for building this module, and I’m sorry if I mislead anybody in thinking this was my module. That is not my intention here on this forum. I do have ethics and that is why I am writing this reply.
If you live in Florida during Hurricane season, you may have a chance to model a real rainy day scene, but if not how would you model the rain. Never thought of this before.[:-^][:-^][:)][:)]