I was thinking as I was working on some DIY RR ties that I am making out of weather stripping from an article in CTT not long ago, that a thread for thrifty DIY could be very beneficial and a great way to share some super cool ideas. Just write a description and post a picture. I was leaning more towards the scenery area but who knows. I know there are alot of talented folks out there with great ideas that are fun and not to damaging on the old wallet. Thanks a bunch!!! [bow]
Great idea for a thread. I love using found objects for the layout. I use broken roof shingles that I am able to obtain from a local hardware store for nothing as macadamized roads and also as cinders underlying branchline track.
I have used an old grey-coloured towel that I’ve cut into strips and twisted around a piece of coat-hanger wire to represent smoke coming out of a smokestack or an aeroplane engine.
I’ve coloured the viewable side of tubular track with a brown paint-stick marker to represent rusty or more accurately weathered track.
I took my wife to an appointment the other week and stumbled upon this bush outside the office, not sure what it is. Snapped a few off, took home, dried them out. Little hairspray some gound foam and a pretty okay tree for next to nothing. Tree on the left is with no ground foam, would be pretty cool as is for a just died look in time for fall. [:|]
I just recently made six or seven of these “trees”, wish I knew what kind of plant they are. I found them on a walk and drug some home. I took one extra step with mine, I sprayed the tops with green paint before finishing them like you did. I agree with you they came out fine. Wayne
An HO tank car, with or without trucks and beat up can usually be found in a junk bin for a buck and serves as above ground storage. Dessicant containers from Aspirin bottles make excellent drums:
Apply some distressing to some lengths of tubular track and stack them, and some use for extra trucks
Here is my first attempt at weathering a structure. I used the advice in the Feb 2015 CTT article by Mr. Brennan for the brick work and Mr. Knautz provided inspiration from his article in the Oct. 2014 CTT issue for building the steps. Thanks gentleman!!
When I was a teenager (back in the 1950’s!!!), I was developing a farm area and used coffee grounds for a freshly plowed field. That layout is long gone so I can’t post a picture.
Here’s a way to make sturdy and flexible trees I started experimenting with a couple of months ago. I used 26 gauge floral wire, a high temp hot glue gun and mini glue sticks, acrylic craft paints and Woodland Scenics clump foliage. I also made a simple jig from thick sheet styrene and used a medicine bottle lid as a temporary base for the tree.
I start by spooling out the wire on my jig, note the small notch in the end to get the wire started:
Generally I stick with 8 loops per level but I’m not slavish about it. Inconsistency is more natural and variety is the only thing that’s normal in nature. The only real rule of thumb is the more wire you add the harder it will be to twist. 30 loops seems to be a good maximum for me.
Once it’s all spooled out, I remove it from the jig. Then I start twisting. For this tree I went with 3 levels of branches. Starting from the bottom, I separated the lowest (smallest) level of loops into 2 groups of four. Then using 2 pairs of needlenose pliers I twisted the lowest third of the trunk leaving about half of the length of the loops sticking out to the sides. Then I repeated the procedure going up the trunk until I had something like this:
At this point I trimmed off the bottom of the trunk with side cutters.
From here it’s time to twist up the branches.
That’s a beautiful way to make trees Becky!
My tip would be to paint cork roadbed with watered down grey latex paint before installing. My layout is meant to be toylike, so that’s all the more “ballasting” I do. I would think even with ballast, the grey paint would hide spots that were missed, or allow one to use a bit less ballast .
Here’s what Gargraves track looks like installed on it. This is one of my modules for the club I am in. Ballast doesn’t seem to hold up so well on portable layouts; not many members’ tables do anything more than this:
J White
Becky, that is a Very nice tutorial, will be a great summer project when it’s blistering hot. Thanks, Nick
I like this thread. One of the best reads I have had and I have never done scenery. Very ingenuous people and comments.
Finally back in business! Thought I would share a scratch built bridge I’m just about to finish for my new (much smaller [:(]) layout along with the actual bridge i tried to simulate. Still in early stages, more to come
Can’t post a picture since I don’t have a digitable camera, however when I was building the layout I wanted a stone retaining wall on the backside.
I went to Lowes and found a travertine bathroom tile sheet. Hey, I retiled a bathroom at the old house so a small section on a layout was no problem. Stuck it to the wall, grouted same, and now I’ve got a nice “stone block” retaining wall that looks really real.
It should, it’s travertine, it IS real!