I thought I would start a thread each week or so and give a step by step on what you read in magazines and forums, but with the thrift angle.
#1 Telephone Poles
Purchase a few packs of basic telephone poles, they don’t have to be Rix or Walthers, they can be Atlas or in this case N Scale european brand on sale at the LHS four packs for one dollar.
Prepare the poles, by cutting of the plastic base. These bases are for glueing to table top railroads.
Stick as many poles as you want to work with in a session in foam. We will get ready to paint them next.
99 cent spray cans from Wally World will work great or $5 cans of Floquil. The idea is to make a brown, black and grey mist and mix on the poles. Some writers like Lou Sassi reccomend dragging a razor saw down the pole. I’m modeling N scale, you would never see it.
You don’t have to emmerse the poles in paint, light passes of the three-four colors will work.
Next is my trade secret. It’s a shiny green fabric paint that comes with a fine tip. You simply dab the green paint on all the insulators and let dry for an hour or so.
I use foam for sub road bed, so I just pop the poles in and then drip some CA glue at the base and bam!
Looks great! I am a big fan of finding inexpensive ways of making great scenery. I could use some ideas for a backdrop for a module, I’m looking forward to the next post.[:D]
Great article, ‘Uncle Buck’ (Chuck)! Short, detailed but to the point - and I’m looking forward to the next one, on the flats, too. [tup]
One minor request, on the ‘installed’ shots, the focus seems a bit off. If you could adjust it (or how far away the camera is) so the poles (or subject matter) is a bit sharper, it would be even better. Thanks!
[#ditto] Do you use photos? I just did that; printed them on paper, thencut them out and glued them to the backdrop. I’ll post photos as soon as possible.
Uncle Buck, vee have been expecting you. Zees eez Model Railroader. You mustn’t try to deceive our readers zat zey haf any option other than purchasing material from our advertisers at full price.
The black helicopters are on their way, and you will be sent to an undisclosed basement and forced to breath in the fumes from Woodland Scenics scenery cement (which is NOT, repeat NOT repackaged Elmer’s Glue!!), with only the Walthers Catalog to read.
But seriously folks, great idea for a thread. Once you work out that pesky macro focus function, this will really be fun. I’ve got a stack of line poles laying around that are in need of just such a treatment. Looking forward to the next installment. You have my seal of approval.
The only thing I do different is leave the basis on. I glue these to a board, do all the painting and then snip them off with cutters. This way they get painted all the way down so you don’t have to bury them too deep to hide the part that was stuck in the foam that didn’t get painted.
Tyler-If you do that back drop tutorial, please post some links to the sites where you got your pictures from. I found some sites that had good cloud pics that I’ve been printing out. Gonna try that instead of painting them myself.
Damn black copters got me…I’m being forced to buy one telephone pole for 8.95. Anyway, will work on the photos, I kind of rushed to get them up. On backdrops, I will show you how to paint the backdrop, stencil clouds, printout scenery and industrial background and do it for the price of the paint and masonite board. OK - I’ll show one pic early!
Layout backdrop from early this year:
The secret to awesome puffs of clouds:
I gotta go cops are knocking on the door with a warrant from BACKDROP WAREHOUSE!
Loathar, that’s such a simple simplification it makes simple just thinking about it. I’m one of those clods that’s always in such a big hurry, I snip the bases and stick them in the ground “for position only” before I paint and weather.
Leaving the bases on to paint them is the best no-brainer of the week! You get a gold star tattooed on your forehead.
Lee
Oh. I wasn’t thinking of doing a tutorial. I just searched Google images for “houses” and “industrial buildings” and looked there. Sorry, no pix yet, I am still finishing them, and I’ve got one that has the wrong perspective and needs to be replaced. I might do a mini-tutorial…
OK. Here’s my mini-clinic. I didn’t do clouds, just buildigs. For clouds I used stencils and an airbrush.
1: I selected the photos from the internet. I just searched Google Images for “houses” and “industrial buildings”
2: I then printed them in color in “normal” settings on regular paper. I didn’t use cardstock, our printer jams if you try to use it.
3: I cut them out, using sharp scissors, and for tight areas, an Exacto-knife. On a few industrial buildings, I glued signs on with a glue stick. (like on the Eyore’s Cat Chow building)
4: I used a regular glue stick to attach it to the backdrop. I did this after the scenery was in, so I applied the glue to the back of the building, then carefully applied it; being careful to make sure the bottom of the building touched the ground.
5: Then, enjoy your backdrop!
Here’s some pix of the finished product. (Excuse the blurry foreground.)
