Just for kicks, no prize involved accept bragging rights here on the boards. Who can create the best scenic element for under $15. You can you some things you have allready, but avoid using things like FSM kits and such as it defeats the purpose of the challenge. Acceptable items to reuse include things like ground cover. Post a list of what you bought and a pic. This will truly show us who can model on a budget.
OK - it’s not a big deal, but it’s something to get us started.
This wood plank fence is made of coffee stirrers, “liberated” from the coffee area at work. They are cut and glued together (OK, a few cents worth of white glue) and then colored with a bit of white house stain mixed with a few drops of India Ink. I used cheap acrylics (4/$1) to paint a small square, and then I downloaded the Uncle Sam and the circus images from the internet, and printed them on decal paper. The decal paper is about $3 a sheet, but I only used a small strip of it. This fence is actually about 2 1/2 feet long, and has another half-dozen or so decals on it.
Great Thread Idea. I hope many will post!
Here’s a between the tracks scene:
The stack of rail is salvaged from old, obsolete brass track. Cut, paint, and glue. Easy to make.
A few peices of wood from the scrap box resulted in a small amount of ties.
An old box car shell became a tool shed for the track department.
An old, broken Plasticville switch tower was repaired and repainted.
I may have spent a total of a dollar or two at a train show for the box car shell and the switch tower.
Mr.Beasley nice job on fence…As for me any scenic project I do costs less than 15.00…Cox 47
Cheap plastic cowboy…$.33 on eBay
Piece of thread…stolen from wifes basket…$.00
Stick from garden…$.00
Necktie party…priceless.
A sanding tower made from the top of a super glue bottle
some 2x2 strip wood and a ladder kit add some black paint
under $6
The “Last Kiss Scene”.
Engine from 1950, gift from dad
Depot from flea market $1.00
trees from garden $00
car from Walmart $1.00
soldiers $5.00
Lady - $7.00
Everything else from junk drawer
This will be a hard one, as most every scenic element on my layout cost less than 15 dollars…
Hmmm, how 'bout this one;
Stacks/kilns - tubes/straws, “Fresh Cherries” bases, tape and gatorboard - Est. $1.00
Finish - paint and glue -Est. $1.00
Conyerors and saftey ladders - kits from Cornerstone - pro-rated est. $6.95
Kiln doors - cut up F unit shell - $0.00
walkways - cut from old box cars - $0.00
Wheels - from kids covered wagon toy - $0.00
yep, well under 15!
Don’t have many projects yet, great thread idea! My MRR buddy is coming over for a week from Texas, we will work on my layout a lot, maybe I’ll have something to show then.
A good idea for a thread. What we can quickly see is that modellers are inventive types and can take otherwise waste materials and turn them into something useful.
Here are 2 little structures. The one on the left is made from an off-cut of black foam board laminated with styrene strips cut from a plastic sheet used for dress pattern making. The windows and doors were salvaged from a $1.00 junk structure from a train-show. The roof is made of serial box covered with shingles cut from paper. The smoke stack on the back is made from sprue off-cuts. Total cost well under $5.00. The one on the right is made from wooden sheet siding, has specially purchased windows and doors and used Campbell shingles. It most likely cost more than $15.
This is right up my alley. The grain elevators were built from “Red Bull” cans, the headhouse on the top is a block of wood, windows are printed from the web, piping are sprues and the front building was $5 at a show in Southern California. Total cost about $10, maybe…The cost of the ADM Elevator (out of stock) is around $33 and the custom kits are above $45.
What a great use for red bull cans. I’ll try to get a pic up too. The good old camera isnt working right now.
This project was culled almost completely from the scrap bin. The vehicles are probably the only item that had a cost associated with them, and they are just incidental to the scene…
Scraps of Evergreen styrene, windows leftover from a Gloor Craft kit, misc. details and Humans from the supply cabinet.
Lee
Dollar stores can be a source of cheap layout stuff, The four background houses in this scene were $1.00 each at the dollar store. They are about N scale in size and are ideal for “forced perspective” on my HO layout. I touched up the paint before placing them on the layout.
Like a couple of replies already say: most projects cost less than $15.00, this must bring a smile to all those guys who buy nothing but $50.00 to $100.00 kits.
I just worked on a bunch of things this week; made some scenery, built a small town, where my project is. I don’t have any photos yet, I am trying to figure out how to put them on my site.
Anyway, here is the text for it. I’ll post photos soon, hopefully.
Abandoned track
I used a piece of junk brass track and sifted dirt. VERY Expensive, isn’t it![:D]
I just placed the track and then worked the dirt into it.