I think it’s fun to discover ways to utilize unconventional materials in adding to my layout. Keeping one’s eyes constantly peeled for new and unusual items that can heighten a layout’s realism and character is one of the real attractions of this hobby. For example, I work in a factory that uses a lot of steel (making rail joints), so I’ve found some neat stuff there, i.e., drill press and steel saw shavings for scrap metal, shotblaster residue as groundcover for parking lots, etc.
Another discovery was the flint wheel from disposable lighters. The pieces make nice large gears for machinery and junk piles. Cheap mechanical watches are great too.
One more: the small wood plugs for countersink holes in furniture and craft items make great concrete planters, the kind you see on sidewalks in downtown areas. Paint em white, glue a little course turf on the wider side, and presto.
What unusual and unique stuff have you used to create structures/details/scenery?
I once used old coffee grounds for track ballast. It merely looked “OK”.
I use the cardboard tubes from the centre of rolls of paper kitchen towel - cut into three, these make great covers for Peco switch machines mounted above the board. I add a top, paint them black, and glue lichen around the sides to make it look like a small clump of trees.
Okay…don’t laugh…but to dampen noise and vibration is some locomotives I have used…the self adhesive panty liner thingys…you know…what the wife keeps under the bathroom sink…absorbs…sound …like a champ. Just cut to fit, peel and stick!
One has to wonder if anything can top that [:-^]
Would that be PFM or PMS engines? lol (stupid - but too good to pass up). Actually that is a super idea once you stop and think about it. I’m wondering if the larger bandaids would also work?
Not sure, but once a month they bloat up and complain alot. [xx(]
I once used some hair from my own head to test if it worked as tall grass. Guess what… It did just great! Trim it and paint it tan and light green, and you have very realistc tall grass. The next day I went to my hair stylist and he (or she??) gave me a bag full of hair for free!! Kinda gross, but it works.
I once filled up a train of hoppers all with cranberry juice… LOL!! Don’t ask why!! Thanks god it didn’t derail!!
How did you attach it to your baseboard so it stood up?
I’ve used wooden skewers, you know, the kind you use for barbecuing shrimp on the grill, for making great-looking guard rails. You can get around 50 skewers in the grocery store for around $1.00 so they are much cheaper than wooden dowels. I paint them white and then I drill a hole along side the road and stick the skewer in. I then use a metal snip to cut off the skewer at the height I want it. You can “plant” several posts using this approach in a few minutes. Afterwards, I simply wrap gray sewing thread around the first post, then continue along and wrap the next one and so on. I run two threads from post to post, one above the other. The result is what I remember back in the 1950’s when we didn’t have those tin-plated guard rails you see today.
Have fun!
Mondo
[quote]
Originally posted by mondotrains
I’ve used wooden skewers, you know, the kind you use for barbecuing shrimp on the grill, for making great-looking guard rails.
Safety matches work great too (the fireplace matches are best). They make good rough lumber stacks as well.
Some super ideas here, but the pantyliners tops the list!! LOL, that is classic.
A few things I have used:
1.) I have a large grain terminal on my HO layout. You know the large piles of corn that are out in fall especially, I went to the neighbors feed grinder and filled a 5 gallon pail of ground corn, it looks great scale-wise making corn piles. and smells realistic too.
2.) I use the steal shavings mentioned earlier from a shop-friend of mines shop to fill my gondolas, very nice for making ore. especially the natural rust colered shavings. To get that effect, just leave the shavings outside for about a week, giving them a mist of water 3-4 times during the week.
3.) I also have flat cars I use for hauling steel strips. What I did there was use black plastic “zip ties”, cut ends off, and glue them in “stacks”, and then bind them with white zip ties. The zip ties are lightweight too.
4.) For my other flat cars cars carrying coils of wire, I use ultra-thin guage (almost hair-like) copper wire. I get an endless supply from a friend who works in an electric motor manufacturing plant that they discard. I wind these tightly around those miniature spools that thread comes on and mount 4-6 on my flat cars. I paint the spools a flat gray before winding the wire on them and then a dab of glue secured the wound wire. Looks great.
5.) I also have a meat packing plant on my layout. One end of the building is open on one end for viewing. You know where they hang the sides of beef from hooks and the sides move on tracks mounted on the ceiling? I have very small eye bolts on the ceiling where I run heavy guage fishing line through. Mounted On the fishing lines I have very small fishhooks glued to the fishing line that I hang pieces of wadded up leather painted red/pink to simulate the beef. I have mounted near my control a ultra lite fishing reel that when I crank, the sides of beef rotate around the building as if they are being loaded from an asse
I used small, old roots from a bush in my backyard for dead trees on my layout.
Rustoleum makes a spray on coating for tool handles. It is slightly rough. It is available in red, black, yellow, etc. I took some plastic drinking straws, cut them to length, then sprayed them with the black coating. Now, they look like large cast iron pipes.
That straw idea is nice
If you can get it, steel banding makes great sheet metal loads (use the 1" wide kind used to band heavy pallets at factories. There’s always a bunch of it in scrap bins, just ask someone there if you can grab a couple pieces). It is a bit heavy, though that also makes it good for adding weight to rolling stock.
I use saw dust for the woodchip cars, kitty-litter for aggregate cars and real coal that has been in a blender for the coal cars.
Yank:
Once you paint the trimed hair with enamel, it will stay stiff. Don’t use gel… LOL!
I used “alphabet soup noodles” for raised letters on a building, they will expand a little when painted.Also used black valve stem caps from car tires for pots for potted trees.And angel hair spagetti for pvc pipe.
The valve stem caps sound like an excellent idea!! With the little ridges in them they do look very much like some of the fancier ones that you see outside of down town buildings.
Dan,
You need to submitt an article to MR about this. [(-D][(-D][(-D]