I have a small toy train type layout with green carpet and plasticville and k-line bldgs. I have been seriously thinking of making it bigger and going with a winter theme to take advantage of my Dept 56 and Lemax bldgs. Has anyone here permantly switched to a winter layout and do you plan to keep it that way always. Also can you mix the plasticville and Dept 56 together or does it look out of place? Thanks
Bruce
I’m in the planning stages of a small layout and am seriously considering a winter-themed layout. A black river stabbing through a stark, white landscape, rock outcroppings and evergreen trees covered with snow…has a certain appeal to me. But how to pull it off effectively?
Plasticville and Dept 56 structures can go together just fine if you like them together. It’s your layout.
Jim
I was thinking of very simple, similar to a Christmas tree layout only permanent and with 2 or three turnouts for operating. I have some white fabric from a local craft store and Dept 56 snow to go over it. If it goes well then I might get into somemore serious scenicking in the future.
Bruce
For a good ground snow effect use a roll of cotton stapled down or glued with a glue gun, for a shimmer effect use glitter and hair spray(I used a squirt bottle with non-airosol hair spray) to keep it in place, most items(except hair spray) can be bought at a fabric or craft store. You cut the cotton to size for the area to cover, can even use a small strand of cotton for smoke coming out of a chimney.
Lee F.
Bruce,
One of our forum regulars (Fifedog) has a permanent winter layout that was published in the January CTT. It is a wonder layout and really neat to see in person.
I’m sure once he sees this thread he will chime in. I don’t know what he used as a base, but he painted it white and while the paint was still wet he sprinkled plastic snow (you can get it at craft stores around the holidays), looks like real snow. You can also get the plastic snow from on-line retailers through out the year… don’t remember what it was called.
Do you remember Bill Henderson and his HO Coal Belt layout? It was regularly featured in MR in the 90s: a early 19th cen. free-lanced coal mover also featured in one of Allen Keller’s videos - vol. 19 I think. I loved it. Anyway, He had view-blocked sections to his layout where it was different seasons including a wonderful winter scene. I have a few older MR that show Mike Danneman (again, sp) creating winter scenery on the Colorado layout.
Wow, did a little more digging and there’s all sorts of interesting scenic stuff in Google Books under Bill Henderson’s name…
I took the opposite approach with the few snow-speckled Dept 56 buildings on our layout. I painted over the snow - they’re far enough away not to see the details, but now it’s perpetually nice weather on the layout.
Bruce,
I have Lemax Dept. 56, MTH, Lionel, Korber, Plasticville and stracth buildings throughout my layout. I refer to the scale as SCARDEN. A cross between scale and garden. It’s your layout, have fun. It is up all year long and I comtinur to add to it.
Ed
alcofan - I’ve been known to dabble in winter scenery. I use FLORACRAFT winter snow (avoid the coconut style fluff) over wet gloss white latex. I do mix some plastic structures in with my Dept 56, but it does take some “blending”.
The layout that I am currently working on is a winter layout, but I have almost no idea what i’m doing scenery wise.[:D]
I think I found a track plan I like on Thor’s web site. But still not sure as to what season to model. Winter does have it’s advantages in some respects. Challenges in others. I think what’s stopping me from doing it is that I like all the texture and details a non-winter layout has to offer.
Which ever season we decide to go with, I’m sure of one thing - multiple levels, baby!
Jim
I was just down stairs and put some of the platicville and dept 56 together and they don’t look half bad. I just need to revise the track plan and procure a little more real estate and then make it snow down there! Now I’m getting excited about winter all year round in my cellar[:D]
Bruce
What about both on the same layout?
One thing that has struck me over the years is that one can go from no snow to snow in a relatively short distance or time.
In Seattle for example you might get flakes in the winter, usually rain, but drive 20 or so miles east toward Spokane and you might hit a roadblock where vehicular passage beyond that point required studded snow tires or chains.
Last July my family and I visited the top of Mt. Washington in the White Mountains of NH where there was snow. Within an hour we were having a picnic in shirtsleaves in a meadow at the base of the mountain.
So I think you might be able to have a little of both if you have an upper loop and a mountain on the board, and it would still mirror the real world.
Jack
I always enjoy seeing a “winter section” as part of a layout (TCA Toy Train Museum or a modular set-up at shows), but I think having an entire winter theme layout might get “old” after a while. Plus, the selection of “top up” diecast cars would limit me, and the selection of figures wearing coats is slim. Joe
alcofan - If you give your overall scene I light (and I do mean light) dusting of spraysnow, it will help tone down the plastic sheen on the Plasticville, and the sometimes glossy sheen on the Dept 56, and help to blend things together. The spraysnow covering will last until you handle it.
Joe Hohmann - One comment I hear down in the layout room is how much more colorful the trains are, running thru the winter landscape. I also use three strands of blue rope lights (tucked up in the rafters) to simulate night running. I’d swear the temp drops 15 degrees when the “sun” is turned off!
“The spraysnow covering will last until you handle it.”
Can you then seal the spraysnow with Dullcote?
gary7 - Ain’t never tried that. Not sure they would be compatible, plus DullCoat does have a yellow tint to it when sprayed on white. Nope, if you disturb the spraysnow, just give a light zap and your back in business.
Thanks! Yellow snow is not the effect oft desired on buildings…