HO Model Trains - Scenery
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In today's world of model railroading scenery is a must as it has always been. The difference is the materials available to create scenery.
We will start with the materials to create hills and mountains. There are so many types of materials it would seem impossible to cover them all but, we are going to try. First of all we need to cover the tools you may need to start your project. Plastic buckets generally not more than a gallon along with one gallon plastic milk bottles to hold water. Putty knives big to very small, wood paint mixing tool, hot glue gun, water based glues such as Elmers, spray on glues, women's hair spray - heavy duty, rubbing alcohol, a roller paint pan, sculpting knife, rubber molds for rock formations, paint brushes from big to small, pair of tweezers, Scalpel or Exacto knife, pair of scissors, etc.
When it comes to rock molds you can make your own or buy various rock mold sizes. There is a silica molding material you can purchase that is poured onto a rock cluster either indoors or out doors. You let the material dry and when hard it peals off with ease. From their you may use Hydrocal or other plaster like materials to create you rocks. Be sure you read the label on the material you intend to use. Some materials dry so fast that you don't have time to poor the material evenly into the mold.
Materials have a vast range. You may use newspaper, plastic screen used for screen doors, matted cloth used in the garden to stop weeds, card board strips, plaster cloth, Sculptamold, Hydrocal, Plaster of Paris, brown paper bags, water, Styrofoam, paper towels, Vermiculite, house paint, to name a few items for your creative side.
In my case I have chosen three specific products that have been a great addition in creating what I want. They are card board strips, plaster cloth and Sculptamold. The later two are commercial products that you may purchase at your hobby store or on-line. If you need large quantities the best way to acquire them is on-line.
Instead of cutting up cardboard boxes and the like, I found a supply of precut strips in large quantities from Micro-Mark. The plaster cloth can be purchased from Micro-Mark and Woodland Scenics. This product is not manufactured from either company. My suggestion is that you surf the WEB for the products you want and perhaps a better deal can be made. Sculptamold can be found on the WEB by the manufacturer. It comes in various size bags with the biggest being 50lbs.
The reason I choose these three products was the ease in making a mountain for example. With a hot glue gun you take the cardboard strips of about 1 1/4" and glue them to the base on the layout and to an upper structure like the side of a railroad bed. To create a mountain scene you would use what ever length of the strips necessary to create an out line of a mountain whether against a wall or in the middle of the layout. For support you crisscross the cardboard and glue the surfaces together with the hot glue gun. Once you have completed the frame work you start to lay the plaster cloth on the frame work.
This is done by first getting a paint roller pan that has an angle to it. Then fill a plastic one gallon milk container with water. At the bottom end of the paint roller pan poor about 1 1/2"s of water. The plaster cloth comes in rolls of about eight inches wide. You begin by cutting off a length of the plaster cloth then grabbing one end with both hands dip the piece of cloth all the way through the water. You lay the cloth onto the cardboard strips starting at the bottom and work up. The idea is to completely cover the whole cardboard structure. Once this is accomplished let it all dry for 24 hours.
After competing the plaster cloth project begin preparing the Sculptamold. Start by getting one of the plastic buckets preferably a half gallon one. Depending on how large the hill, mountain or wall will determine how much Sculptamold needs to be placed in the bucket. For example, if I were to cover a medium sized mountain I would fill the bucket with about a third of the Sculptamold. At this point you will need the wooden paint mixer and a gallon of water. Poor about a half a pint of water into the bucket and try a stir the the mixture. If it remains dry add some more water until you get a wet paste. Make sure it is not runny.
Once this is accomplished take either a one inch or two inch putty knife and begin laying the Sculptamold onto the harden plaster cloth. The Sculptamold is not intended to be smooth. It is very fibrous and has a consistence of papermache.
As you continue to cover the mountain with Sculptamold you will begin to see various contours and shapes being to be developed as you work. Natural cliffs, ravines and cracks will appear as you continue to add the Sculptamold. Part of this phenomena is caused by the way you built up the cardboard strips and plaster cloth. You certainly do not want your mountain to look like a bald head. Try and make partial stream beds, cliffs, shear walls, waterfalls, and other formations common to the mountains you see in pictures and real life with the cardboard strips and plaster cloth. By doing this the Sculptamold will fill in those areas and when dry will look just as you planned but generally better.
The Sculptamold takes a while to dry. If you did not make enough Sculptamold to complete the project that's not a problem. Just place in the bucket what you think it will take to complete your mountain. It is better to underestimate how much you need than the opposite. Once dry you may carve areas of your work as you see fit with a sculpting knife or awls. Once this is done you may begin to paint the mountain with various shades of color. The colors will depend on the area of the country or world you are trying to reproduce.
I generally use house paint to accomplish my color schemes. If there is a Home Depot or Lowe's in your area or even a paint store you will generally find a table that has paint in quart to gallon size that sells for $3.00 to $5.00. This is paint ordered and never picked up or other reasons why the stores whish to get rid of it. There is usually a variety of colors that you may choose from that you can use and can partially mix as you are painting your mountain or what ever. If you need finite details then I would suggest you visit you local hobby shop or go online to find the specific paint(s) you want. If at all possible always use water based paints.
While the paint is still wet on your mountain you can begin placing synthetic grasses and small rocks on your mountain. Even small shrubs can be added if the paint is very wet. To acquire
these type of products you either go to your hobby shop or go online. There are several producers of these products. For all grasses and roadbed materials including ballast I use Woodland Scenics products. These materials come in quart size plastic containers. The cheapest way to acquire these products is on the internet. As far as shrubs are concerned there are several producers of these materials.
When it comes to trees the best method is to make your own. The very small trees are relative cheap in kit form. The rest are expensive. Trees can run from $10.00 to $25.00 apiece. That is to rich for me. The best method to make your own trees is the use of furnace filter material and skewer sticks. You may also use small wood branches for the bottom part of the trunk of the tree to give the tree more realism. If you are going to use the wood trunks then you need to take 1/32 stiff wire and bend over so the two lengths are the same and the height is what you want for that tree. You take the loop at the top of the wire and place it into a vice. With the other ends you place the two ends in a drill and spin the wire into a braid. Just be careful you don't snap the wire. Always use a variable speed drill. Drill a small hole into the wood trunk and insert the open two wires in the hole. Use your hot glue gun to hold the wires in place.
You now take the furnace filter material and pull a chunk out. You pull severe small pieces apart from the material you are working with. You spread it out like a circular set of branches. You make several of these and begin to slide them down the braided wire until you reach the top of the wire. With a pair of scissors you trim the filter material into a semi cone shape or the shape that looks like an evergreen tree of what ever variety you want. Place the trees in a two foot by two foot Styrofoam sheet. Once you have the trees evenly spaced and have filled the Styrofoam take a spray can of a type of green paint you whish to color the trees with. There are several varieties of greens in spray cans that you can use to produce the exact color combination for each tree that you desire.
The blending of grasses, shrubs, evergreen trees and deciduous trees makes for a very interesting landscape. In many cases you may have only one type of tree variety in mass. In other cases you may have an open meadow with all types of grass and cut off tree stumps or old snags with a bird of prey perched on one of the snags. There is no limit to what you may produce and create from your mind. In another blog I will discuss the process of making water and the use of various size rocks and stones.
In today's world of model railroading scenery is a must as it has always been. The difference is the materials available to create scenery.
We will start with the materials to create hills and mountains. There are so many types of materials it would seem impossible to cover them all but, we are going to try. First of all we need to cover the tools you may need to start your project. Plastic buckets generally not more than a gallon along with one gallon plastic milk bottles to hold water. Putty knives big to very small, wood paint mixing tool, hot glue gun, water based glues such as Elmers, spray on glues, women's hair spray - heavy duty, rubbing alcohol, a roller paint pan, sculpting knife, rubber molds for rock formations, paint brushes from big to small, pair of tweezers, Scalpel or Exacto knife, pair of scissors, etc.
When it comes to rock molds you can make your own or buy various rock mold sizes. There is a silica molding material you can purchase that is poured onto a rock cluster either indoors or out doors. You let the material dry and when hard it peals off with ease. From their you may use Hydrocal or other plaster like materials to create you rocks. Be sure you read the label on the material you intend to use. Some materials dry so fast that you don't have time to poor the material evenly into the mold.
Materials have a vast range. You may use newspaper, plastic screen used for screen doors, matted cloth used in the garden to stop weeds, card board strips, plaster cloth, Sculptamold, Hydrocal, Plaster of Paris, brown paper bags, water, Styrofoam, paper towels, Vermiculite, house paint, to name a few items for your creative side.
In my case I have chosen three specific products that have been a great addition in creating what I want. They are card board strips, plaster cloth and Sculptamold. The later two are commercial products that you may purchase at your hobby store or on-line. If you need large quantities the best way to acquire them is on-line.
Instead of cutting up cardboard boxes and the like, I found a supply of precut strips in large quantities from Micro-Mark. The plaster cloth can be purchased from Micro-Mark and Woodland Scenics. This product is not manufactured from either company. My suggestion is that you surf the WEB for the products you want and perhaps a better deal can be made. Sculptamold can be found on the WEB by the manufacturer. It comes in various size bags with the biggest being 50lbs.
The reason I choose these three products was the ease in making a mountain for example. With a hot glue gun you take the cardboard strips of about 1 1/4" and glue them to the base on the layout and to an upper structure like the side of a railroad bed. To create a mountain scene you would use what ever length of the strips necessary to create an out line of a mountain whether against a wall or in the middle of the layout. For support you crisscross the cardboard and glue the surfaces together with the hot glue gun. Once you have completed the frame work you start to lay the plaster cloth on the frame work.
This is done by first getting a paint roller pan that has an angle to it. Then fill a plastic one gallon milk container with water. At the bottom end of the paint roller pan poor about 1 1/2"s of water. The plaster cloth comes in rolls of about eight inches wide. You begin by cutting off a length of the plaster cloth then grabbing one end with both hands dip the piece of cloth all the way through the water. You lay the cloth onto the cardboard strips starting at the bottom and work up. The idea is to completely cover the whole cardboard structure. Once this is accomplished let it all dry for 24 hours.
After competing the plaster cloth project begin preparing the Sculptamold. Start by getting one of the plastic buckets preferably a half gallon one. Depending on how large the hill, mountain or wall will determine how much Sculptamold needs to be placed in the bucket. For example, if I were to cover a medium sized mountain I would fill the bucket with about a third of the Sculptamold. At this point you will need the wooden paint mixer and a gallon of water. Poor about a half a pint of water into the bucket and try a stir the the mixture. If it remains dry add some more water until you get a wet paste. Make sure it is not runny.
Once this is accomplished take either a one inch or two inch putty knife and begin laying the Sculptamold onto the harden plaster cloth. The Sculptamold is not intended to be smooth. It is very fibrous and has a consistence of papermache.
As you continue to cover the mountain with Sculptamold you will begin to see various contours and shapes being to be developed as you work. Natural cliffs, ravines and cracks will appear as you continue to add the Sculptamold. Part of this phenomena is caused by the way you built up the cardboard strips and plaster cloth. You certainly do not want your mountain to look like a bald head. Try and make partial stream beds, cliffs, shear walls, waterfalls, and other formations common to the mountains you see in pictures and real life with the cardboard strips and plaster cloth. By doing this the Sculptamold will fill in those areas and when dry will look just as you planned but generally better.
The Sculptamold takes a while to dry. If you did not make enough Sculptamold to complete the project that's not a problem. Just place in the bucket what you think it will take to complete your mountain. It is better to underestimate how much you need than the opposite. Once dry you may carve areas of your work as you see fit with a sculpting knife or awls. Once this is done you may begin to paint the mountain with various shades of color. The colors will depend on the area of the country or world you are trying to reproduce.
I generally use house paint to accomplish my color schemes. If there is a Home Depot or Lowe's in your area or even a paint store you will generally find a table that has paint in quart to gallon size that sells for $3.00 to $5.00. This is paint ordered and never picked up or other reasons why the stores whish to get rid of it. There is usually a variety of colors that you may choose from that you can use and can partially mix as you are painting your mountain or what ever. If you need finite details then I would suggest you visit you local hobby shop or go online to find the specific paint(s) you want. If at all possible always use water based paints.
While the paint is still wet on your mountain you can begin placing synthetic grasses and small rocks on your mountain. Even small shrubs can be added if the paint is very wet. To acquire
these type of products you either go to your hobby shop or go online. There are several producers of these products. For all grasses and roadbed materials including ballast I use Woodland Scenics products. These materials come in quart size plastic containers. The cheapest way to acquire these products is on the internet. As far as shrubs are concerned there are several producers of these materials.
When it comes to trees the best method is to make your own. The very small trees are relative cheap in kit form. The rest are expensive. Trees can run from $10.00 to $25.00 apiece. That is to rich for me. The best method to make your own trees is the use of furnace filter material and skewer sticks. You may also use small wood branches for the bottom part of the trunk of the tree to give the tree more realism. If you are going to use the wood trunks then you need to take 1/32 stiff wire and bend over so the two lengths are the same and the height is what you want for that tree. You take the loop at the top of the wire and place it into a vice. With the other ends you place the two ends in a drill and spin the wire into a braid. Just be careful you don't snap the wire. Always use a variable speed drill. Drill a small hole into the wood trunk and insert the open two wires in the hole. Use your hot glue gun to hold the wires in place.
You now take the furnace filter material and pull a chunk out. You pull severe small pieces apart from the material you are working with. You spread it out like a circular set of branches. You make several of these and begin to slide them down the braided wire until you reach the top of the wire. With a pair of scissors you trim the filter material into a semi cone shape or the shape that looks like an evergreen tree of what ever variety you want. Place the trees in a two foot by two foot Styrofoam sheet. Once you have the trees evenly spaced and have filled the Styrofoam take a spray can of a type of green paint you whish to color the trees with. There are several varieties of greens in spray cans that you can use to produce the exact color combination for each tree that you desire.
With the skewer sticks you do the same thing as you did when you placed the filter material on the braided wire. The painting process is also the same.
For Deciduous trees the method is quite different. There are some plants in your backyard or in the country side that look like deciduous trees after the dry. Many times the original foliage has fallen off leaving a bear looking tree which is what you want. There is two methods you can use to cover the tree with green foliage. One is to buy clump foliage from say Woodland Scenics or another producer or use the the coarse grasses from one of the quart bottles. Either way you will need to spray the branches of the tree with a spray glue such as Elmer's and either glue the clump foliage to the tree or sprinkle the coarse grasses over the tree. Don't spray the whole tree at once. Do it systematically from one area to another until you are finished. The glue stays sticky but looses its grip after a short time. The other method for deciduous trees is to purchase Woodland Scenics kits of tree trunks of various sizes and use clump foliage. Depending on the size of the tree will determine if the coarse grasses will work to cover the tree.The blending of grasses, shrubs, evergreen trees and deciduous trees makes for a very interesting landscape. In many cases you may have only one type of tree variety in mass. In other cases you may have an open meadow with all types of grass and cut off tree stumps or old snags with a bird of prey perched on one of the snags. There is no limit to what you may produce and create from your mind. In another blog I will discuss the process of making water and the use of various size rocks and stones.
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