FORUM CLINIC: Building realistic scenery
- Thread starter jfugate
- Start date
Hi joe, hi all!
Well I'm seeing something different here that I believe I'll try. The terrain around the walls on my layout is done with foam and plaster, but I'm seeing something here I like. My first use of cardboard and plaster soaked paper towels was a disaster. A real mess of plaster dripping on the rest of the bench work and floor, actualy window screen wasn't any better, so I went with the foam since it didn't leak. My method I use now might also be adapted to the cardboard strips. I spread drywall compound ( actully impregnate) 4x4 gauze patches and apply that to the supporting material. No leaks that way either. Your gritty mix might be better overall than the drywall compound for a top or finishing layer. This is interesting. I find the blue extruded foam rather difficult to cut to the terrain shape I want. OK! let's see a hollow mountain, over the center of my layout peninsula, I like it already, GOOD Stuff
keep it coming.
Willis
Well I'm seeing something different here that I believe I'll try. The terrain around the walls on my layout is done with foam and plaster, but I'm seeing something here I like. My first use of cardboard and plaster soaked paper towels was a disaster. A real mess of plaster dripping on the rest of the bench work and floor, actualy window screen wasn't any better, so I went with the foam since it didn't leak. My method I use now might also be adapted to the cardboard strips. I spread drywall compound ( actully impregnate) 4x4 gauze patches and apply that to the supporting material. No leaks that way either. Your gritty mix might be better overall than the drywall compound for a top or finishing layer. This is interesting. I find the blue extruded foam rather difficult to cut to the terrain shape I want. OK! let's see a hollow mountain, over the center of my layout peninsula, I like it already, GOOD Stuff
keep it coming.
jfugate
Modeling SP in the 1980s
TOPIC THIS POST: From blue painted board to sky backdrop
Before I build any scenery, I install and paint the sky backdrop a basic light sky blue. I don't want this blue too light, because one of the tricks that I describe in here really enhances a sky backdrop and adds "snap" to it -- and for that the blue needs to be what I would call a medium light blue.
There are several materials to use for a sky backdrop, from masonite hardboard, to the backside of vinyl linoleum, to sheet aluminum roof flashing, to large sheets of styrene. My purpose here is not to get into all the different materials and ways to install a backdrop.
I use the backside of vinyl linoleum along the walls (a stiff backing already present) and I use masonite hardboard in the middle of the room where the backdrop needs to be freestanding and stiff on it's own. Vinyl linoleum is not stiff, so it doesn't work for benchwork in the middle of the room where the backdrop needs to be freestanding.
I like the back of vinyl linoleum because you can get long runs of it and need fewer seams. I just went to a flooring store and asked them if they had any flooring scraps 2-3 feet wide they would sell me. First, they wanted to know why I needed such narrow stuff. Once I told them I was using it backwards for smooth sky backdrops on a model display, they grinned, and sold me all I wanted at $5 a roll.
I tacked the vinyl to the wall backside out with small roofing nails and painted it a light sky blue. For masonite, I mounted it, patched the seams with white painters caulk (I like it because it's flexible) and smoothed the caulk with a wet sponge, and painted it a light sky blue.
Somewhere around the time you're ready to do your rough scenery terrain, it's time to think about doing more to finish your sky backdrop.
I'll pencil in the terrain contour on the backdrop before I install the cardboard strips, and then get out my airbrush and fade the horizon area on the backdrop with flat white. I use ModelFlex flat white, because it's ready to airbrush right out of the bottle.
Imagine a flat horizontal horizon line on the lower part of your backdrop, as if you were looking at the ocean. Then all along that line where your penciled terrain contour drops down, fade the horizon from blue to almost white. Feather the white into the blue so that there's no stark white line on the backdrop. As you do this, follow your imaginary "ocean horizon", do not follow your penciled terrain contours. The white fading should be about the same distance down on your backdrop everywhere, not up and down with the terrain lines.
Here's a sample photo from my Siskiyou Line to show how effective the white fading can be. Notice how the white horizon fading creates a realistic sense of "vast outside sky" to the confines of my indoor layout.
I also mix some light blue gray and light blue green and paint basic mountains on my backdrop. Nothing fancy for the most part, because we want the layout scenery to get the attention, not the backdrop.
One trick to get good colors for backdrop mountains is to mix up a color that looks good to your for trees or rock mountains, then mix in some of your sky blue paint you used on your backdrop. This will fade the color of your backdrop mountains and make them look like they really belong. The more blue you add, the farther back your mountains will appear to be. Experiment with a scrap of blue painted board until it looks good to you.
Clouds
I tend *not* to paint clouds on my sky because I love the look of a cloudless, sunny August day in southern Oregon. But if you do want to try some clouds, it's best to do them *before* you paint the white fading on the lower part of the sky. Spending some time studying photos with clouds in them will really help you out ... I recommend that unless you have some experience painting landscapes you do your backdrop scenery painting with photo references at hand.
We could do a whole forum clinic just on painting clouds, but let me pass on a few tricks.
The closer to the horizon the cloud is, the smaller it should be. Clouds are objects too and just like you would expect with an airplane, so goes a cloud. An airplane directly overhead is larger than an airplane off at a distance near the horizon.
Take your white you intend to use for your clouds, and mix some of the sky blue color in first. This will make the cloud look more like it belongs in your sky and will make it look less like a stark white cotton ball. The closer the cloud is to be to the horizon, the more blue you add.
Clouds are objects, so they generally have a shadow on their underside unless they are high altitude clouds or thin and very wispy. To get a good cloud shadow color, mix just some gray and more of your sky color together with some of your white, and use that to shade the underside of your cloud. Ideally, add the shading while the white is still wet so you can blend the white and the gray to create a gradual shadow effect.
It's best to mix all of your cloud paint ahead of time, paint a few clouds with white, then go back and add the shading color while the white is still wet. If you plan to add more than a few clouds, paint your clouds in layers ... starting near the horizon with lots of sky blue color in your white and gray paint.
Move up to the next layer, and put less blue in the white and gray.
Finally do the uppermost clouds, and use just a smidgen of blue in the white and gray.
Next, we'll look at how to get realistic looking track.
NEXT TOPIC: Ballasting and weathering track
Before I build any scenery, I install and paint the sky backdrop a basic light sky blue. I don't want this blue too light, because one of the tricks that I describe in here really enhances a sky backdrop and adds "snap" to it -- and for that the blue needs to be what I would call a medium light blue.
There are several materials to use for a sky backdrop, from masonite hardboard, to the backside of vinyl linoleum, to sheet aluminum roof flashing, to large sheets of styrene. My purpose here is not to get into all the different materials and ways to install a backdrop.
I use the backside of vinyl linoleum along the walls (a stiff backing already present) and I use masonite hardboard in the middle of the room where the backdrop needs to be freestanding and stiff on it's own. Vinyl linoleum is not stiff, so it doesn't work for benchwork in the middle of the room where the backdrop needs to be freestanding.
I like the back of vinyl linoleum because you can get long runs of it and need fewer seams. I just went to a flooring store and asked them if they had any flooring scraps 2-3 feet wide they would sell me. First, they wanted to know why I needed such narrow stuff. Once I told them I was using it backwards for smooth sky backdrops on a model display, they grinned, and sold me all I wanted at $5 a roll.
I tacked the vinyl to the wall backside out with small roofing nails and painted it a light sky blue. For masonite, I mounted it, patched the seams with white painters caulk (I like it because it's flexible) and smoothed the caulk with a wet sponge, and painted it a light sky blue.
Somewhere around the time you're ready to do your rough scenery terrain, it's time to think about doing more to finish your sky backdrop.
I'll pencil in the terrain contour on the backdrop before I install the cardboard strips, and then get out my airbrush and fade the horizon area on the backdrop with flat white. I use ModelFlex flat white, because it's ready to airbrush right out of the bottle.
Imagine a flat horizontal horizon line on the lower part of your backdrop, as if you were looking at the ocean. Then all along that line where your penciled terrain contour drops down, fade the horizon from blue to almost white. Feather the white into the blue so that there's no stark white line on the backdrop. As you do this, follow your imaginary "ocean horizon", do not follow your penciled terrain contours. The white fading should be about the same distance down on your backdrop everywhere, not up and down with the terrain lines.
Here's a sample photo from my Siskiyou Line to show how effective the white fading can be. Notice how the white horizon fading creates a realistic sense of "vast outside sky" to the confines of my indoor layout.
I also mix some light blue gray and light blue green and paint basic mountains on my backdrop. Nothing fancy for the most part, because we want the layout scenery to get the attention, not the backdrop.
One trick to get good colors for backdrop mountains is to mix up a color that looks good to your for trees or rock mountains, then mix in some of your sky blue paint you used on your backdrop. This will fade the color of your backdrop mountains and make them look like they really belong. The more blue you add, the farther back your mountains will appear to be. Experiment with a scrap of blue painted board until it looks good to you.
Clouds
I tend *not* to paint clouds on my sky because I love the look of a cloudless, sunny August day in southern Oregon. But if you do want to try some clouds, it's best to do them *before* you paint the white fading on the lower part of the sky. Spending some time studying photos with clouds in them will really help you out ... I recommend that unless you have some experience painting landscapes you do your backdrop scenery painting with photo references at hand.
We could do a whole forum clinic just on painting clouds, but let me pass on a few tricks.
The closer to the horizon the cloud is, the smaller it should be. Clouds are objects too and just like you would expect with an airplane, so goes a cloud. An airplane directly overhead is larger than an airplane off at a distance near the horizon.
Take your white you intend to use for your clouds, and mix some of the sky blue color in first. This will make the cloud look more like it belongs in your sky and will make it look less like a stark white cotton ball. The closer the cloud is to be to the horizon, the more blue you add.
Clouds are objects, so they generally have a shadow on their underside unless they are high altitude clouds or thin and very wispy. To get a good cloud shadow color, mix just some gray and more of your sky color together with some of your white, and use that to shade the underside of your cloud. Ideally, add the shading while the white is still wet so you can blend the white and the gray to create a gradual shadow effect.
It's best to mix all of your cloud paint ahead of time, paint a few clouds with white, then go back and add the shading color while the white is still wet. If you plan to add more than a few clouds, paint your clouds in layers ... starting near the horizon with lots of sky blue color in your white and gray paint.
Move up to the next layer, and put less blue in the white and gray.
Finally do the uppermost clouds, and use just a smidgen of blue in the white and gray.
Next, we'll look at how to get realistic looking track.
NEXT TOPIC: Ballasting and weathering track
Last edited by a moderator:
jfugate
Modeling SP in the 1980s
TOPIC THIS POST: Ballasting and weathering track
With the sky backdrop finished and the rough scenery plaster work done, I usually ballast and weather the track next. I use MicroEngineering flex track, codes 83, 70, and 55. I like this track because it has very tiny spike heads and a realistic randomness to the ties. Ballasted and weathered ME track looks better than handlaid, in my opinion.
(NOTE: Model Railroader editor Andy Sperandeo asked me to submit an article on these techniques, which I have done. My article should appear sometime next year, so watch for it. In the meantime, I'm going to be covering these techniques in the Siskiyou Line video series video volume 4 on scenery, among other things.)
Here's a photo of some finished track done this way (from the MR article):
I ballast the track using Woodland Scenics fine gray ballast, which is a color that matches the prototype Siskiyou Line. You'll need to pick a color that is right for the region you model. Keep in mind that when you bond the ballast using the techniques I outline here that the color darkens slightly.
I spread and shape the ballast using my fingers and a small stiff-bristled brush. I like to use my fingers because it gives me lots of control. I use the stiff-bristled brush to brush ballast away from the rail sides and off the tops of the ties after doing the shaping with my fingers. You want your ballast to be even with the tops of the ties, but not *on* the ties.
I use 70% isopropyl alcohol straight to wet the ballast prior to gluing. This pre-wetting step is essential because without it the glue will simply bead up all over the ballast and ruin all your careful shaping efforts. The alcohol is great because it goes right in without disturbing the ballast. I use an old white glue bottle, fill it with alcohol, set the tip to release just a drop at a time, and then dribble it all over the ballast until everything is soaked with alcohol.
Next, I bond the ballast with a white glue solution. I mix 1 part white glue to 3 parts water, and add several drops of dish detergent to the mix so it will soak in readily. Carefully dribble the white glue all over the ballast and let it dry overnight.
The white glue will displace a few ballast grains, but for the most part, things should stay put nicely if you follow these directions. For the few grains that always stray, after things have dried overnight, I take a small screwdriver and lightly scrape the stray grains off the rails and tie tops. Use light pressure on the rails so you don't strip any plastic spikeheads off the track (especially critical with ME track because of the tiny spikeheads).
Vaccum to remove any loose ballast grains.
I paint the sides of the rails with Pollyscale Roof Brown (mainline) or DRGW Depot Brown (sidings/spurs). I prefer waterbased paints, and Pollyscale sticks to the metal rails well. Use a size 00 brush, and don't fret if you get paint on the ties. If you look at real track, you'll see some of the weather color on the tie plates and ties under the rail -- so you're just making things more realistic if you get the rail weathering color on the ties around the base of the rail!
Next, I use an old phonebook as a paint palate and mix some craft acrylic paint (black, brown, white) to get some black-brown and gray-brown color that I paint randomly on a few ties using a size 0 brush. Hit maybe 20-30% of the ties to give them some realistic variation. Paint spur and siding ties more weathered brown and gray tints to reflect the greater weathering and less maintenance they typically get.
Let everything dry for about 30 minutes.
Next, we need to weather between the rails. Looking at prototype track, it tends to weather differently between the rails than it does elsewhere. To simulate this, I mix 1 part plaster with 1-part black powered tempera paint and brush this dry powdered mixture down the middle of the track (mainline).
I mix 1 part black, 1 part yellow, 2 parts brown, and 4 parts plaster and brush this dry powdered mixture down the middle of sidings and spurs.
I mist the track with wet water to fix the plaster-tempera mix in place (it will also fade somewhat). The secret is the plaster in this mix -- that will make between-the-track weathering more or less permanent once you mist it with water and it dries. For extra heavy weathering, brush some more weathering powder between the rails while the track is still damp.
Finally, I clean off the railheads with 600 grit sandpaper (polish the railheads, really) and then vacuum.
As you can see, if you treat the track like any other model and weather it appropriately, it will look great!
NEXT TOPIC: Finishing the rough scenery: applying dirt/background grass
With the sky backdrop finished and the rough scenery plaster work done, I usually ballast and weather the track next. I use MicroEngineering flex track, codes 83, 70, and 55. I like this track because it has very tiny spike heads and a realistic randomness to the ties. Ballasted and weathered ME track looks better than handlaid, in my opinion.
(NOTE: Model Railroader editor Andy Sperandeo asked me to submit an article on these techniques, which I have done. My article should appear sometime next year, so watch for it. In the meantime, I'm going to be covering these techniques in the Siskiyou Line video series video volume 4 on scenery, among other things.)
Here's a photo of some finished track done this way (from the MR article):
I ballast the track using Woodland Scenics fine gray ballast, which is a color that matches the prototype Siskiyou Line. You'll need to pick a color that is right for the region you model. Keep in mind that when you bond the ballast using the techniques I outline here that the color darkens slightly.
I spread and shape the ballast using my fingers and a small stiff-bristled brush. I like to use my fingers because it gives me lots of control. I use the stiff-bristled brush to brush ballast away from the rail sides and off the tops of the ties after doing the shaping with my fingers. You want your ballast to be even with the tops of the ties, but not *on* the ties.
I use 70% isopropyl alcohol straight to wet the ballast prior to gluing. This pre-wetting step is essential because without it the glue will simply bead up all over the ballast and ruin all your careful shaping efforts. The alcohol is great because it goes right in without disturbing the ballast. I use an old white glue bottle, fill it with alcohol, set the tip to release just a drop at a time, and then dribble it all over the ballast until everything is soaked with alcohol.
Next, I bond the ballast with a white glue solution. I mix 1 part white glue to 3 parts water, and add several drops of dish detergent to the mix so it will soak in readily. Carefully dribble the white glue all over the ballast and let it dry overnight.
The white glue will displace a few ballast grains, but for the most part, things should stay put nicely if you follow these directions. For the few grains that always stray, after things have dried overnight, I take a small screwdriver and lightly scrape the stray grains off the rails and tie tops. Use light pressure on the rails so you don't strip any plastic spikeheads off the track (especially critical with ME track because of the tiny spikeheads).
Vaccum to remove any loose ballast grains.
I paint the sides of the rails with Pollyscale Roof Brown (mainline) or DRGW Depot Brown (sidings/spurs). I prefer waterbased paints, and Pollyscale sticks to the metal rails well. Use a size 00 brush, and don't fret if you get paint on the ties. If you look at real track, you'll see some of the weather color on the tie plates and ties under the rail -- so you're just making things more realistic if you get the rail weathering color on the ties around the base of the rail!
Next, I use an old phonebook as a paint palate and mix some craft acrylic paint (black, brown, white) to get some black-brown and gray-brown color that I paint randomly on a few ties using a size 0 brush. Hit maybe 20-30% of the ties to give them some realistic variation. Paint spur and siding ties more weathered brown and gray tints to reflect the greater weathering and less maintenance they typically get.
Let everything dry for about 30 minutes.
Next, we need to weather between the rails. Looking at prototype track, it tends to weather differently between the rails than it does elsewhere. To simulate this, I mix 1 part plaster with 1-part black powered tempera paint and brush this dry powdered mixture down the middle of the track (mainline).
I mix 1 part black, 1 part yellow, 2 parts brown, and 4 parts plaster and brush this dry powdered mixture down the middle of sidings and spurs.
I mist the track with wet water to fix the plaster-tempera mix in place (it will also fade somewhat). The secret is the plaster in this mix -- that will make between-the-track weathering more or less permanent once you mist it with water and it dries. For extra heavy weathering, brush some more weathering powder between the rails while the track is still damp.
Finally, I clean off the railheads with 600 grit sandpaper (polish the railheads, really) and then vacuum.
As you can see, if you treat the track like any other model and weather it appropriately, it will look great!
NEXT TOPIC: Finishing the rough scenery: applying dirt/background grass
jfugate
Modeling SP in the 1980s
TOPIC THIS POST: Finishing rough scenery - Applying dirt/background grass
Now that we've ballasted the track, it's time to deal with all that bare scenery.
After the plaster sets up, I typically paint the scenery a basic dirt brown color. I go to the paint store and find the cheapest indoor flat latex paint I can find and have them mix me a good dirt color. Find a photo that has a dirt color you want to match, take it to the paint store, and match to a color chip, then have them mix up a batch for you.
Once I get home, I mix the paint 50-50 with water, and then paint it on the plaster scenery to give it a nice dirt brown color. I often do this before I ballast the track.
Progression from painted plaster (foreground), to plaster with dirt (middle foreground), and finally adding vegetation (in the distance). We cover painting the plaster and applying the dirt in this segment. We'll be covering the grass, bushes, and trees in later installments.
After the track has been ballasted, I start from the ground up adding scenery color and texture. For the background scenery, color maters most, and texture is not as important. You'll see what I mean in a moment.
I know lots of people who use fine ground foam or real dirt for their "dirt" in their layout scenery. Ground foam of any grind is generally too coarse for dirt, and a good range of dirt colors are hard to find. Real dirt has the problem that it's the right color outdoors under sunlight, but will be hopelessly too dark under indoor lighting of any kind. And real dirt will probably look the worst under common cool florescent lights, shifting color toward the blue-green end of the spectrum as well as looking too dark.
So I make my own "real dirt" by using powdered tempera paints and plain white plaster of paris. This is a variation on Linn Westcott's famous "zip texturing" idea popularized in the late 1960s. The nice thing is you can take a photo that has the dirt color you want to duplicate, and you can match it exactly by mixing your own colored "dirt" while you are looking at the photo under your layout lighting.
(Notice what you are doing here by matching the color in this fashion. You are getting a dirt color *under your indoor layout lighting* that looks the same as the dirt color outside in a photo taken under outdoor lighing. If you took some of that dirt from the photo area and brought it indoors and held it under your layout lighting next to the photo, it would look much too dark! So much for using real dirt.)
Be aware that the plaster - tempera paint mix darkens quite a bit when you wet it down, so mix up a batch that looks too light to you, then apply it to a scrap of scenery, wet it down and allow it to dry. Once it's dry, check the color. If it's too dark, add more plaster and try again. If it's too light, add more color and try again. Keep track of your formula so you can repeat it later.
Generally, you want somewhere between 2 - 8 parts plaster to color, or perhaps 10 parts plaster if you need a really light "dirt". Keep track of the total parts that are color. For example, the rich brown dirt color below has 3 parts that are color, so 9 parts plaster is really a ratio of 3 parts plaster to 1 part color (9 divided by 3 is 3). For reference, here's some simple formulas I use.
Rich brown dirt:
1 part black
2 parts brown
9 parts plaster (3:1 color to plaster)
Tan dirt:
1 part black
2 parts brown
1 part yellow
16 parts plaster (4:1 color to plaster)
Get yourself a tea strainer, spray wet water (water with a few drops of detergent in it) on the bare brown scenery, and sprinkle some of the plaster-tempera mix onto the scenery. Then mist the plaster mix from above lightly with more water from a pump spray bottle. In a couple of hours, the plaster should be dry and set up. If it's still loose, spray it again.
If I want something that looks muddy, I'll soak the plaster good. Or if I want a more dusty look, I'll take it easy with the water.
I also use this technique for background grassy slopes, since the color is more important than the texture for background grass. Mix up a color that matches the grass color I'm using in the foreground, then I'll add a pinch of blue tempera to it (and *just* a pinch) and add an extra part of plaster to lighten it. Here's an example for background yellow grass.
Background yellow grass:
2 parts yellow
1 part brown
pinch of blue
15 parts plaster (5:1 color to plaster)
Background yellow grass powder has been applied to the hillside against the backdrop in this photo.
Now that we've got some basic dirt color on things, it's time to move toward the foreground and look at adding some realistic grass.
NEXT TOPIC: From the ground up - Realistic grass
Now that we've ballasted the track, it's time to deal with all that bare scenery.
After the plaster sets up, I typically paint the scenery a basic dirt brown color. I go to the paint store and find the cheapest indoor flat latex paint I can find and have them mix me a good dirt color. Find a photo that has a dirt color you want to match, take it to the paint store, and match to a color chip, then have them mix up a batch for you.
Once I get home, I mix the paint 50-50 with water, and then paint it on the plaster scenery to give it a nice dirt brown color. I often do this before I ballast the track.
Progression from painted plaster (foreground), to plaster with dirt (middle foreground), and finally adding vegetation (in the distance). We cover painting the plaster and applying the dirt in this segment. We'll be covering the grass, bushes, and trees in later installments.
After the track has been ballasted, I start from the ground up adding scenery color and texture. For the background scenery, color maters most, and texture is not as important. You'll see what I mean in a moment.
I know lots of people who use fine ground foam or real dirt for their "dirt" in their layout scenery. Ground foam of any grind is generally too coarse for dirt, and a good range of dirt colors are hard to find. Real dirt has the problem that it's the right color outdoors under sunlight, but will be hopelessly too dark under indoor lighting of any kind. And real dirt will probably look the worst under common cool florescent lights, shifting color toward the blue-green end of the spectrum as well as looking too dark.
So I make my own "real dirt" by using powdered tempera paints and plain white plaster of paris. This is a variation on Linn Westcott's famous "zip texturing" idea popularized in the late 1960s. The nice thing is you can take a photo that has the dirt color you want to duplicate, and you can match it exactly by mixing your own colored "dirt" while you are looking at the photo under your layout lighting.
(Notice what you are doing here by matching the color in this fashion. You are getting a dirt color *under your indoor layout lighting* that looks the same as the dirt color outside in a photo taken under outdoor lighing. If you took some of that dirt from the photo area and brought it indoors and held it under your layout lighting next to the photo, it would look much too dark! So much for using real dirt.)
Be aware that the plaster - tempera paint mix darkens quite a bit when you wet it down, so mix up a batch that looks too light to you, then apply it to a scrap of scenery, wet it down and allow it to dry. Once it's dry, check the color. If it's too dark, add more plaster and try again. If it's too light, add more color and try again. Keep track of your formula so you can repeat it later.
Generally, you want somewhere between 2 - 8 parts plaster to color, or perhaps 10 parts plaster if you need a really light "dirt". Keep track of the total parts that are color. For example, the rich brown dirt color below has 3 parts that are color, so 9 parts plaster is really a ratio of 3 parts plaster to 1 part color (9 divided by 3 is 3). For reference, here's some simple formulas I use.
Rich brown dirt:
1 part black
2 parts brown
9 parts plaster (3:1 color to plaster)
Tan dirt:
1 part black
2 parts brown
1 part yellow
16 parts plaster (4:1 color to plaster)
Get yourself a tea strainer, spray wet water (water with a few drops of detergent in it) on the bare brown scenery, and sprinkle some of the plaster-tempera mix onto the scenery. Then mist the plaster mix from above lightly with more water from a pump spray bottle. In a couple of hours, the plaster should be dry and set up. If it's still loose, spray it again.
If I want something that looks muddy, I'll soak the plaster good. Or if I want a more dusty look, I'll take it easy with the water.
I also use this technique for background grassy slopes, since the color is more important than the texture for background grass. Mix up a color that matches the grass color I'm using in the foreground, then I'll add a pinch of blue tempera to it (and *just* a pinch) and add an extra part of plaster to lighten it. Here's an example for background yellow grass.
Background yellow grass:
2 parts yellow
1 part brown
pinch of blue
15 parts plaster (5:1 color to plaster)
Background yellow grass powder has been applied to the hillside against the backdrop in this photo.
Now that we've got some basic dirt color on things, it's time to move toward the foreground and look at adding some realistic grass.
NEXT TOPIC: From the ground up - Realistic grass
jfugate
Modeling SP in the 1980s
TOPIC THIS POST: From the ground up - Realistic grass
One scenery area where I am a real fanatic is modeling grass correctly. I've been on a crusade of sorts for years to find the best materials for modeling grass realistically, yet quickly enough that it doesn't take a lifetime to scenic your layout.
Getting realistic looking tall grass on your layout does a lot to enhance it's realism.
I've tried sawdust, ground foam, twine, sisal rope, brush bristles, felt, yarn, sweatshirt fabric, static grass, fake fur, and silfor.
Twine, sisal rope, brush bristles, and yarn all require you plant them a clump at a time, and it can take several evenings of tedious work just to do a small field so that it has more grass than bare spots.
Sweatshirt fabric and static grass work pretty well, but you have to do a lot of fiddling with contact cement, equipment, and so on, and the results are sometimes inconsistent.
Fake fur and silfor work the best in my experience, with a couple of caveats.
Fake fur looks just a little too "fuzzy" on the edges and is hard to transition from grass to bare spots convincingly. Silflor is just about the perfect all around grass modeling material, looking great on the edges as well as in the middle, but it costs something like $20 a square foot, so it's not cheap. Compare that to 75 cents a square foot for fake fur and you can see which one ought to be used for the larger grass expanses.
So I model a large grass expanse with a combination of fake fur and silflor. I use silfor on the edges and fake fur in the middle of a larger grass expanse. I get fur with a similar nap length to the silfor, and I brush in acrylic paint both into the fur and the silfor to match their colors. Here's a couple of photos to show you the result:
First the finished scene, without distinguishing the fake fur and the silfor.
The the same scene, with the fake fur and silfor boundaries marked.
This approach economizes on the use of silfor, yet solves the fake fur edging issue. The boundary is nearly indestinguishable and can only be seen up close if you know what you are looking for. No one even notices unless you point it out, and even then most people can't see the boundary with certainty.
To attach the grass, I use hot glue. Get yourself some rubber dishwashing gloves and put one on your main hand you use to plant the grass to protect yourself from the hot glue -- it can cause nasty burns if you aren't careful. I'm left handed, so I wear a glove on my left hand.
I undercut the backing on the silfor then put a ring of hot glue around the edge and press it down to the scenery and hold it for a few seconds to allow the glue to set up. For larger expanses of fake fur, I cover the backing with zig zag trails of glue, then press it in place.
I like the hot glue because it makes the work go fast. I can press a piece of grass in place and move on a few moments later to do the next clump or spot of grass.
The one downside of hot glue is the fine web-like glue strings you get all over everything. Use a strong light and just grab them up like you do cobwebs and pull them off the scenery now and then as you work.
Next, bushes and other ground cover.
NOTE: I also discuss the pros and cons of silfor and fake fur on my Siskiyou Line web site at: http://siskiyou.railfan.net/model/constructionNotes/silflor.html
NEXT TOPIC: From the ground up - Realistic bushes and ground cover
One scenery area where I am a real fanatic is modeling grass correctly. I've been on a crusade of sorts for years to find the best materials for modeling grass realistically, yet quickly enough that it doesn't take a lifetime to scenic your layout.
Getting realistic looking tall grass on your layout does a lot to enhance it's realism.
I've tried sawdust, ground foam, twine, sisal rope, brush bristles, felt, yarn, sweatshirt fabric, static grass, fake fur, and silfor.
Twine, sisal rope, brush bristles, and yarn all require you plant them a clump at a time, and it can take several evenings of tedious work just to do a small field so that it has more grass than bare spots.
Sweatshirt fabric and static grass work pretty well, but you have to do a lot of fiddling with contact cement, equipment, and so on, and the results are sometimes inconsistent.
Fake fur and silfor work the best in my experience, with a couple of caveats.
Fake fur looks just a little too "fuzzy" on the edges and is hard to transition from grass to bare spots convincingly. Silflor is just about the perfect all around grass modeling material, looking great on the edges as well as in the middle, but it costs something like $20 a square foot, so it's not cheap. Compare that to 75 cents a square foot for fake fur and you can see which one ought to be used for the larger grass expanses.
So I model a large grass expanse with a combination of fake fur and silflor. I use silfor on the edges and fake fur in the middle of a larger grass expanse. I get fur with a similar nap length to the silfor, and I brush in acrylic paint both into the fur and the silfor to match their colors. Here's a couple of photos to show you the result:
First the finished scene, without distinguishing the fake fur and the silfor.
The the same scene, with the fake fur and silfor boundaries marked.
This approach economizes on the use of silfor, yet solves the fake fur edging issue. The boundary is nearly indestinguishable and can only be seen up close if you know what you are looking for. No one even notices unless you point it out, and even then most people can't see the boundary with certainty.
To attach the grass, I use hot glue. Get yourself some rubber dishwashing gloves and put one on your main hand you use to plant the grass to protect yourself from the hot glue -- it can cause nasty burns if you aren't careful. I'm left handed, so I wear a glove on my left hand.
I undercut the backing on the silfor then put a ring of hot glue around the edge and press it down to the scenery and hold it for a few seconds to allow the glue to set up. For larger expanses of fake fur, I cover the backing with zig zag trails of glue, then press it in place.
I like the hot glue because it makes the work go fast. I can press a piece of grass in place and move on a few moments later to do the next clump or spot of grass.
The one downside of hot glue is the fine web-like glue strings you get all over everything. Use a strong light and just grab them up like you do cobwebs and pull them off the scenery now and then as you work.
Next, bushes and other ground cover.
NOTE: I also discuss the pros and cons of silfor and fake fur on my Siskiyou Line web site at: http://siskiyou.railfan.net/model/constructionNotes/silflor.html
NEXT TOPIC: From the ground up - Realistic bushes and ground cover
D
dthurman
Guest
Joe
Who sells the silfor? Is this strickly a model railroad material, or would craft stores also carry this item. I have yet to see it at my LHS. Looks like a nice product, I have been using WS field grass but boy is it time consuming, and not the easiest to manage in large sections. I like how you got the fur and silfor blend. Nice work!
Who sells the silfor? Is this strickly a model railroad material, or would craft stores also carry this item. I have yet to see it at my LHS. Looks like a nice product, I have been using WS field grass but boy is it time consuming, and not the easiest to manage in large sections. I like how you got the fur and silfor blend. Nice work!
hminky
Member
I color faux fur for grass using a product called Dye-na-flow. I have a web article at:
http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/fur_grass/
The web article has a complete unedited version of my article printed in the March 2005 Railroad Model Craftsman.
The faux fur in O scale
The faux fur "mowed" for my move to OO scale
The article also covers green grass and making faux fur bushes
A close up of the grass
Thank you if you visit
Harold
http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/fur_grass/
The web article has a complete unedited version of my article printed in the March 2005 Railroad Model Craftsman.
The faux fur in O scale
The faux fur "mowed" for my move to OO scale
The article also covers green grass and making faux fur bushes
A close up of the grass
Thank you if you visit
Harold
Last edited by a moderator:
D
dthurman
Guest
Harold
What is the material you used in that second to last picture with that green grass on the lower right? That looks very convincing.
What is the material you used in that second to last picture with that green grass on the lower right? That looks very convincing.
jfugate
Modeling SP in the 1980s
You can get silflor at: http://www.sceneryexpress.com/departments.asp?dept=1040
Contact Scenery Express and get their catalog. Absolutely hands down the best scenery materials catalog in the hobby! I keep a copy handy in the "reading room" for planning scenery projects.
Contact Scenery Express and get their catalog. Absolutely hands down the best scenery materials catalog in the hobby! I keep a copy handy in the "reading room" for planning scenery projects.
D
dthurman
Guest
jfugate said:You can get silflor at: http://www.sceneryexpress.com/departments.asp?dept=1040
Contact Scenery Express and get their catalog. Absolutely hands down the best scenery materials catalog in the hobby! I keep a copy handy in the "reading room" for planning scenery projects.
Thanks Joe! Wow is that stuff some $$$ but looks great, time to save up, hope for Xmas money I guess, though was hoping for subscription renewels
For those on budgets, is there anything that is similar in the "real" world that might replicate the silflor? I understand the fur, was hoping maybe something else would fit that bill. I can see it might be a unique item though.
D
dthurman
Guest
hminky said:
Thanks Harold, that does look good. May have to look into that. Scratch that, I will be scouring the house for some fur, though if I cut any pieces from the GF's rabbit coat I may be posting from that great train set in the sky
