List your scenery techniques you'd like to try

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DaytonPiquaRR

DaytonPiquaRR

Freelance
I was sitting here pondering and the thread about making sidewalks out of joint compound got me thinking that a lot of this commercial products we use could be substituted with something else or you could get creative and make your own scenery items.

I especially like the process I've read about of making your own trees, which I am sure saves some cash.

Anyway, my idea is maybe using a mortar and pestle and taking a piece of drywall (gypsum) and crushing it into powder, then dying it to make realistic types of dirt. I don't know if anyone else has accomplished that or tried it.

Another thing is to maybe use a peppercorn grinder and walnut shells or seed husks to create a type of gravel.

Maybe there is a place to buy raw lichen and pulverize it up as well in bulk, dying it and reselling it like the commercial companies do.

Thoughts? Ideas?
 
Some other ideas might be taking chunks of fibrous ceiling tile and running it through a blender so that it is nothing but small slivers, then dying those for some sort of grassy material.

Use ground foam over small chunks of fine steel wool to create underbrush or shrubbery.

Clay bricks pulverized would make for nice gravel of different shades of color as well.
 
DaytonPiquaRR said:
Some other ideas might be taking chunks of fibrous ceiling tile and running it through a blender so that it is nothing but small slivers, then dying those for some sort of grassy material.

Use ground foam over small chunks of fine steel wool to create underbrush or shrubbery.

Clay bricks pulverized would make for nice gravel of different shades of color as well.
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I would keep steel wool far from the layout, its little metal fibers will cause much agony when they are attracted to little magnetic motors. I would use polyester pillow stuffing instead.
 


I myself am playing with the texture spray paint, for tree bark this week. I also think, that paper, and/or toilet paper dipped in mod podge will make a nice peeling bark effect, especially for eucalyptus trees.
 
kjd said:
I would keep steel wool far from the layout, its little metal fibers will cause much agony when they are attracted to little magnetic motors. I would use polyester pillow stuffing instead.
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Even better, and much cheaper than steel wool! Good point.
 
Here's some of the things I've used over the years.
Dyed saw dust for grass, ballast & dirt roads. Patching plaster for mountains, fine mesh screen for chainlink fences, wire for tree trunks, crackle spray paint for asphalt roads, busted up lava rock for tallus, clear latex paint for rivers, clear silicone caulk for waterfalls & rough water, wood stir sticks for boardwalks, structure siding, bridges & roads, plastic stir sticks for pipe loads,
clear plexiglass for ponds & rivers, dark plexiglass for window glass in buildings,
make all my structure signs & billboard signs on my PC, celotex ceiling tiles for mountain scenes, shag carpet for long grass, paint brush bristles for long & short reeds in ponds, christmas tree lites for building structures, scrub pads for shrubs, twigs off of live tree's for tree armatures, all kinds of plastic shelving strips for scratchbuilt structures, fibreglass panels for structure roofs, automotive 12v. flashers for crossing signals, plastic mirrors for tunnel backs, tall bridges made out of foam board, plywood & plastic sheeting, bridges made out of small steel rod welded w/a mig welder, brass or aluminum water nozzles for smoke stacks, cardboard for buildings(still have 1 of these),
party toothpicks for posts, & a few other items that I have forgotten about.

Larry

:D
 
Not my own idea, but you can take old pillow foam, wet it down some, and put it in a blender (not wife's favorite). This will do a fair job at pulverizing it for ground foam. Then put it in a plastic bucket and soak in a Ritz dye solution the color you are after. Mine turned out good, but was a little larger than what I was after. It would have been great for O scale and I may have been able to get it smaller with some more pulverizing.

Use plain old dirt for the ground. I have used a lot of this, but man does it get hard! Always sterilize at 450 degrees for 20 minutes, use a magnet to remove any ferrous materials, and sift to size. I paint apply a 3-1 white glue solution to the top and then use a fine sifter to sprinkle the dirt on. It will dry a shade darker than the original color, so you want a lighter color dirt beyond your preference. You can always paint the dirt different tones to get it "Just Right".
 
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I'm looking forward to modeling 200 ft trees. But my challenge is modeling the forest floor because it will be visible.
 
Wire is the best material I know so far to model trees, I made a couple of HUGE trees some years ago, and even bare without foliage they look pretty convincing, I will try to take some new pictures of them, since when I took pictures back then, I had a crappy camera.

Tip: after modeling the tree from wire, I used to apply some glue on the wire and roll around the trunk, some thread tape ( the thin white tape used for plumbing ) it normally takes the shape of the wire strands when pressed in some places and looks like a tree bark.
 


5 - 7 cms? what kinda trees r U modeling then? or is it a giant scale U modeling? I cannot still imagine an HO scale tree with 7 cms dia. trunk. :confused: :confused: :confused:
 
finaly...at last : trees again....

Chip: I'm looking forward to modeling 200 ft trees. But my challenge is modeling the forest floor because it will be visible.

WHOW exiting to read! ( little bit off topic)
How far will you / can you go..I mean up to the ceiling...and where will they be placed on your layout?
sequoiadendron giganteum or sequoia sempervirens?
ad 2 pictures last one is seq.gig.


Jos
 
I love threads like this. I'm always looking for household items to model with. Part of the reason I don't buy what I need is the wife. If I go to Home Depot to buy a dual use item (drywall mud, glue, paint, etc), she doesn't say a word. If I go to the hobby shop or Hobbly Lobby, that is spending money on TRAINS! That requires authorization! One of my biggest money savers has been trees. I used the dried up sedum from my yard. They are not perfect trees, but they look good enough. I have so much leftover ground foam from trying to model fall. I recolored most of the reds and oranges to browns and tans with the help of a food processor and paint. There are some good ideas in this thread, keep'em coming.
 
Jos,

I'm planning on going up about 70 cm or so. If and when I do the coastal redwoods, I may exceed a meter. I'm looking a Douglas Fir and Ponderosa Pine of the Sierras.
 
add the website..just look. it is HO !
O.K.thier not ALL made from broomsticks..but the 'small" ones are..=)
 


are you going to model the trunks out of balsa wood( hope it is the correct name for this very light ( weight) wood . (make model airplanes out of it.....)

Jos
 
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