From what I have seen, between your videos and these pix, I'm thinking I need to talk my wife into a trip out west! Looking good, Tom!
Making Trees Makin some trees, started with Sage Brush, fortunately, we have hundreds of thousands of square miles of the weed out here. Took some hobby tack from Woodland Scenics, dabbed it on the ends of the limbs waited for it to dry and then installed the Sweetwater Black Poly Fiber as thin as I could.. Then sprayed the poly with Aquanet hair spray until it beads up a little, then shake the ground foam on to the tree. Then spray again a little to finish he deal. Anyway its a cheap way to make lots of what I think are pretty descent trees. Anyone have any more ideas on how to make cheap easy trees?? Pine or whatever? Thanks Tom H
The finished product looks convincing. They could be elms, oaks or maples. Your process using plentiful natural material looks like a valid way to make a forest. It is a good application of the principle that branching obeys the rules of fractal geometry! Pines would be tougher for you would have to either trim the little twigs close to the main stem so they taper to the top or find another woody plant with that kind of growth habit. I cannot think of any offhand.
Tom, sounds like your efforts (in a little more detail) would be a good article for the next "Meteor". Back in the 70's Elmer "Bud" McClery (I hope I spelled his name correctly) was helping me with scenery on my home layout. Bud was a master at small details and working with almost nothing in the way of "bought" scenic materials. He made Colorado looking pine trees from twisting two wires chucked in a drill with unraveled hemp rope glued between the two wires. After twisting he then shaped them with scissors, dyed them with Rit dye, sprayed them with a wet glue and sprinkled dyed sawdust. They were very good looking trees and he would make several sizes. I still have a dozen or two in a box. Will let you have them all for $1.00 + postage, and I will send them cheapest way. The dollar will almost pay my gas to the post and back-LOL. Anyway - let me know.
Re: Making Trees Tom H - First, the sagebrush trunks look great. It sounds like I need to see if my Wyoming-based uncle can grab some for me when it's convenient. He's always been a great enabler of my model railroading since I was a kid. I've used some old, dried basil plants from the garden to good effect, with WS foam, poly-fiber or foliage netting for the greenery. I can't take credit for the idea, however: I think Jim James suggested it after posting some photos of his layout. Best Regards,
|-||-|A little more progress in the last couple days. Worked up the gumption to mold some more rocks, need some more trees and ground clutter. Gotta get some water going one day too, but that's it for now|-||-| Tom Holley
Thanks Andre, The scenery shell is cardboard webbing with resin paper hot glued together, then I use the cheapest painters caulk possible to smooth the seams. Then put a couple coats of Elmer's glue on (carpenter type). The dried glue may be what your seeing, I like to use it without thinning almost use a putty knife to put on, the glue penetrates the paper, it becomes very pliable kind of draws up a little and dries harder than you might think. It goes very quick as long as you have all the supplies handy. If there were no rocks to mold you could easily do all this from start to finish in a few hours. The rock molds are of lump coal. Tom Holley The stinking Auto rack train stalled, got to get another Geep.
Tom, great work. I especially like the Ship IT on the Frisco on the bridge. What decal(s) did you use?
a-men bother!! Never too many Geeps. Those autoracks are wrapped around a few curves and just like the real thing the curve bind got us. Thanks for all the comments guys, I hope to get the scenic shell down to the yard in the next step. All of this scenery stuff is a huge pain. Not that I give 2 hoots about how the MRR looks but this scenery could keep derailments from going to the concrete floor. Thanks Tom Holley
