home made scenery ?? need help thinking of makeing my own scenery

[rrmchone]

does anyone know how to make really realistic scenery without going to the hobby store to buy woodland scenics products?    i would like to see my layout through a natral point of view    trees ....grass..etc     but i need to know how to do these things in an ho scale  size ??

[jonathan]

rrmchone,

Opinions will vary on homemade scenery.  The problem stems from trying to use materials that won't warp, rot, or collect bugs.  That being said, I have used some 'around the house' materials for some of my scenery:

1.  Cereal boxes for streets and parking lots;

2.  Newspaper and making tape to create land forms;

3.  Packing foam to simulate foliage on mountainsides; just tear it up a little to create uneven greenery.

4.  Paint sticks!  You can do a million things with paint sticks.  They are free!

5.  Joint compound, or leftover Spackle, to create rock outcroppings.

Just a few examples to get your creative juices flowing.

A work of caution.  The WS ground foam is the best product for grass, bushes and leaves.  It's a petroleum based product (plastic) so you're not dealing with a myriad of problem trying to use natural products.

It's a lot of work, but dipping paper towels in plaster is cheaper than plaster cloth.  However, I switched to the plaster cloth for strength and neatness (less mess).  It's also lighter.  Oh, and I pulled out the newspaper after the land form shells had hardened.

I'm sure others have better ideas than me.

Regards,

Jonathan

[mabloodhound]

Furnace filter material, that messy, randomly woven stuff, not the even weave.   Makes great foliage for bushes and tree tops.   It does need the addition of some WS leaves, etc. to finish it off.

[richg]

If you use dirt from wherever, bake it in an oven to get rid of bugs, worms, eggs of some kind.
After that, run a magnet throughly through the dirt. Good chance you will magnetic particles in the dirt that will cause electrical issues in the future. Sifting will help also.
I read this some years ago in a model railroad magazine before the Internet was ever thought of.

Again, a Google search for model railroad real dirt. Use model railroad with whatever material you are interested in. You can build yourself quite a library in Favorites.
Tough getting people to recognize the value of a web search. I use to have to go to the local library and look at train books  before the web came around.

http://www.google.com/search?q=model+railroad+dirt&hl=en#hl=en&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=model+railroad+real+dirt&cp=20&pf=p&sclient=psy&source=hp&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=model+railroad+real+dirt&pbx=1&fp=591c13988e8371da

Rich

[NarrowMinded]

Try large Chain craft stores like Micheal's they have much lower prices for diarama type stuff then Hobby shops. you can find a lot of good stuff in their floral area both plastic and natural, they have treated bags of moss ten times the size of a woodlands scenics bag for about the same price,

NM

[Jim Banner]

Before Woodland Scenics, there was dyed sawdust.  The best "dye" is artists' acrylic that typically comes in a tube.  A 6" to 8" worm mixed into a pint of warm water will dye a lot of sawdust.  I found it best to run the sawdust through a homemade fly screen sieve, once before dying and once again after drying.  Cadmium green, raw umber, raw sienna, ochre, and some small amounts of red and yellow are useful colours, particularly when several colours of dyed sawdust are blended.  Dyed sawdust made this way can be applied using water based glues, just as you would with ground foam.

An alternative method of dying sawdust is to use food colouring.  However, if applied with water based glues, the colours will run.  It can, however, be applied with hair spray, making it particularly useful for furnace filter trees.

Speaking of trees, if you need a thousand or so background trees in a hurry, airbrush the ripe seed heads of Curly Dock.  Curly Dock likes water and in my part of the world, is frequently found in ditches where water collects.  It ripens in fall to a rich sorrel brown.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/a_y_jackson/834258232/
First step is to cut the long, bushy seed heads into tree sized pieces.  Second step is to make sure the seed pods stay attached over the long haul.  Dipping each tree into a 50:50 mixture of white glue and water and hanging them to dry takes care of that.  Third and last step is to airbrush some colour onto the trees.  I use Cadmium Green artists' acrylic, about a 4" worm in half a cup of warm water.
Cadmium is poisonous and when sprayed, both a chemical type mask AND a spray booth must be used.  No mask, no booth = no spray.
All that is required is a light spray, enough to colour the seed pods without hiding the sorrel colour of the stems and their branches.  Not exactly specimen trees but you can produce a whole background forest in a couple of afternoons.  And spend a pleasant time collecting your Curly Dock to boot.

Jim