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Model train bushes

Rob’s been back in touch, this time with an excellent tutorial on model train bushes:

“Hi Al,

I decided to try my hand at making bushes and shrubs. I have made trees and planted grasses, but now I think I will round things out.

Over the years, I have spent a good bit of my hard-earned money buying bushes from online sources and decided there must be a better way. While researching, I discovered that several folks had had good luck using manilla or hemp rope. I decided to try it.

I found that I could buy a huge quantity of this rope at my local big-box home store for next to nothing (100 feet for $5US). This is a lifetime supply of the stuff.

I found that cutting the rope into small sections of 20-25 mm (3/4 to 1 inch) seemed to work the best. I found handling anything smaller than that problematic with my fat fingers.

One can always trim the final bush to whatever size is desired after they are plunked into the hot glue and it has set up.

Foliage for these bushes can be commercial ground scatter, like you can get from Woodland Scenics, painted sawdust, or paper leaves, as I used in the video. I got my paper leaves from two different hobby stores and Amazon.

For the glue, I used Matt Medium, an artist’s product you can get at art stores or from Amazon. It dries to an invisible thin layer that is very stable over long periods, many decades.

The waxed paper I used was very thin and did not have much wax on it. A better quality waxed paper would be better, but I just did not have any.

A big thanks to Rob for sharing his model train bushes step-by-step.

You can see his excellent tutorial on trees here: Making trees model railroad.

And there’s Bill’s too:

Model train trees

John also did a fabulous scenery ‘how to’ on making a bramble or overgrown area for your layout.

That’s all for this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you press the fun button and get started, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

PS More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.

Need buildings for your layout? Have a look at the Silly Discount bundle.

Turnout motors – Brian adds 14 to his layout

Brian’s been back in touch. This time he’s added 14 turnout motors to his layout:

“Hi Al,

A lot of work done on the layout but not much to show as it is quite a long drawn out tedious of job adding 14 Blue Point Motors under the layout to match the track layout above.

First off, I remodelled the corner section on the lower level by removing the river bed and the two bridges (as seen in a previous article). It was too awkward for the track to fit where the industry’s would be. River and bridges removed as seen below.

Added a mountain in the corner to hide the wires leading up to the top level. A lot of scenery still be added in the near future.

Needed threaded rod (2mm diameter) to connect the Blue Point motors under the layout to the front facia panel. Shown here is the rod being held in the vice and cutting thread on the ends.

Blue Point Motors under the layout, one rod, left connected to the knob on the facia so far and the next one hanging ready be connected to the front facia.

Shown here are the knobs used to operate the points.

Below is a view looking down the lines to the yard and engine terminal facilities.

An overall view of the last leg on the lower level of the layout. Still have a river leading onto part of the harbour shown on the left. Can also be seen top left in the second photo below.

A view below looking in the opposite direction with the brewery in the far corner. The Seafood Emporium will be placed in the cut-out of the harbour seen below.

Once all the track work is complete and tested, I can then concentrate on the best part of my hobby – filling in all the empty spaces with buildings and lots of details.

Still have a lot of structures to build. Very easy to do as the shelf is only 600mm wide.

This is far as I am with this last section and I must mention my friend Mike, as he has been a great help in getting this far and his expertise in soldering has been fantastic. Droppers and wiring ect. as well as above and below the layout.

That’s all for now – till next time.

Brian – the HOn3 guy in Knysna.”

A big thanks to Brain for sharing how he adds his turnout motors.

I do love seeing how he turns a blank canvess into a detailed layout. As Brian says, this is the tedius part, so I thought it would be fun to make a youtube of the more finished parts.

Just so you know, it the software that adds the water ripples – though Brian’s water is spot on, as you can see in the pics.

That’s all for this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get started on your layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

PPS More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.

Need buildings for your layout? Have a look at the Silly Discount bundle.

Realistic rock models for model railroad

Ned’s been back in touch with his take on realistic rock models for model railroad:

“Alastair,

Some folks asked for the process I use for creating my rock ledges. Here is the process I use. Comments and recommendations are welcome – I am always looking for ways to improve the process.

1. Using 1” insulating foam board create a vertical wall for gluing layers of foam board.

2. Create layers of foam board utilizing 1”, 1.5” and 2” foam board roughly shaped using my table saw and band saw. I use a combination of hot glue and Elmers White glue to glue the foam board.

3. Start creating layered rock with a wire bow hot foam cutter. I make striated layers, about 1/4” deep of non- parallel lines.

4. Make additional striations with a carpet knife. The carpet knife is very sharp but creates a much rougher cut than the hot wire cutter. I also use the carpet knife to texture areas of the foam that could not be reached with the hot knife.

5. Rough/age the rock ledges with a wire brush. This softens the edges and pulls out some of the foam loosened by cutting.

6. Create water flow paths down through the foam to break up some of the horizontal runs and show erosion.

7. Vacuum out as much of the loose foam as possible.

8. Paint a base color with an airbrush. In this case I used a Stone color for the base layer. Note that my local hardware store sells gray foam insulation so a primer coat has not been necessary.

9. Add accent colors, again with the air brush, using Black, Burnt Umber and Yellow Ocher. I often mix some white with the Yellow Ocher and a touch of Black with the Burnt Umber to achieve the tones I desire. The black is applied in the deeper crevices, the Burnt Umber in areas I believe would have soil and the Yellow Ocher as a very light tone in the stone and as a base color with the Burnt Umber as a base for grass and bushes. Dry brush with white and very light grey to accent the sun exposed rock edges.