How To Clinic

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Everyone needs suggestions or ideas at some time so we have added this page to help with layouts.  These are just suggestions and not guarantees.  Please contact us if you are in need of further help.

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As model railroaders, most of us are frequently concerned about the accuracy of the color renditions on our models.  Some manufacturers say that the most common customer complaint they receive is that such and such a model isn't the right color.  There are many reasons for this. For one thing, our human memory isn't perfect in
remembering hues of color. Then you have differences in lighting, photos that have color shifted over the years, and even sky reflection that changes the perceived shades of color.  Another factor is scale. Something large just inherently seems different than something smaller.  At the Cocoa Beach Railroad Prototype Modelers meet this last February, Bill Schieder of Branchline Models told a story to illustrate this point.
He explained that he had happened upon a museum that was in the process of painting a diesel locomotive. The people there were telling him about the battles they had had over getting the right shade of paint, with people even bringing models in to say this model was the right shade and what they had chosen for their engine was wrong.  While they were spraying, Bill got a model diesel body out of his car and had them spray the model with the same paint they were using out of the same bucket and through the same spray gun.
The next day when both prototype loco and his model were dry,  he asked several people not in the know about his little experiment to compare the two engines. Bill reported to us that only three people out of ten said the full size engine and the model matched. Two said they were close and the rest said it wasn't a match at all.
Since then, Bill says, he doesn't worry about the complaints. He does the best he can do and knows that some folks wouldn't be satisfied if Pullman or EMD themselves had painted the models.
So paint your models to suit your own eye and don't let it bother you if anyone else says you didn't get it right. After all, It's YOUR railroad and it can be any color you want.
Submitted by member, Chuck Peck

 

A general overview of making Pine trees:


Our friend Tom O’Rourke grows Fukusir Ferns in his garden. The trees you see in the photo were made as follows:

Buy unfinished tapered chop stick blanks from a Dollar General Store. They come in packages of 25 or 50 at the store.

With a 1/32 or 1/64 drill in a Rotary tool such as a Dremel, CAREFULLY drill a bunch of holes through the wood starting near the top (thinnest end), working your way around the perimeter of the chopstick as you go lower. Stop about 1/8 of the way from the bottom so some tree trunk will show when the trees are complete and planted.  Tom prefers to make holes the entire length…it’s up to you.

Run a wood file lengthwise (top to bottom) making grooves as you go around the perimeter of the chopstick to suggest bark...but don't make it look too perfect...vary the strokes.

Mix some Woodland Scenics slate gray and/or black India ink and make a watery mess in a flat pie tin in which to soak the chopstick trees. Allow everything to be fully absorbed into the wood by waiting a day or two. Remove and permit drying on blank newsprint. Pine trees tend to be darker in certain parts of America.

Harvest the ferns...cut them into manageable lengths and place into a tray. With tweezers, carefully push a fern tip through the first hole at the thin end of the chopstick tree. Grab what came through the hole and gently (emphasis on gently) pull the fern about 1/3 of its length through. Repeat the process with as many holes as you'd like to fill (there are usually many unused holes when finished) by working around the perimeter of the chopstick tree as you go from top to bottom.

With scissors, randomly trim the "branches" making shorter ones toward the top of the tree but being careful to vary lengths and avoid a store-bought look. Push a finished tree base into a sheet of Styrofoam about 18"x30"...you don't want it too heavy when filled with trees.

You have the option of spraying the trees with glycerin or clear epoxy or whatever you can find to preserve the color of the ferns. If you don't, they'll eventually turn a yellowish-gold which actually doesn't look too bad on a Fall-oriented layout.

When "planting" the trees, dab the base into Elmer's white glue and set with pliers as shown in the photos. Sometimes you can run a small tip-less pin into the bottom of the tree for added stability once planted.

Sprinkle Woodland Scenics ground fill around the tree bases to hide the tree base tips or you can gather pine needles from the Ocala National Forest or your backyard, whichever it easier to steal stuff from...cut them into HO scale lengths and place them on the forest floor to complete the scene. Spray with Hairspray or diluted Elmer's glue to keep everything in place.

  Tom O'Rourke’s layout…”planting” trees

 Note: Tom’s camouflaged SCUD missile launcher near the ledge.

 

 

Rock Ledge procedure:
Rubber molds can be made of flat pieces of bituminous coal.  

Regular plaster is poured and permitted to harden. Once hard, the "rocks"  are removed and broken into different sizes & shapes. You should generally make 2-3 times what you’ll actually use...just in case you need to change things.

Then Woodland Scenics colors (burnt umber, yellow ocher, raw umber, etc) are heavily watered down and poured into a flat cooking pan to achieve the basic color you see in the photos. Several "rocks" are placed in the pan and permitted to absorb the colors. Once removed from the pan, allow them to dry on blank newsprint.

Once at the layout, generously apply Woodland Scenics paste to the wood surface of the ledge wall and then pick & chose rocks, one at a time, to place at the bottom and, like working with building blocks, gradually cover the wall as the height increases being extremely careful to vary sizes and shapes as you work from left to right. This is like all those stone fences seen along Irish and Scottish roadways.

After doing this enough times, you eventually get a feel for when to use a flat rock or a rock with greater thickness. Just do whatever looks good. You want to avoid a manufactured look so remember to use many different shapes and sizes as you go.

Once everything dries, additional watered-down colors are applied with a thin paint brush to further enhance the look and provide color variations here & there. It is suggested to also use a black India ink wash to highlight the recessed areas in the rocks and dry brush white on the upper edges of the rocks to suggest reflected sunlight where applicable.

When everything is dry, apply vegetation.
 

Photo courtesy of Tom O’Rourke…rock ledge