Weathering Wooden Structures

One of the essential components of creating life like structures is weathering. Weathering is the altering of newly modeled structures and prototypes to closely resemble it's true to life counterpart. There are points on and within your structure that will need attention if you're considering weathering with any degree of realism.

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Related Model Train Posts

Building Landscapes That Will Make You Want to Shrink in Size

The first step after molding is complete is the fine art of making the ground look real. You will accomplish this by first giving the layout a good brush over of earth toned colors. Apply a light layer over the entire area, or at least the areas you know will be woodland or scenic.

Latex paint is preferred by most modelers of today. Use a light liquid adhesive such as slightly diluted white glue. Apply your miniature landscape materials as desired to simulate grass and earth.

Always use photo as starting point as there is know better portrait than the scenes depicted by our mother nature!

Now That the Ground is Layed out its Time to Incorporate a Little Fine Detail

What we're talking about here is painting rocks, texturing grass, and trees… all the things that make it look real.

Firstly – when morphing rocks into existence you'll normally use mixtures of 3 basic Hugh's:

1. (Exotic Browns) light to dark…

2. (Black) light to dark…

3. (Whites) various shades…

Paint in layers until desired effect is created. Use 1' ,2' or ½" brushes. Use water to dilute and alter colors to fit scene requirements, or until it just feels and looks right!

Tomorrow, we go over crafting realistic trees.
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Have YOU Ever Wanted to Know – How to Craft Rolling Hills 

Building hardshells is your first task in crafting life like scenery. We're going to give you a crash course that any late night partying college frat boy would envy! First you must gather a lot of newspaper or even cray paper will do, but LOTs more of it.

OK… Now You'll Need Some Card Board and Scissors – WAIT…  Let Me just Make a List:

1. Newspaper
2. Cardboard boxes (Large enough to cut into 3 foot strips)
3. Scissors
4. Tape (masking)
5. Glue
6. Water Source w/bucket
7. Plaster
8. Opengrid Bench
9. Color Pic of Scene
10. Small Blocks of Wood (For Propping Up Hills & Mountains)
11. Two good hands (YOURS!)

The Above Listed Items Are ALL You'll Need to Mystify Yourself and Others. The Fun Begins NOW! 

Identify areas of elevation and depression. Position blocks of wood accordingly. Carefully fit cut strips of cardboard in desired position. Hold in position w/tape. use as much as needed in which ever area demands attention. Carefully mold your land scape using cardboard strips supported by the newspaper you confiscated from the dog or some other unfortunate soul! Once muscled into position, plaster cardboard skeleton… using color photo as prototype. Let sit until dry… then remove material inside mold. This is done to prevent unwanted fires from erupting due to old dry newspaper gingerly resting under Fiery amps.

The above outline or formula works for most scenery scales… Z, N, HO, OO, S, O, … You as an individual must regulate size and depth.

Sculpting Realistic Trees – May Not Be For Everyone

Trees are a often looked over detail as they appear to come display ready. For some modelers the unfinished tress do the trick, although for other detail oriented guys and gals these store bought prefabs are just a start.

In order to pull out the gift of life from models and replicas you must give them the gift of individuality. Too many times we've shot layouts and the attention to tree detail is less than perfect. To help everyone along we're going to slam a few basics in front of you. Classy model trains.com is aware that all modelers bring something different to the table, so what one can do with ease… may be a challenge for a less experienced modeler.

If you are at least conscious of the following guidelines you'll do fine when crafting wisping, waving branches and vibrant fall leaves!

You'll Need the Following Tools and Accessories:

1. Tweezers
2. Tiny, tiny brush
3. Wire Cutters
4. Grey modelers paint
5. Acrylic Gel
6. Tooth Picks
7. Thin String

How well this turns out all has to do with each individuals abilities and creative eye although these are the principal tricks of the trade used to create individuality in your trees. Start by snapping a picture of the desired effect you're after. Purchase the trees you'll want representing your vision. Start by trimming branches and plucking leaves to simulate your prototype. When attempting to add girth to a trunk simply dip accordingly in Acrylic Gel…#5 on our list. The gel will harden and you may paint limbs, branches and be sure to take notice to the different color variations in the leaves. use string to Tie extra branches around limbs or trunks to emulate prototype when needed. Dip exposed string in Acrylic Gel until covered, then paint over. Finished product will represent thicker, older, more developed tree. Some trees in your layout may be saplings so they may need less attention. You may need tooth pick to control application of acrylics and glues.

 These types of alterations are not for everyone, although when done properly by someone with a hint of talent, they can force a layout to strike you smack dab in the face!

Our next post will explain the subtle nuances of molding water!

Realistic Scenery and Layouts – How to Articles that Will Give "YOU" the Skinny On Creating Life Like Scenes

Model Train Scenery and Structures

Realistic scenery is everything when it comes to building authentic, life like miniatures. There are a handful of tricks used to create active, moving layouts. ClassyModelTrains.com will share these tricks of the trade with you in the form of  informative how to articles.

There are subtle differences in preparing the various gauges of scenes. We'll do all that we can to cram your head full of this knowledge and hopefully you'll bless classymodeltrains.com with a photo or two. We're always looking for individuals like "yourself" to send in pictures and videos of your hobby in action!   

Within the confines of our model train scenery and model railway layout department, you'll run across articles and resources for:

1. Building Tunnels
2. Crafting Bridges
3. Building up realistic rock bed
4. Finding life like accessories
5. How to articles regarding weathering and painting
6. Locating merchants who offer hard to find structures and moldings
7. How to build structures from scratch
8. Access to auctions that span the globe for exotic accessories representing all scales and gauges

…And much more!

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