Scenery Costs

[Iain]

My ballast was free.  Two hundred pounds of fine blasting sand makes for perfect, if brown, ballast.  And I don't think I will ever run out.
Indeed, it may be too fine .

[michel]

Guys,

One way to keep the cost of scenery down is to keep your benchwork narrow - lessening the amount of scenery that needs to be built.
Joe Fugate's layout very successfully demonstrates how narrow benchwork raised relatively close to eye level creates a pretty damn cool
effect.
I'm using the same concept for my n scale logging branch layout.

Cheers,
Michel

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I'd love to see some pics!

[sparky]

I'd love to see some pics!

Ed, there's a little box at the top of this page labeled "Google".  Try typing in something like "Joe Fugate layout".  Amazingly, the first thing that comes up is this:

http://siskiyou-railfan.net/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.26

Maybe you should head over to the local tech school and take a basic computer course.  :-*

[3rdrail]

I'd love to see some pics!

Ed, there's a little box at the top of this page labeled "Google".  Try typing in something like "Joe Fugate layout".  Amazingly, the first thing that comes up is this:

http://siskiyou-railfan.net/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.26

Maybe you should head over to the local tech school and take a basic computer course.  :-*

Er, I read Ed's post to mean he wanted to see some photos of Michel's logging layout and not Joe Fugate's. Give Ed a little credit...

[sparky]

No way.  It's always fun to pick on Ed.

[fulltritty]

Wow, that's a beautiful layout! 

[pnolan48]

Scenery doesn't have to be expensive. A lot of our trees are just weeds. I buy styrene in 4 x 8 sheets for $16 or so. I buy huge bags pf floral moss (lichen)for $6--WS charges that or more for a tiny bag. I use real dirt and real pea stone--the first is free, the second I just picked up from around my well, so it was free too. For crops, I bought a one-foot strip of Astro-Turf at Lowes for about $2.

I've calculated that I have more than 300 square feet of layout table. Except for ballast, I doubt I've spent $100 on ground foam.

[wm3798]

Never EVER spend money if you don't have to.  John's layout is a great example of stretching the scenery dollar and getting great results.  I try to do the same thing.  Here's an example:



The water could be Woodlands Scenics water stuff, probably about $9 for a thimble full...  I use clear gloss acrylic medium, about $3 a quart.

The rocks could be molded from relatively expensive plaster cast in expensive rubber molds... I use rocks.

The trees are a combination of puff balls and my famous Dollar Dollar Tree Trees, not scenic express.  Mine won't win any prizes, but they set the scene to my tastes just fine.

The bridge pier could be an expensive resin or plaster casting, but it's scratch built from about 30 cents worth of styrene.  The bridge is comprised of two Atlas girder plates salvaged from a previous layout.

The line poles are the cheap Atlas ones, I just took the time to dab a little paint on the insulators...

The sand is from a craft store, where you get about 3 times as much for half the price of WS.

And here's a secret for you...  Woodland Scenic "cement" is re-packaged white glue!!

If you're a little fearless and halfway creative, you can build great scenery without tapping out your credit cards.

Lee

[oakcreekco]

Looks great Lee. I'm getting ready for "my water" and I'll have to try that out.

[wm3798]

Go to the craft aisle at Walmart, or to the paint department at Michaels or Ben Franklin.  It takes a few coats, but you can stipple it as it skins over and get a really nice ripple effect.  Put up some pics when you're done.
Lee

[tom mann]

Lee...how much was that backdrop...

[wm3798]

I paid $97,200 for the door, but I got a free house with it...

That's the other wonder of digital cameras.  I set the camera in the riverbed and shot toward the outer edge of the layout.  You're just lucky I wasn't standing there... all you'd see is my big gut and whatever sweaty t-shirt I was wearing at the time.

Lee

[up1950s]

Lee , that shot looks outstanding . I would add a kid or two , or a dear taking a sip , by not both . Just something for the viewer to find . Stick a sitting kids butt in a small o ring . Disk grind the bottom , kid and o ring so its 1/2 the cross section of the o ring . Then place it in the stream . It will look like a kid in a o ring , I mean inner tube , floating down the river . Could do it to more than one kid , Kids rarely wouldn't have company doing something like that . Just as easy would be a raft using the same method ( build it fat , then grind it flat ). 

[tom mann]

Lee needs white water around those rocks!