A shelf layout emerging from a turnout

[davefoxx]

Nailed it!  (See what I did there?)  Seriously, that's a beautiful fence.

DFF

[svedblen]

Nailed it!

Thanks Dave

[Santa Fe Guy]

Now that's a fence.
Rod.

[GaryHinshaw]

With the right backdrop, and maybe a bit more vegetation variety, this shot could pass as 1:1.

[svedblen]

Thanks for the kind words 

...a bit more vegetation variety...

Yes, definitely

With the right backdrop...

Yes, that also. But I am not sure what kind of theme or scene it should show. So far I have been thinking "trees", as in some close up wood. But then it would be hard to justify the fences and stone walls I am planning. Why put walls around an ordinary wood? Likewise it would be strange with distant hills or mountains, and nothing behind the fence. What I think would be better is som kind of industry. But it must neither be to close or to far away. Maybe something like this



This is a low quality printout of part of a backdrop I found at http://www.backdropjunction.com. I promise, if I decide to use this image, or any other from Backdrop Junction, I will for sure order it and pay for it through the proper channels

Or perhaps some "quite close" suburban area. What do you say. Any ideas?

[nscaler711]

With the different types of barriers you want, id say go for a residential area.
All those fences and walls would be very appropriate for backyards and what not.

[svedblen]

With the different types of barriers you want, id say go for a residential area.
All those fences and walls would be very appropriate for backyards and what not.

Yes, thanks. I had more or less come to the same conclusion.

[svedblen]

I finished the wooden fence during the weekend.

[Scottl]

More like "O" for outstanding.

[svedblen]

More fencing, this time a wire fence built from two sizes piano wire and some metal mesh. The first picture shows how I laid out the piano wire posts and top rails on a piece of wood, held in place with tape.



Next I soldered the posts and rails together. I also added a few brace posts.



After having cut a suitable piece of wire mesh, diagonally from a larger piece, I attached the mesh. That turned out to be easier said than done. The mesh was painstakingly "unruly" and had its own ideas on how to behave. And sitting tight was not one of them 

My initial idea was to glue (CA) the mesh to the supporting structure, but I gave that up and instead soldered it in place. The next two pictures show the fence after having been sprayed with a grey primer.





In the last picture the mesh shows traces of me wrestling with it. Those parts will hopefully be disguised by weeds and stuff. Some weathering and rusting is also to come.

[svedblen]

Today I made an attempt to make a tree and a bush using Noch Leaves. Here is the result.



I think it came out quite good. But I did not arrive at this result at the first attempt. Here is the story, albeit in a somewhat condensed form.

I started out with a small wire tree I did some time back. It just had a few brown leaves, like this.



My first try to add leaves included wads of fiber as a foundation for the leaves to come. The fibers were also spray painted with gray, brown and black colors. At this point, everything looked promising.



On came the leaf material, and although the leaves themselves were OK, the overall impression was not that convincing. It looked as if someone had draped the trunk and the branches in a green coat. It was simply to dense, and did not have that airy look of a real tree.



In my head I had the pictures of the superb trees made by Jos Geurts, and as shown here https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=34967.0 as well as on other places on the net. So how does he do it?

Turns out he does not use wads of fiber, as I falsely remembered, but loose fibers. First sisal fibers and then static grass fibers. So ripped the over-coat off the tree, and sat out to try doing it in the same way as Jos.

First I sprayed the bare tree with hair spray and sprinkled on some fibers, which barely shows in the first picture. This is followed by some 2 mm static grass fibers, and last Noch Mid Green leaves (07144).





Much better! Far from Jos' excellent trees, but I'm happy with the result. Looks more airy and lighter than the first tree.

While I was at it, I also made a bush from some wire strands. Here it is, first with the two applications of fibers, and then after adding Noch Olive Green leaves (07140).




And once again, planted on the layout.

[davefoxx]

I'm not sure I prefer the trees made with static fibers, because it's not creating a full canopy.  I suggest going back to the poly fiber but stretch it out and thin it much more than in your previous attempt.  That will give you the canopy this tree lacks, but you'll be able to achieve a more airy look than your previous tree.

DFF

[svedblen]

I'm not sure I prefer the trees made with static fibers, because it's not creating a full canopy...

Yes, but is the canopy really always full? I guess it depends on the kind of tree, time of season etc but for me a typical tree is along these lines:



But I too, as most of us, need to do a lot of trees so I will have plenty of opportunities to "stretch-the-fiber" and see how that works out 

[svedblen]

I've done some more trees and bushes. I first made another try using poly fiber, stretched and stretched and stretched... but it did not turn out any good. Still looked like a tree that someone had draped with a blanket  Maybe poly fiber works better in the smaller scales, where you do not expect to see individual branches. Or maybe it is just me don't getting the hang of it 

Anyway, I went back to the static fiber metod. Here are some pics.

[svedblen]

Not much modelling on my part lately. I have more or less just been lurking, watching what you guys accomplish. Anyway, I have practised some more on making trees and bushes, with varying result. But I thought I should share the process leading to my latest creation - a somewhat larger bush. The method I used is inspired by @grove den (https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=40691.msg507399#msg507399

I started out with some sisal fibres which I cut in approximately 5-7 cm (2-3 inch) lengths. The fibres where then assembled into a mat like structure using a piece of folded wire. Like this:



To make the fibers stand up straight I folded them along the wire, and clamped them upside down (wire up) in my Work Mate. Only the bottom, folded end, is sticking up.



To make the folding last I soaked the fibres with glue. I used ordinary PVA glue.



Once the glue had set I could remove the bush-to-be from the Work Mate, and now it looked like this, after being turned bottom down.



I then spread the fibres to make the bush wider and give it a more "bushy" form. I also did some trimming to get rid of the longest fibres, I also sprayed the underside a grey color, to make the fibres there look more like stems.



Next step was to add some static grass fibres. They provides more slender branches, and also make a more denser base for the foliage to come. I used 6 mm (1/4 inch) fibres, secured with hair spray.



Finally I added some foliage, namely Noch light green leaves.



Last some picture with this bush planted on the layout, behind the fence. Outside the fence are some smaller bushes I did using the same technique.