A shelf layout emerging from a turnout

[Santa Fe Guy]

I like them both so I will sit on the fence with this lot.
Rod.

[svedblen]

Thanks everyone!
I'll have a piece of stone wall somewhere along the backdrop. Don't know yet where and how.

[svedblen]

Finally I have managed to get all the rail painted and weathered 
Some new pics.





With that all done I hope to get started on some scenicking, or car or engine detailing...

[Philip H]

That is outstanding work.

[nuno81291]

Must resist the urge to build an O scale shelf... drool worthy! excited to see this level of craftsmanship for the scenery etc. 

[ednadolski]

Put that out in some sunlight and no one will be able to tell that it is model track.

Ed

[svedblen]

Thanks guys!
But don't expect the rest of this layout to even come close...   

[svedblen]

Today I built myself a short wooden fence. As with the stone walls I did a while back I'm testing methods. The intention being that there will be stretches of fences and walls along the track, towards the backdrop.

Since the boards making up an O scale fence are quite wide,and at the same time very thin, I found it hard to find any scale lumber that would do. If it was wide enough it was way to thick. What I eventually did was to get some 0.4 mm (1/64 in) plywood, which I would to cut into 4 mm (5/32 in) wide boards.

So let's start. Here is the plywood where I have cut off 40 mm bit, corresponding to the height of the fence, which would be about 2 scale meters (about 6 ft).



Next I used my NWSL Chopper to cut the plywood into individual boards. First I did not see that the Chopper's stop had a tendency to not stay put, making some of the boards too wide. Easily avoided once I had realized that this happened, but it made slowed down the whole process.



Also, the razor blade was a little to short, so the Chopper would no cut the complete length of the boards. But that was easily fixed with an X-Acto knife.



Once all the boards for my test fence had been cut, I soaked them in an India ink wash, along with the scale lumber I was to use for posts and supports. Here are the boards, once dry out of the wash.



I then laid out a simple jig, along with the horizontal support boards, and began gluing boards to the supports.





Soon they were all in place, along with two vertical posts.



When the glue had dried it was time to pose the fence on the layout.







Not that bad I think. And there are no more excuses for not building longer stretches of both fencing and stone walls.   

[GaryHinshaw]

Very nice.  Now you just need some scale nails to finish it off.  [You could almost pull that off in O.  ]  The boards look more grey on the layout than in the build shots.  Did you add more wash or is it just the lighting?

What kind of a scene are you aiming for in the end?  Will there be any buildings?

[svedblen]

Thanks Gary.

Yes, it's only the lighting making the boards look greyer. And nails, yes why not 

As for scenery; currenty I do not hink there will be any buildings. The shelf is not wide enough. My intention is to run fences and walls of various kinds along the tracks to indicate there is some kind of property and activity going on behind. In some stretches perhaps only bushes and trees.

[davefoxx]

Lennart,

I think that fence looks fantastic, except in our area it's more common to see the horizontal framing members toenailed between the posts.  Then, once the pickets are installed, you can't see the posts or any framing on the "finished" side of the fence.  The other "ugly" side then looks like this:



Hope this helps,
DFF

[svedblen]

Yes Dave, that is more common here as well. I just thought putting the posts where they could be seen produced a more interesting fence. It started to look dull otherwise. I might avoid that non-prototypical approach when I do it "for real" 

[davefoxx]

Yes Dave, that is more common here as well. I just thought putting the posts where they could be seen produced a more interesting fence. It started to look dull otherwise. I might avoid that non-prototypical approach when I do it "for real" 

Turn it around and put the "ugly" side towards the tracks.  That will be even more interesting and show off the construction of the fence.  Heck, in the real world, if it were my property, I sure wouldn't want to worry about my neighbor (the railroad) seeing the pretty side of the fence.   

DFF

[nscaler711]

Thanks Gary.

Yes, it's only the lighting making the boards look greyer. And nails, yes why not 

As for scenery; currenty I do not hink there will be any buildings. The shelf is not wide enough. My intention is to run fences and walls of various kinds along the tracks to indicate there is some kind of property and activity going on behind. In some stretches perhaps only bushes and trees.

Nails, lol would be interesting but impractical I suppose....
Though you could just take a graphite pencil and add dots where nails would be, and then have rust streaks coming down from them.... As for the color (depending on your displays settings) I think the grey looks good... It all really depends on the location you are modeling... A desert may have bleached the wood and turned it grey, while the Midwest will be darker and more brown, or even a tinge of green.
But it looks really good, and I have seen fences like that, just not very often, but the posts would be thicker, two to three times thicker, than the boards...
Otherwise it looks great...

[svedblen]

I have built a longer fence, and put it down more permanently on the layout. This time I also made an attempt to at making nails   I tested various ways of doing this but ended up simply making a mark with a pencil. Here are some pictures.









The grass, which I though would be suitable for O, looks to thick I think.