Atlas White Picket Fences

Also from my e-Hobbyland order -- an Atlas Picket Fence and Gate set. HO scale, sheep not included!

The set comes molded in pristine white plastic so I just had to give it a once over with ModelColor 005 Ivory. As I mentioned in an earlier article, ModelColor's line of water-based acrylic paints makes for fast cleanup -- just run the paintbrush under running tap water.

Once painted, I had to cut the fence to appropriate lengths. Gluing the corners with Tamiya Cement I placed the fence so that it fit squarely around the house.

I also had to decide on the positioning of the picket fence's 'gate'. I figured the best placement would be to position it off-center from the front door of the house -- left slightly ajar in this pic.

Yes, the door is hinged to the door-frame and can be opened and closed. The house is from a Pola Windmill set I purchased locally.

A little green shrubbery, courtesy of Busch, adds to the realism.

Woodland Scenics Fine Leaf Foliage -- Part 2

Here are couple more trees I made up with Woodland Scenics Fine Leaf Foliage.

I attached the foliage with little of PVA glue, careful to try and get the little 'branches' on the foliage to attach to the branches on the tree armatures.

PVA glue is great -- it takes a while to dry but once it sets it provides a very firm bond and is nearly invisible.

I still need to remove the little sprues still attached to the bases of the tree armatures, glue the bases down and conceal them with ground cover.

As you can see I've recently added telegraph poles to my layout -- been looking for these for ages. I'll talk about them in another instalment soon.

Woodland Scenics Fine Leaf Foliage

I decided I wanted to accent the various shades of green on my layout with some fall colors of reds, orange and yellow.

And as usual, as if to thwart my plan, the local hobby shops only stocked green foliage and turf. Light green, medium green, dark green, olive green. Any color as long as it was green.

High on my e-Hobbyland list was Woodland Scenics Fine Leaf Foliage Fall Mix.

And no other product on Woodland Scenics range matches their Fine Leaf Foliage for texture and detail for tree-making. And I've tried a few of 'em:

• Lichen -- Doesn't look natural at all on a layout despite being a natural product. Or maybe I just haven't found a way to use it well
  
  


• Clump Foliage -- Good for bushes, and creating large clusters of trees




• Polyfiber -- Good when sprinkled with Fine Turf and/or Coarse Turf to create a 3-dimensional 'raised' effect. I've used this combination to create fir trees




• Underbrush -- A clumpy sponge-material like Clump Foliage; same use

Fine Leaf Foliage is a whole different kettle o' fish. An all-natural product, the foliage is a matrix of little 'leaves' and branches. When attached to a standard tree armature you end up with an extremely detailed tree. Fine Leaf Foliage costs more but the results are well worth it.

As a bonus Woodland Scenics also supplies a very large tree armature in the package. I decided to deck this tree out with the three colors in layers.

New Model Train Goodies Just Arrived In The Mail!

I placed an order about two weeks ago with e-HOBBYLAND.com. I paid for it with PayPal and spent the next couple of days with fingers crossed that they wouldn't send me an email saying that several items were back-ordered and would ship when the items were in stock.

My experience with a particular (European) mail-order company left me hanging -- "There are items in your order that are out-of-stock. Your order will ship once we receive the items from our supplier". I let that order ride for a good 3 months before I got tired of waiting. I mean, c'mon, how hard is it to indicate out-of-stock items on your mail-order website? They have a strange way of doing business.

Not so with e-Hobbyland.

e-Hobbyland's website is clearly laid out with accurate descriptions, prices and pictures of their items. And they indicate out-of-stock items matter-of-factly.

They took about 3 days to process my order before shipping it. And it arrived by USPS within 9 days. (Bearing in mind that I live in Singapore!)

Kudos to http://e-hobbyland.com. I'll be back for more.

Stay tuned for more pics!

Model Railroad Shops -- Sign Of The Times

Today, I visited one of less than a handful of hobby shops in my area that stocks model railroad trains. In addition to its bread-and-butter RC planes and slot cars, this was the only recently set up store that dedicated a modicum of shelf space to the model railroad hobby, specializing in the Fleischmann and Kato model lines.

Or at least they used to.

Whole shelves formerly devoted to model trains and track were now exclusively displaying slot cars, tracks and accessories. RC model planes loomed, suspended overhead. The store's train display, an N-scale Fleischmann layout sitting on top of a Noch mountain landscape had been packed up and according to the boss, "Moved to the warehouse." In its place was an RC helicopter display.

A single 12inch glass shelf displayed the solitary N-scale Fleischmann starter set and an HO scale Special Edition steam engine.

But I can't really blame them for this decision to reprioritize. The model railroad hobby has never been big where I live. Real estate is at a premium, and few households have room for a permanent railroad layout.

And in an age of fast-paced lives, faster-paced hobbies and instant gratification, few folks have the time, patience or inclination to plan and build a model railroad.

Sign of the times, indeed.

But it is precisely the slow pace of planning, building, landscaping and tweaking a model railroad that drew me to the hobby in the first place.

For that hour a day when I run my trains --while looking for new things to add on or modify that do not require drastically ripping up track -- I'm engrossed in an imaginary miniature scene of my own creation. And dreaming of soon moving to larger premises where I can really let my handiwork and imagination fly.

Attaching Fleischmann Profi-Track to the Baseboard

This was the method I used to attach the Fleischmann Profi-Track to my baseboard. Profi-Track has a plastic roadbed molded onto the track to simulate ballast.

To the right is a pic of the roadbed detail.

I'm really a fan of the Fleischmann system because of the high degree of detail on all their products, both train and track.

Here in this close-up you can literally count every ballast stone. Also note the wood grain detail on the railway ties.  Click on the pic for a more detailed view!

Using 3M 4011 Exterior Mounting Tape attached to the underside of the trackbed, I fastened the track to the foam level of the baseboard. 3M 4011 is made of some sort of rubberized material, is extremely sticky and very, very strong. As an unexpected benefit it also has sound dampening properties for quieter running.
And the good thing is that if I ever decide to re-do my layout -- which will not be too far into the future -- I can simply pry off the track without damaging it.

Adding Figures to a Model Railroad

I enjoy adding HO scale figures to my railroad layout and creating a mini scene that adds tiny pockets of activity and detail.

Sometimes I'll go 'figure shopping' and look through the display rack to see what catches my attention -- that alone is enough to trigger the imagination and create ideas for possible new scenes I wouldn't otherwise have thought of.

Here I've depicted railroad workers repairing a damaged railroad sleeper and installing the new tie. The figures are from the Scenic Accents Rail Workers set and are affixed into their standing positions with Accent Glue.