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Landscape Designing For Your Model Railroad
Obtaining all your supplies is just the start when it comes to model railroading. The next step is to do the landscaping with the help of foam spacers. They can be shaped to the design you'd like and then sealed with a fiberglass or hardener to protect them. A wire frame can be used to reinforce a larger landscape and some modelers will even bring in sand, dirt or stone for a more realistic look.
One note of warning when using real-life materials however: graininess and texture of common elements can detract from the real-life aspects of a landscape. Most dirt is not fine enough to give a true impression of 'earth' in a miniature unless coated with an even finder coating of dust or powder. Keep your scales in mind at all times and work up your tallest points first (mountains, hills etc.) to help you form your valleys and streams or lakes in a natural manner.
After doing the base, you can start to have a little fun. By painting all the surfaces, you will cover any extra glue and then you can begin to start to place items like stones and coverings. You can stipple on some grass with a fine brush to make it seem a little more realistic being careful to plan as you go.
For instance if you are going to have a lake or pond place a narrow lake bed of earth around it and have a ragged edge encroaching onto this rather then taking the grass all the way to the waters' edge. In real-life ebbs and erosion will cause the bank to be washed away and tree roots to be exposed etc. " planning to emulate this will add a realistic touch that even the most demanding of viewers will comment on.
The easiest way to add the track is to just glue it down. The most realistic way is to make a bed of crushed rock and add wooden beams but this is very time consuming and not very common. You can even find software that will help you with your design and layout. Be careful to keep in mind that there will be maintenance and you will need to be able to access your tracks for cleaning and repairing at later times.
The last step is to create the "vignettes" or small scenes. This is when the imagination of the model railroaders really can really make the layout come to life by creating the tiny scenes.
Choosing themes such as small cities or train stations that fit into your theme and building appropriate houses and edifices or buying them and placing correctly is critical " as is maintaining the proper scale. The human eye can note incredibly small differences in scale and proportion so staying true to your scale and theme is vital for a successful landscape.
Landscaping involves so much more but you're probably anxious to put on your engineer cap and start planning your project. Start by turning on the light and enjoying yourself!
About the Author One of the critical parts of your landscape that's also one of the toughest to make look real is model railroad water. Get some creative ideas for making realistic water on The Model Railroader website at http://www.themodelrailroader.com
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