Adding
scenery to a permanent Hornby railway layout
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A permanent Hornby layout
can give a very poor experience if there's nothing more than tracks
and trains. A Hornby railway layout really comes alive when some scenery
is added, things like:
- Stations
- Buildings
- Signals
- Signal boxes
- People
- Fences
- Trees
- Livestock
- etc...
This article explains one
way to add scenery to your Hornby layout. This method requires little
skill but will need some artistic ability.
For this article we have
produced a small N gauge demonstration layout built with spare materials
left over from other projects. This base board is approximately 18"
(450mm) x 12" (300mm). The scene is an old railway yard with
a single terminating track adjacent to a hillside.
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This is the completed scene
we have produced to demonstrate the process. We have used mainly paint
effects and also an old van, some scrap track, a buffer kit, fencing
kit, model trees, cement, sand and some model sheep.
All these materials are standard
items available at your local DIY store, hobby stores and on-line.
As this is a demonstration
piece small amounts of the layout remain unfinished showing the processes
used.
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This is our starting point.
The hillside and yard are finished in plaster of paris and PVA painted.
The track has been fitted and electrically connected under the base
board.
The track is secured to the
Funky Foam with a bead of super glue ensuring every sleeper is attached.
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To start we painted the hillside
with a base green colour. All the paints used are tester pots from Dulux
emulsion obtained very cheaply from a local DIY store.
The paint is applied with
a sponge which is also used to mix the green with a little mid grey
and black paint giving some effect to the base colour. We'll build more
colour effects onto the hillside later in the process.
The sponge used was an old
washing up sponge.
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The yard base coat of paint
was added next. Again we used the sponge to mix and apply the paint.
Based on black with a little mid grey gives a good base onto which
more colour effects can be built.
Making the paint effects
look more real is about building up additional layers as can be seen
later.
The gap left around the
track for the ballast can be more easily seen too.
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At this point we've added
brown paint to the hillside ditches and added some paint effect to the
muddy track way.
Again only base colouring
at this time.
To achieve a muddy brown
colour we mixed red with black and mid grey. The mid green was mixed
with a little white and yellow to achieve a more pale green colour.
These details were added
with a small paint brush.
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A more detailed image of
the basic yard painting.
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The ballast for the track
is made from sharp sand, cement, water and PVA. The sand and the cement
are mixed 1 part sand to 1 part cement. The water and PVA are mixed
1 part PVA to 4 parts water.
With this mix the sand brings
a red tone and the cement a green tone giving a greeny red colour, sample
1 in this picture.
To make a neutral ballast
grey colour pale blue paint is added. This is the colour chart we produced
to determine the amount of paint to add. We selected sample 6, 9% by
weight of paint.
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This is what the ballast
looks like once mixed and applied to the railway layout. We've also
added a ballast heap to the side of the track and another at the end
of the track.
The sharp sand gives the
ballast a realistic look as the sand particles are the right scale to
represent the ballast stones.
The yard has been over painted
with a mid grey colour applied with the sponge. Additional lighter and
darker tones have also been added to the hillside, again with the sponge.
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Once fully cured and dry
the ballast is painted to give it age. Old oil, grease and dirt dropped
by locomotives will leave a dirty line down the centre of the tracks.
This is more prevalent where the locos are stopped or moving slowly.
The ballast at the end of
the track is painted green to represent grass and moss. This is where
the buffer stop will be located.
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These are the scenery items
to be added to the hornby railway layout. There are, old track pieces,
old van body, axles, buffer stop, fences, trees and even some sheep
for the hillside.
All these items were purchased
on-line or were just spares we happen to have. The van body and wheels
came from the same scrap van.
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The fencing and the buffer
stop have been added to the layout. There are two lines of fencing,
one around the yard and one dividing two fields on the hillside.
The buffer stop is added
above the area of ballast painted to look like grass and moss. The buffer
stop is from a kit purchased on-line.
Both the fence posts and
the buffer stop are secured to the layout with super glue.
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This is a detail image of
the fencing. The fencing is from a kit purchased on-line.
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The
van has been painted in the usual dirty colours using the sponge to
become a typical railway yard shed.
The track rails have been
removed from the sleepers and painted to look rusty.
Both are being trial fitted
to check the positions are OK.
A sandy colour is also added
the yard in patches.
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This shows the detailing
on the buffer stop. The rails are painted a rust colour and the beam
is a very dark grey colour.
Green paint has been added
to the base of the buffer stop to hide the super glue but also to look
like grass and moss. This continues the grass and moss from under the
buffer stop.
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Before the shed, track rails
and axles are fitted to the baseboard we painted the ground under and
around these scenery items.
This was done before the
scenery items are fitted as access will not be as good after they're
fixed into position.
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This is the shed, track rails
and axles painted and ready to be fitted to the layout.
Note how the flanges on the
wheels have been removed to make it look like the flanges have sunk
into the ground.
There's nothing clean and
pristine in this old railway yard.
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At this point the shed, track
rails, axles, trees and bushes have been fitted.
The model trees were purchased
on-line and the bushes were created from cutting down the trees.
All of these scenery items
are secured with super glue to the layout.
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A more detailed image of
the shed, track rails, axles, trees and shrubs. Some green paint has
been applied to the shed and track rails to simulate grass and moss.
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A more detailed image of
the shed with the bushes.
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This image shows the track
rails, axles and buffers in detail.
A little additional paint
detailing has been added around the track rails.
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Finally, some model sheep
are added to the hillside. The model sheep were purchased on-line.
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This is the completed scenery
for the model railway layout.
We have used mainly paint
effects and also an old van, some scrap track, a buffer kit, fencing
kit, model trees, cement, sand and some model sheep.
All these materials are standard
items available at your local DIY store, hobby stores and on-line.
As this is a demonstration
piece small amounts of the layout remain unfinished showing the processes
used.
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