Drawing Scenery Techniques

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Easy Scenery Techniques To Make Your Model Railroad Look More Realistic. Scenery adds a lot to any model railroad. Many new modelers are afraid to tackle it. "Where do I begin?", "I'm no artist", It'll mess up my track","I don't have the tools" are all typical excuses.

Basics of great scenery

Look around you. There is the natural world and the man-made world. Basic scenery is a blend of the two. When planning your model railroad, make room for both.

Structures take up space. So do the slopes and drainage ditches along the right-of-way. Make allowance for the buildings you plan to install.

If possible, find out the footprint of the industries you want to put beside those sidings or leave a little extra space. We all tend to crowd in too much track and then struggle to fit in other elements.

Be aware that nature doesn't go in for straight lines and solid, simple colors the way humans do. Take a camera outside and take some pictures of things that interest you. Or thumb through some nature magazines.

Better yet, get some prototype railroad books or model railroad magazines and study the pictures.

Good ideas come from other modellers, too.

I received a note from Thom who reminded me about using powdered tempera with plaster to avoid "white spots" when plaster was chipped:

"One of my favorite tricks when making roads is to add powdered tempera paint into the mix of plaster, spackle, or whatever you use. If “paving” asphalt, I add black, and if it is a dirt road then brown works well. This allows me to carve cracks, expansion joints or potholes into the road without a gaudy white spot to fix later. In addition, if the pavement gets dinged (dropping a screwdriver will do it!) it will still be the same color.

This trick also works well if you want to make your own rock face by crumpling aluminum foil, then pressing into a cookie sheet (the type with sides). Just don’t smooth the foil too much. Then pour your colored plaster into your “mold”, wait to harden, then remove it and whack it with a hammer. Then you can glue the various pieces onto your rock “face” and have a very natural color of stone, broken up into random sections or pieces."