Creating Scenery with Roger Russell

When creating scenery on his layouts, Roger Russell starts by yellow gluing painted ceiling tile on top of hollow core to give it vertical depth. Then he uses spray paint to seal it so it doesn’t move when he paints. He then seals this with a mixture of white glue and water and adds fine dirt on the whole area where he wants it on the diorama.

After this, he cleans the track between the rails and will clean out any pieces in between the rail when he eventually glues it down. Coarse rock is used next to build some depth. Fine cut wood and twigs are then placed here and there for more variation. This building up of materials really makes it come to life, moving from fine to coarse materials. Next he plants real small rocks in threes and ones, using odd numbers like trees.

Next the grasses are placed, using foam that is a mix of five or six kinds of foam for color variation. The scene is sprayed with water and a bit of soap so the glue and water can mix together. The glue mixture is placed down all at one time. Timber Products wild weeds are used for the weeds. As the glue dries, the weeds can be prepared. Roger tears off little strands and fluffs them out to make them nice and airy, blending the colors for variation. Light tan is a good color for wild weeds. These are cut to make smaller pieces, are dipped in white glue and set down on the layout.

The weeds are used to soften the edges of the rocks. For irregular bushes, hemp rope is cut and sprayed with poly fiber. Planting trees amongst wild weeds in odd numbers is easy, as they are easily set in the drying glue. Dried flowers also work well and can also be pressed into the still drying glue. For more ideas for creating scenery, or making ground cover visit the Model Railroad Academy website.