Woodland Scenery

[Drew]

A couple of years ago, when I was working on an O scale diorama, I came up with a new method of doing woodland scenery typical to the eastern/midwestern US…This method yields fairly good results IMHO, & more importantly, adheres to my overall model railroading credo of “cheap, fast, & easy!

I’ve aways enjoyed doing eastern woodland-type scenery typical of where I live in Kentucky, & typical of the Appalachian foothills…

On previous layouts, I’ve used the tried & true method of using Woodland Scenics Poly-Fiber balls covered with ground foam…This worked well, especially when I was modeling in N scale. But when I started on the O scale diorama, I felt like I really needed something different…

One evening, I was doing some “honey-do” chores, washing the dishes, & I kept thinking, “Wonder if I could do something with those plastic dish-scouring pads…?”

So here’s what I came up with…

I can buy these things at the local grocery in packages of 6 for about 75 cents…Each package will yield in the neighborhood of 50 (give or take) large clumps of foliage…



These things are just long strips of plastic mesh rolled into a ball…I can cut them with scissors, & unroll them, then I cut a piece roughly the size of my hand, & then just kind of pull it & tease it into a random shaped “clump” about 15 -20 feet in diameter (HO scale)



Then I spray them with cheap flat black spray paint (this HAS to be FLAT black, not gloss) I get the paint at Wal-Mart for a buck & some change per can…After I paint a bunch of ‘em, I let them dry for at least a couple of hours…



After they’re dry, I hit them with some 3M spray adhesive, & roll them in some ground foam (medium coarse)