Josh, somehow I knew that you’d like the trailers, but can’t tell you why

Colin, the corrugations are about 1 mm (.040") wide, but you can use sheets with bigger corrugations as well. They will still look good. BTW, I use corrugated styrene with the backside facing to the front for rolling doors.

cnw1961 Wrote:Russ, thank you for that very interesting and useful information. So even though my trailers are old, they could still be in service – looks like I don’t need to flatten the tires .

Yes, they would probably not be in a Roadway or other common carrier paint scheme. More likely they would be painted for Budweiser or Miller. I'm not sure what other large brewers are still in business here in the States. Coors makes a point of being non-pasturized beer so their beer is shipped in refrigerated trailers only. I'm not sure if the smaller brewerys like Sam Adams use their own trucks or if they are distributed by large multi-brand distributors who might have their trucks painted for the name of the distributer or with Budweiser or Miller and just load the smaller brands and imported beers into the same truck.

I see everything is moving along nicely.

cnw1961 Wrote:Reinhard, I am using Heki wild grass (for more information on it please go to the top of page 8 of this thread) and as you are from Germany just like me, you should not have any problems getting it at your hobby shop.

Kurt, the Heki stuff has arrived. Did you cut/trear patches and glued them on the ground? I can't see any seams or did you pick clusters of grass halms and plant them directly into glue?

Reinhard, after removing some grass from the paper I tear off little pieces (from single tufts up to about 2 sq. inches) and apply glue (einfaches UHU ... sorry, special information for Germans) to the rubber backing. I think it is easier to work with little patches than trying to glue down big chunks ... takes some time, but gives good results and allows to mix differently colored grass patches to give a more realistic look.

cnw1961 Wrote:Reinhard, after removing some grass from the paper I tear off little pieces (from single tufts up to about 2 sq. inches) and apply glue (einfaches UHU ... sorry, special information for Germans) to the rubber backing. I think it is easier to work with little patches than trying to glue down big chunks ... takes some time, but gives good results and allows to mix differently colored grass patches to give a more realistic look.

Kurt, yours looks so realistic I was afraid you did it blade by blade.
Thanks for the hints and help.

The lot where I want to park the trailers is taking shape. Like with all my roads I used 320 grid waterproof sanding paper that I glued to cardboard and then painted and weathered with thinned acrylic paints. The cracks in the tarmac were done by simply ripping the paper (done before gluing and painting).



Next step will be the chainlink fence that goes around that lot.

That's a very effective way of modeling parking surfaces and roads! Thanks or the tip! Looks great!

Everything is looking great, Kurt.

Thanks for that tip on road surfaces. Great idea... now I know how to do my roads when the time comes.

Ralph, Gary, thanks for your nice comments. If you want to use sanding paper for roads, here are a few tips that may help you. Use a stiff paint brush – the sanding paper will "eat up" a soft brush and you will end up having bristles all over the surface. I use artist’s acrylic paints and dilute them to the consistency of milk. It is difficult to spread thick paint evenly on sandinging paper. You will have to paint at least twice to achive the right color for your road. To speed up the process, you can use a hairdryer. Acrylic paints usually change their color a bit when they dry, but I never had such a drastic change in color as when painting black sanding paper. If you paint it light gray, it will turn much darker and bluer when it is dry. To get the color you see in my pics, I use lightly beige colored paint that does only contain a little black. I mix this color by using lots of white, a little raw sienna and only very little black. Try it out on a little piece of sanding paper, it is amazing how much the color is changing when it dries. To weather the roads I use a stiff paint brush with short bristles and drybrush the surface with very little black paint (use a cheap paint brush, the sanding paper will have it’s effect on the brush). If the brush is almost dry and only leaves marks on paper when you apply some pressure, then it is right for weathering the roads.

After the new lot was glued to the layout, I turned to building the chainling fence. I use brass wires and tulle to make my fences. I start by doing a drawing of the fence. It will act as a template to place and fix the brass pieces for soldering.



Next, I cut the poles from 1 mm (.040") brass wire to length and then cut little grooves using my Dremel with a cutting disk.



Then I fix the poles to the drawing, grooves facing up. I put the wires that will connect the poles on top and fix them too with adhesive tape. For the top of the fence I use a 0,8 mm (.032") brass wire and for the bottom a thin 0,5 mm (.020") wire. On most real chainlink fences the posts are only connected at the top, but I need this thin wire at the botton to keep the poles aligned and to fix the tulle.



That’s how it looks after soldering and a bit of filing to remove excessive solder.



Now it gets a little tricky. I tried several glues to fix the tulle to the brass frame, but the only glue that does the trick is super glue. If anyone has a better idea, please tell me!

I apply super glue to one or two sections at a time,



then put the fence with the front and the tulle facing down on a glass pane (super glue does not stick too well to glass) and tap on the from with my fingers until the glue sticks. Does not work all of the time and sometimes I have to apply some more glue afterwards, but it is the only way to do this I figured out so far.



Now it is getting easy again. I use a scalpel with a new blade to cut the tulle.



On this fence I wanted to have a curled saftey wire on top. I took a single strand of a bigger wire and wound it around a thin skewer before I soldered it to the poles.





Now only painting remains to be done.

After putting the fence on the layout and adding some grass, bushes and other details, this is how the scene looks now. It is still work in progress, but most of it is done.

Kurt, you've got the "touch" that makes urban ugly look beautiful. Excellent work!

Wayne

Thank you for the detail explanation how to build the fence.

Kurt,

You make it seem so easy! IMHO, the trademark of a master!

Looking forward to more progress reports & more of the how-to's which this thread is full of,

Colin