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Scenery And Terrain Tips & Tutorials
Tips, tutorials and guides to create rivers, ponds, hills, valleys, fields, trees and bushes for model railways, war games and dioramas.
Subtopics: Model water | Hills | Rocks & cliff faces | Trees | Static Grass & Scatter
Legendary railway modeller John H. Ahern’s advice on the best material for landscaping
Looking for the best material for landscape modelling? Here's what one of the legends of model railway building used. [...]
The cheapest way to make water for your models
What is the cheapest way to make a beautiful river, pond, lake or sea for your models? You might be surprised. [...]
A quick tip from the school of the blindingly obvious
If you lay your scatter, as I do, by sprinkling the stuff from your fingers you'll love - or perhaps hate - this tip. [...]
How to make your own scatter & why I’ll never buy scatter material again
I'll never buy scatter for my model railways again. [...]
A master class in static grass (creating slopes)
Static grass makes a world of difference to a model landscape but getting it right on slopes is more involved than you might think. [...]
How to work with Styrofoam and polystyrene
Styrofoam and Polystyrene are amongst my favourite landscape construction materials. [...]
How I Now Make My Own Plaster Cloth For Hills, Tunnels and Landscapes
I'm a huge fan of plaster cloth. It's messy, it works and it's super satisfying but it also costs. Until now. [...]
Make your own foliage
How a chance email revealed my new favourite way of making foliage and it's almost free.
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The Cheapest Technique For Making Model Trees
I go full Blue Peter for this tip. [...]
Building Forests On A Budget
I've just read about a great idea that I haven't seen before. It's from the book Scenic Modelling by John de Frayssinet and if you haven't got this book I [...]
How to make bushes
Shortly after publishing a recent article on making stone bridges I got a number of messages from modellers wanting to know more about the vegetation seen in [...]
Recycle for your railway — money saving ideas
I'm always on the prowl looking for ways to save money and help the environment when building my model railways. [...]
How to make your own trees, a new technique
I've covered making trees here before but I'm always on the look out for new techniques.
I recently came across this approach and have been impressed by [...]
Cry me a river – layout update
It's been a while since my last update on the layout so a quick progress report. [...]
An awesome technique for quickly creating landscapes
A little technique for quickly making realistic landscapes from polystyrene foam. [...]
How to model water on your railway
Rivers, streams, lakes and seas are something every model railway builder wants but notoriously difficult to get right. Until now. [...]
Making Your Own Engine Shed Ash
Hot on the heals of the previous post on making your own model railway grass, comes another tip from Stephen Fay, this time a low cost technique to making [...]
How to make your own grass
This is a short but great tip for making your own super-realistic grass by modeller Stephen Fay. [...]
Creating capitvating caves
While trains are the centre of attention on my railways it's small scenery surrounding the track action that I most enjoy making. They lend legitimacy to a [...]
Creating Outstandingly Realistic Model Railway Scenery
This is perhaps my favourite tip of the year! It's a simply brilliant way to create outstandingly realistic walls, tunnel entrances and bridges for model [...]