Aluminum foil scenery

Great idea. With practice, I bet such a technique can produce spectacular results.

Lots of folks use aluminum foil very effectively as tunnel liners. Here's one of mine:

This seems similar to the Woodland Scenics Shaper Sheets, excepts those are much less pliable can support some weight on top of such as very light trees, etc.  But aluminum foil is a lot cheaper and great for some applications.

Avanti posted:

Great idea. With practice, I bet such a technique can produce spectacular results.

Lots of folks use aluminum foil very effectively as tunnel liners. Here's one of mine:

How do you attach the foil ? Hot glue ?

Richie C. posted:

Avanti posted:

Great idea. With practice, I bet such a technique can produce spectacular results.

Lots of folks use aluminum foil very effectively as tunnel liners. Here's one of mine:

How do you attach the foil ? Hot glue ?

Yep.

Justhavinfun:  Your foil work looks great!!!  Avanti :  Very nice looking tunnel liner!!  I agree that foil is wonderful stuff for some applications!!  

A few years ago I made canyon walls from heavy gauge aluminum foil.  Worked well too!!   Crumpled the foil, attached it to the upper and lower area with staples ...  then spray painted with several coats of flat black, then some sporatic squirts of earth brown spray paint.  Next I spray glued the entire foil area, then threw scenic material at the foil.  What stuck to the foil did and what did not fell to the bottom.     Here are some photos:  Photo 1 shows foil as it wrap around the lake below and behind the bridge and to the right of the bridge pier.  Photo 2 shows the same as photo 1 from a slightly different camera angle.  Photo 3 closer look.  Photo 4 shows the base.  Photo 5  yet a different camera angle. The mountain itself is made mostly of plaster wrap. 

I have seen foil tunnel liners like Pete's before, but never knew of it being used for out in the open scenery.  It's starting to look good already Jushavnfun!  Pat, I've seen tyour bridge-lake scene probably 100 times but never realized it was foil.  Very effective!!

What a capital idea !   I too like change, now and then.  I'm going to save your post for later reference.

What a great idea.  The tunnel liner is fantastic.

Great tunnel effect Avanti & Trumptrain that looks fantastic.  Since my layout is only for a short while I'm looking at adhesive dots, double sided tape, heck maybe Elmer's  glue.  I dont like hot glue , tried it last time and to hard to remove residue. I need something easy to remove yet hold up well.

I've used foil in the past but you need to be aware that it could affect the TMCC signal.

Seems to me you would not want Al foil anywhere near a TMCC layout.  However, would it help if it was grounded?

Outside of the box thinkers, I will have to try it out. Also, what about Tmcc? Cappailot has a good question but, would you want earth ground or antenna to running rail(command base) ground. I have read that early users of tmcc, and as such were installed on oldschool, re:chicken wire scenery) layouts and interference was a big issue. Eric S. from erics trains even had a video to combat issues he was having with two very long parallel split elevation main line runs. He explained that crosstalk more than dropouts were his main issues. So I see a tunnel almost 190degree wrapped in foil without mention of lost communication, I'd assume it behaves like a hz. repeater. Any thoughts? 

You would use an earth ground or pin 5 from the 9 pin off the base.

If you look at my first picture, you will see that in my tunnel setup, the foil does not surround the track. It is merely a curtain arranged with the sight-lines taken into account. I don't think this would have any real effect on TMCC, although I am not a user.  This wouldn't work on a head-on tunnel, but that is relatively rare, at least on my layout.

Pete, yes I see what you mean about only covering what is visible from the viewing angle.

As to the question of TMCC, I am not a user, I only have DCS.  However, I recall quite a discussion in Elliot's "Dream Nightmare Layout" topic about adding chicken wire for TMCC signal between track levels.  Now I do not know if it was tied to ground; was for isolation or actually helped with signal transmission.  Kind of along the lines of Ron's question. 

Marty, can you give some more knowledge on the subject?

Mark

Legacy and TMCC gets its signal in 2 parts.  One from the wheels on the outside rail and the other from the house earth ground or structure to the handrails or internal diesel antenna. It's the common problem of when either a metal structure or above track goes over another track.  The chicken wire is the same issue.  It prevents the part of the signal radiated from the earth ground of the house to getting to the handrail or internal antennas. 

By adding an earth ground to that metal you are effectively adding that signal back into the area that the obstruction is creating.  Often a wire laid above the affected track does the same.

Marty,

Thank you.  So ungrounded chicken wire or aluminum can act as a shielded room to signal so to speak, from my old mobile radio maintenance days back in the ‘70s.  If it is grounded, then it acts as an antenna, which was Elliot’s need.  Do I have that right?

Mark Boyce posted:

Marty,

Thank you.  So ungrounded chicken wire or aluminum can act as a shielded room to signal so to speak, from my old mobile radio maintenance days back in the ‘70s.  If it is grounded, then it acts as an antenna, which was Elliot’s need.  Do I have that right?

When the chicken wire is connected to the house earth ground, it is transfering that portion of the signal to it. 

Right now I'm running conventional and we'll hook up my legacy and DCS later I'll let you know how that comes out but in the past I haven't had a problem with it so we'll see what happens this time since I'm going to be using a lot much larger amount of it on my track and if it doesn't work I can always make hats out of it in case the aliens probe my mind

MartyE posted:

Mark Boyce posted:

Marty,

Thank you.  So ungrounded chicken wire or aluminum can act as a shielded room to signal so to speak, from my old mobile radio maintenance days back in the ‘70s.  If it is grounded, then it acts as an antenna, which was Elliot’s need.  Do I have that right?

When the chicken wire is connected to the house earth ground, it is transfering that portion of the signal to it. 

Got it Marty!  Thank you!!!

Jushavnfun, sorry this topic took a Branch Line!  I hope we can get back on the main line!!

CAPPilot posted:

Seems to me you would not want Al foil anywhere near a TMCC layout.  However, would it help if it was grounded?

CAPPilot - I have TMCC and have never had an issue with the foil interfering with the signal.