Enhancing Scenes With Scrap Material

nice thread Bob, I used White Husky fur from our female to make this scene.

Scenery and car loads:

The armature from a WW2 era motor-generator set.  I have a lot of "stuff" saved up for these kind of projects.

EDIT: The cribbing has since been repaired/replaced.

One of my favorites on the old layout - a model UN building from an old New York City souvenir used as an AC/ventilator unit on a building:

Jim

Yep, me too. Made a chainlink fence with the mesh bag from some Clementines, pipes are stiff wire for hanging ceilings.

A couple of road cones out of caps from caulking tubes and styrene sheet for the base.

Light fixtures with #6 drywall washers bent backwards. I glue an LED into the new hood. The arm is balsa.

There's more but for now.

Bob

Wow, you guys are so resourceful. I wish I had a fraction of the creativity you have. 👍

Most of my layout is made from trash.

I don't know where to start. This is maybe my favorite:

I made a maintenance of way flatcar load using scrap material including:

• a broken Lionel beacon,
• unused billboard support pieces from a Miller Engineering "neon" sign,
• left over basswood,
• some scrap necklace chain from Michael's crafts store
• and a few pallets I found in a $3 dollar package of toys at Dollar General .

@RSJB18, your pictures aren't showing up for me.

@RSJB18 poster

Light fixtures with #6 drywall washers bent backwards. I glue an LED into the new hood.

There's more but for now.

Bob

Bob, how do you turn the washer inside out; keeping it unmarred  and perfectly round?

@John H posted:

@RSJB18, your pictures aren't showing up for me.

Somehow my post was up twice. I deleted the first one that looked like it had issues.

The Forum has been slow uploading posts today for some reason.

Thanks

@pennsyfan posted:

Bob, how do you turn the washer inside out; keeping it unmarred  and perfectly round?

Run it into a 2x4 with the screw from the back of the washer until you flush it with the surface of the wood.  Works like a charm.

Bob

The AC unit on the brick building on the right (and to the right of the MAX FOODS billboard) was the hotel from the Game of Life.

Peter

@Avanti posted:

Most of my layout is made from trash.

I don't know where to start. This is maybe my favorite:

Pete, great windows. Was that a berry or tomato basket?

@RSJB18 posted:

Run it into a 2x4 with the screw from the back of the washer until you flush it with the surface of the wood.  Works like a charm.

Bob

✔️✔️

@RSJB18 Bob you took down the one with the pictures.

@coach joe posted:

@RSJB18 Bob you took down the one with the pictures.

UGHHHH.....been one of those days.....

I re-uploaded them to my post.

My scratch built Recycling Center (this was my covid project... turning used paper in toilet paper) is made from Poly-styrene with various recycled parts.

Photo #1- the Recycling Center is motorized with 2 microwave motors with used nylon strapping traveling around 2 wooden spindles cut out from a previous project.

Photo #2 The water tower was made from a toilet paper roll with Japanese toothpicks glued to the outside.

Photo #3- The roof on Plant #2 is sand paper.

Photo #4- The bales of paper were made from scraps of painted Precision Board.

Photo #5- The recycled toilet paper rolls were made from Silica packs in prescription medicine bottles, painted white. the roof was made from a piece of textured vinyl from an old stool. The roof vents are ends from metal shelf brackets. The Bales and toilet paper are stapled to the nylon strapping.

@gene maag posted:

My scratch built Recycling Center (this was my covid project... turning used paper in toilet paper) is made from Poly-styrene with various recycled parts.

Photo #1- the Recycling Center is motorized with 2 microwave motors with used nylon strapping traveling around 2 wooden spindles cut out from a previous project.

Photo #2 The water tower was made from a toilet paper roll with Japanese toothpicks glued to the outside.

Photo #3- The roof on Plant #2 is sand paper.

Photo #4- The bales of paper were made from scraps of painted Precision Board.

Photo #5- The recycled toilet paper rolls were made from Silica packs in prescription medicine bottles, painted white. the roof was made from a piece of textured vinyl from an old stool. The roof vents are ends from metal shelf brackets. The Bales and toilet paper are stapled to the nylon strapping.

Very impressive Gene! How many hours have you put into that project? It’s amazing.

Homemade Yard and Flood lights from Plastic Christmas Bells and Plastic Balloon Sticks

There are 20 so, small homemade flood lights on some buildings and accessories.  The  homemade flood lights are made from 1 inch diameter or so Christmas plastic bells, and poles are made from hollow plastic balloon sticks (from party stores which we have lots of in the big party town of Baton Rouge, LA) and 12 v  mini lights (grain of wheat size with pig tails) from Radio Shack.  The base is a 1/4 inch slice of a 3/4 inch dia. wood dowel (wooden broom stick !).  All accessories like saw mill, drum loader, milk car platform, barrel loader, cattle pen, etc. have a pair of these flood lights.  The flood lights have a on/off switch for each layout board.

The yard and flood lights are a must for night and dim light train operating.  They were very useful when the train board was on the floor near with room lit only by the near by Christmas tree.

Charlie

Very nice Charlie! Great idea lighting up the  post war accessories.

Thank you all for sharing your creativity and resourcefulness. Many good ideas were shared today.

From pill bottle we all have made some transformers for tele poles.

Gene, I've turned those desiccants into drums.

Charlie, how did you bend the plastic straws without kinking them?

@pennsyfan posted:

Very impressive Gene! How many hours have you put into that project? It’s amazing.

Who is counting hours when you are having fun, but there was a lot of time planning the Recycling Center mechanics and getting it to work.

Here are a few more that I forgot about.

i used wooden coffee stirrers to create a board walk along my sea wall.

I wanted to put in some of that grass that grows wild in wet lands. There was always a lot of it along the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn NY. The parkway ran along the shoreline. The nurseries call it Pompas Grass; I am not 100 % convinced that it’s the same thing.

My first attempt was using bristles from an old paint brush. It made nice enough grass; but wasn’t strong enough to hold the flower (for lack of a better word) at the top.

I resorted to giving my garage broom a haircut. I started by drilling small holes in the tabletop, dipping a broom stalk in glue and then in sawdust. Then a drop of glue in the hole and sticking the stalk in. This was tedious, especially since there was already ground cover which at times covered the holes.  It took over an hour to put down about an inch of grass.  I took a piece of cardboard and cut it to size. I then sat at my work bench and punched random holes. The process went a lot smoother.
After I secured the cardboard in place I added ground cover and puddles along with a culvert under the road.

I don't have any pictures to show right now, but I'll have a junk yard on my layout at some point.

In the mean time I've taken apart 2 printers, several sets of window blinds (the kind you open and close by pulling a cord), a few small appliances. I have amassed lots of small metal and plastic pieces, gears, round cylindrical parts, brackets, etc etc. All waiting to be painted and "rusted". Don't throw anything away without disassembling it first. Junk yards, gondolas full of scrap, track side trash piles, pick up trucks with heavy loads, all waiting to be created.

@LIONEL6457 posted:

I don't have any pictures to show right now, but I'll have a junk yard on my layout at some point.

In the mean time I've taken apart 2 printers, several sets of window blinds (the kind you open and close by pulling a cord), a few small appliances. I have amassed lots of small metal and plastic pieces, gears, round cylindrical parts, brackets, etc etc. All waiting to be painted and "rusted". Don't throw anything away without disassembling it first. Junk yards, gondolas full of scrap, track side trash piles, pick up trucks with heavy loads, all waiting to be created.

Ripped a broken printer apart for the motors and drive gears. I had grand aspirations to make a mechanism to move a gantry crane.

Maybe on the next layout.....

Lot's of trash left after pulling the motors and pulleys out....

Layout Lights, Building Lighting Using Mini Christmas Tree Light Bulbs and Junk Light Strings

All buildings have lights in the ceiling like real buildings not on the floor.  My childhood layout buildings had 4 watt or so Christmas tree 110v lights.  I use small 12v mini Christmas tree lights for building lights.  These 12v Christmas tree lights are replacements only for stings of 10 bulbs and each bulb draws only 0.4 watt per bulb.

I cut up junk mini Christmas tree light strings and use the pig tails and sockets for the building lights.  The 12v mini Christmas tree lights, being incandescent, give a warm color light like lights in the 1950's that I model.

A small staple or plastic loop is usually used to suspend the light socket in the ceiling.  I hook up the building lights with plastic wire nuts to pig tails coming through a hole in the layout to allow quick and easy building removal.  I can find replacement 12v mini Christmas tree bulbs, in packs of 6 for about $1 before Christmas at Walmart and fifty cents after Christmas if they have any left (or eBay).  The 6v mini Christmas tree bulbs, for 20 bulb light strings, are also useful as I hook them up, two in series, when two bulbs are needed.

Mini Christmas 12v, 0.4 watt, light bulb and socket in ceiling of building, held by a plastic loop.  I use wire nuts to attach the light bulb pigtails to the layout 12 volt lighting circuit. 

My small town of Plasticiville buildings uses Mini Christmas tree lights bulbs and wire and sockets in the ceilings for interior lighting.

Charlie