Natural Resources I Have Used For The Train Layout To make the rock walls and pillars to hang the gates on I have used these stones.   I have collected bark, different coloured soils, twigs, and gum leaves. I have sieved the dirt to get all the little tiny stones out and to not have anything in the soil that doesn't look like soil.  Here I have ground down the green gum leaves. I also ground down the red ones separate and also made a mixture of green, red, and dried brown gum leaves, which I have used the most.   I found some banksias in a car park in Geelong thanks to some corellas that had a good feed on them and then dropped them on the ground. I thought they would be very useful for the train layout and they have been. I have used them as weeds, and will also make some agapanthus plants out of them and I will also use them scattered through the wheat field. When you pull the banksias apart there are 2 parts that I have found us...

                 Making Your Own Ground Cover Foliage Above is a photo showing one of the types of ground covers that I have made slightly hanging of the cliff edge as well as ground cover. Spray this one brown and didn’t place any flocking on this one until I glued it down, then I sprayed some hair spray on to it and then sprinkle some ground up leaves on top of it and then re sprayed it again with the hair spray. When I come to sealing all my work I will seal this as well.   Below is a photo of what this foliage looks like after you have made it. Then when you want to place this foliage in your train layout or war diorama or even in your dolls house garden you simply pull it apart and glue it down using your Sticky PVA Glue. To make your own ground cover foliage you will need the following Items:  String or Rope -         Cheap hair spray (You will be using as glue) Baking paper -       ...

                 How To Make These Long Stem Flowers This is some photos of how I used my long stemmed flowers. Sometimes I glued them in the exact size that I made them to be, but a lot of time I cut them up to give me smaller stems and varying sizes, for larger parts of them plants in the middle and back, leading down to smaller parts of the plant at the front. As you can see the varying sizes really help to give you the true effect of the plants and a really good 3D effect.  The things you are going to need to make your own long stem flowers are as follows:   -Bristles from a light scrubbing brush. (This is pictured in the above photo and I found mine in Daiso a Japanese shop in the laundry isle. I found this one to be not to think and the bristles all differ in size and they are a natural product, and what’s even better is that they only cost $2:80 and you get 2 in a packet. You will need to pull them all apart and put th...

                                                                      DIY Grass Weed Tufts To make these grass weeds tufts you will need the following: -Woodland Scenics Field Grass (Light green, medium green and natural straw. You can purchase packets of these from any stockiest of Woodland Scenics products either from a hobby shop or online, for around $10-$15 and of course if you purchase them of the internet then there is postage handling. For the straw colour I have seen that some people used a fake blond wig. I didn’t use this only because way back in 2004 when we started collecting stuff for our train layout we had already purchased our grasses). -A craft cutting mat. -A small pair of very sharp scissors. -PVA Tacky glue. (You can use just normal PVA ...

          Making The Flocking For The Train                                            Layout To make your own foam foliage you will need the following items: ·      An electric blender ·      Foam ·      A large mixing bowel ·      A mixing spoon ·      A 250ml measuring cup ·      1 Tablespoon to measure with ·      Acrylic paint (whatever colours you need your foliage to be). ·      PVA glue ·      Water ·      Paper towel ·      Plastic sheets (or plastic tarp, I used plastic garbage bags) ·      Plastic disposable storage containers ·      Rub...

  So Many Different Types Of  Foliage Trees and Shrubs           Over the years we collected some trees and some flocking and when it came time to place the foliage on the mountain I realized that I didn’t have enough. I didn’t have enough to cover even a third of the top of the mountain, nor did I have enough variety for what I wanted to do. And when I looked online at the prices of everything and knowing how much I might need I decided I would have to make all the foliage. And it really wasn’t to expensive at all. It did take a little time to make though. I would find that I would make approximately 20 trees and shrubs and that would take about 3 to 4 days to make and then I would place them and then it would be making another lot the next week. For a while there it was all I seemed to be doing. But it did pay off and we think it made it look so much better and more original. Here are some of the types of foliage I had to make. I will be expla...

                Wiring In The Town Wall Lights                          Before I could finish the plastering in front of the town wall, it was time to put my Hubby to work and do some wiring and drilling.  He does the wiring, fixing up the tracks, and all the electronics side, the decorative side is my gifts.                                       So for this we had to thread the wire very patiently down behind the fly wire mess. We did try feeding the wire through with a wire feeder, but it just couldn’t be pulled through. We had a very small limited area that we could drill a hole in, and to get thick enough gauged wire and the wires of the lights through at the same time just wouldn’t fit. We also needed the wire to go over on an angle towards t...