Adding Scenic Details – Street Furniture (Tree Grills/Grids)
Adding Scenic Details – Street Furniture (Tree Grills/Grids)
In this article, we take a look at how to install one of the gate kits, in this case, the LX031-OO Tree Grill/Grilles kit. The kit comes in three different packs, these being A, B & C (Round, Square & Hexagonal). Each pack contains small, medium & large size grill/grilles. Ideal for your street scenes, parks, etc. Each pack is supplied unpainted.
Tools You’ll need are:
- A tube of Deluxe Materials Roket Card glue or similar.
- An old cloth to wipe away excess glue.
- Craft knife with fresh sharp blades.
- A cutting mat.
- Sanding stick (old nail sanding stick will do).
- Steel ruler or straight edge to cut against.
- Acrylic paints or Woodland Scenics Steel Rail Colour paint pen.
As you can see in the photo above, Tree grills are a common sight on pedestrianised streets. So let us take a look at adding some to a layout. For the purpose of this article, we’ll be using a small demonstration diorama. I’ve glued a piece of 1mm Greyboard card to the board with pavement texture sheet glued to in turn to the Greyboard. Sufficient time has been given for the glue to dry.
You can find the greyboard here:
https://www.scalemodelscenery.co.uk/?s=greyboard&post_type=product&v=79cba1185463
The pavement texture sheets can be found here:
https://www.scalemodelscenery.co.uk/?s=pavement&post_type=product&v=79cba1185463
The tree grille kits can be seen in the gallery below, showing the three different designs to choose from.
Let’s get started…
Before cutting & removing the grilles from the parts sheet, paint the grilles. Here I’m using a Tidy Track Paint Pen from Woodland Scenics. The colour paint pen is the Steel Rail one. This is a very fast drying paint that can be handled within three to five minutes.
To use the paint pen, on a scrap piece of paper push the pen down so the tip retracts. Do this a couple of times tip starts to soak up the paint. Then drag the paint pen across a scrap piece of card or paper, this will get the paint flowing nicely into the fibre tip of the paint pen.
Paint the grills paying attention to carefully getting the paint within the grills.
The parts sheet should look something like on the right after painting.
Turn the parts sheet over & carefully cut through the pips that hold the parts on to the parts sheet.
Lightly sand back flush any pips on the sides of the grill. Then using the paint pen, touch up the grill sides.
Place Grill on to your pavement & carefully draw around the grille. This marks out the section of pavement to be cut away.
Here you can see in the photo on the right, the pencil markings (highlighted within the orange box) for the area to be cut out from the pavement.
Using a steel ruler or steel straight edge, carefully cut along the pencil cut line. Take your time to make sure that the cut edge is straight & true. If the blade starts to snag the texture sheet whilst cutting, change the blade for a fresh new one.
Remove the square piece you’ve just cut out. Scrape clean the cut-out area within the square, so that it’s smooth & level.
Next test fit the grill into the section you’ve just cut out. If it doesn’t fit, trim back the edges of the cut out section till the grill fits.
If the grill fits okay, paint the recess in suitable earth colours, such as Woodland Scenics Earth Colour undercoat paint.
Turn the grill over & apply a few beads of Deluxe Materials Roket card glue to the grill as shown on the right.
Turn the grill back over & place into the painted recess. You may want to add some fine earth scatter around the edge & within the slots of the grill.
Now drill a suitably sized hole for planting your model tree, apply some glue into the hole & then place the tree into the hole. Repeat the fitting process of the rest of the grills in the kit pack.
Happy modelling.
The gallery below shows the completed grilles installed on a diorama board. Making small dioramas like these give you the chance to practice & try out new methods & techniques. So grab your modelling tools & have a go.
Happy modelling
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