(jeb@oscalemag.com). - O Scale Trains Magazine Online

Autumn LeavesBy now most of us have traded in our leaf rakes for snowshovels, and are anticipating the return of warmer weather.While raking leaves this past fall, I was reminded of an idea formaking realistic looking leaves for my layout. It seems that I amalways thinking about new ideas and techniques to improve mymodeling, even while doing common chores.Ground cover is very important as a part of detailing. A coupleof years ago, I attended a HiRailer’s meeting at York, PA, andheard one of the presenters talking about how he used real leavesto make scale leaves for his layout. He had commandeered acommon kitchen blender (not his wife’s) to process the leaves.Intriguing idea, I thought, and I filed it away for a future time.Seeing some brilliant deep red maple trees this fall reallycaught my attention, and jogged my memory back to that meetingand the process he used to manufacture scale leaves for mymodel railroad. Here is what I found to work.Gather lots of leaves from several types and colors of trees.Newly fallen leaves will work. Pulling leaves off the trees evenworks better. You want to catch them before they turn brownand start to lose their color. 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I looked for yellows, oranges, and reds. Some brownswill work also.Prepare the leaves by emptying the bag on a table. Anoutside deck table works well for this. Inside, you can spreadnewspaper on a work counter and spread the leaves out. Just besure to be finished by the time the lady of the house gets home.Believe me, Hobo has learned through experience that “happyhomes make for happy railroads”! Pull off any stems, and breakthe leaves into smaller pieces. Also remove any discolored parts,insect eggs, or any unsightly sections. Discard anything thatdoesn’t look good. Mother Nature will provide lots more leaves.Work with the entire contents of the bag. I have found thatbreaking them into sections just works better for the next stage.The Kitchen BlenderDon’t try this at home with the lady of the house’s blender.Remember what we said about the underwritten rule of happyhomes making for happy railroads or you may just find yourselfriding the rails along with this old Hobo. Kitchen blenders areconstantly being modified and modernized. As a result there isan abundance of them that are available at garage sales and fleamarkets. I found several on sale for $5.00 each. One is all youneed and if you treat it well it will last a long time. If not, youcan always find another.On to the ProcessPut the leaf sections into the blender. Fill it about half full.Put the lid on the blender and turn it on. Set the control to pulverize.Agitate the blender by shaking to make sure that all ofthe leaves are blended. The processor actually tears each leafinto many, many tiny leaves that have texture and color. Whenall of the leaves are pulverized turn off the power, unplug theblender and empty the contents on a newspaper. I have foundthat I can get great results by spreading the leaf mixture onto thepaper and placing the paper in a shallow cardboard box, likethe ones that you see in the grocery store that hold soup cans.Put these in an upstairs bedroom to dry for a couple of days.Make several batches of different leaves and different colors.Color separation is important, but you can also blend colors fora realistic mixture.After the scale leaves have dried, place them in sandwichstylezip-lock bags for storage. I like to label the bags with thetype, contents, and date, for future reference. A shoebox workswell for storing these until you need them for the layout. Whenyou are ready to use the leaves, it is very easy to sprinkle themunder fall trees and along the right-of-way for just the right look.They will look like scale autumn leaves. You can also use theseleaves for flocking existing trees. Try lightly spraying a tree witha spray adhesive, or common hair spray, and immediately sprinklethe scale leaves onto the tree. You will find that, with a littlepractice and creative patience, you can make very realistic scaleleaves that can be used in a variety of ways to enhance the lookof your model railroad. Have fun. That’s my tip for this time.Train whistles are calling this Hobo to the tracks!u