Adding a Campfire to Your Model Railroad Scenes
George SelliosDescription
George Sellios is notorious for the eye catching model railroad scenes in his Franklin and South Manchester layout. Look closely and you will find city folk scattered all around. Scenes of fishermen, window-shoppers, farmers, policemen, and pedestrians bring the layout to life. Incorporating accessories into trackside scenes does an incredible job of transforming your layout and enhancing the overall narrative. Model railroad scenes can depict realistic scenarios, or they can be humorous displays hidden within the layout waiting to be discovered. In the F&SM, George brings to life a hobo campfire scene with a twinkling light tucked away in a wooded area of the layout.
Model Railroad Scenes
Twinkling lights bring attention to miniature scenes and there are numerous ways to integrate them into a layout. Lampposts illuminating the streets or shinning car headlights are just a couple options. There are even multiple ways of displaying the campfire scene George has in the F&SM layout. Camping boy scouts, backyard barbecues, and picnic areas all have the potential for a campfire. Leon and Kathy Serre built the campfire scene for George many years ago. In this video, Leon and Kathy demonstrate how to recreate the campfire scene using the Berkshire Junction Model Railroad kit. The kit is still sold on their website, although it has been modified to an LED light instead of being radio operated.
Leon and Kathy provide a few helpful tips for constructing the campfire scene. To get started, you will need small rocks, small twigs, bigger twigs, model people figures and the firelight kit. Leon and Kathy suggest using white glue and tweezers when glueing the small twigs together. They also suggest a couple fire designs. You can arrange the twigs into a teepee or log cabin style. To create the scene, they recommend adding rocks and logs around the fire for seating. For scenes other than hobos, you can add campers, picnic tables and tents. Give one of these model railroad scenes a try. They are certain to bring charm to your layout.
One neat thing that you've got is the hobo campfire. Did you do that? No, I didn't. I had Leon and Kathy Seere build 'em for me. One easy way to add fun to a layout is by adding a campfire scene. Some different campfire scenes we have thought of, hobos, Boy Scouts, backyard barbecues, and picnic areas. Today, we're showing the most popular, the hobo scene. All you need to do on your layout to make these hobo scenes are rocks, some small twigs, bigger twigs, and hobos. And finally, a firelight kit. The Berkshire Junction Campfire Kit is customized to include a radio to create the flickering effect. Okay, what we've done in this case for the demonstration is we've pre-drilled a 1/16 diameter hole to stick the firelight through, and all you do is you stick it through the hole from the bottom. And then you just pull it down, and that's the first step is getting your firelight in position. In this case, I've already pre-glued a couple of campfires together. This is your log cabin style, and this is your teepee style, and that's just with white glue and tweezers. You just glue 'em together, very simple. Make sure that you don't block out all the light. Now we have completed your fire. Let's create the scene. You can put rocks and logs for the hobos to sit on around the campfire and glue them in place. Just do that. And we'll put this one here. If the location you have chosen is not that secluded for your hobos, you can always add a couple of junk cars. Now it's time for the hobos. You can have them sitting on the logs, sitting on the rocks, sitting on the ground, whatever you like best. For scenes other than hobos, you can always add campers and picnic tables and tents and things like that. You may wanna paint the middle of the logs black for a burnt look. Adjust the volume of your firelight till it's a nice amber color. Make final adjustment to your firelight by pushing it up a little more if you need to. With the Berkshire Junction Campfire Kit, what you're gonna get is a customized radio. Do not use a regular radio, it will not flicker the firelight. It is customized for you. You will get the firelight itself, which plugs in like the earphone here, and it comes with the wall end transformer, all you have to do is plug it in and enjoy it.
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