Junkyard
Junkyards are an almost universal modeler favorite, and I'm no exception. As I was developing the gas station scene, a space behind it opened up, and looked like the perfect place for a little mini-sized junkyard, one that (given the neighborhood) should be fenced in. Coincidentally, there was a fenced in abandoned parking lot across from the original gas station on the White River & Northern IV (at far right), so it felt like a nostalgic thing to do:
This time around I'd be building the fence the same way, but adding a pair of working gates. Adding this scene meant having to uninstall the just-installed tow truck, but such are the ups and downs of modeling.
Construction began with a sheet styrene base cut to the size of the fenced in area. I used 0.7mm brass wire for the fence posts and frame, I made the posts by flattening one end with a smooth-jaw pliers, bending it on an angle, and trimming it with flush cutters into the familiar wedge shaped barbed wire brackets. I soldered the entire assembly together and then painted it light grey.
Then came the contents of the junkyard, from the dirt and weeds on up. I did this before finishing the fence because it becomes much more delicate as it progresses. So I had a lot of fun rusting up some junk and making it all look decrepit. Since it's not a foreground scene, I cheated just a little by using some Model Tech Studios "linear clutter" as well as piles of tires, which I improved by drilling out and repainting.
When the junk was done, the trickiest part came next: attaching the chain link, which in this case was tulle (a.k.a. wedding veil fabric). If you're lucky, you can find it in a pale grey, which is a good match for galvanized steel. Of course, this would be a rusty old fence, and I rusted it up with brown Sharpies. The only way to cut it is with a brand new knife blade and a steel ruler held at 45 degrees to the grain of the fabric so that the chain link was properly diagonal. One might be tempted to attach it to the fence posts with CA, but that doesn't work; the tulle wants to stick to anything but the fence posts. What works is to gently lay the tulle onto a fine bead of Tacky white glue applied to the fence posts. Once the glue was thoroughly dry, I trimmed the excess tulle by running another new blade against the posts. The final step was to add barbed wire, which was fine solenoid wire wrapped around each post, and then painted rust.
Finally, I made the working gates. The mechanism is a completely stand-alone assembly that was simply glued in place when it was done. It is kind of sad that most of the junkyard is hidden behind the gas station, and even features a 1962 Chevy C10 pickup truck up on blocks with the hood partly open, but I know it's there...
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