Farm and computer cables

[Xaniel]

Hello.

A few day ago, someone asked how to build some roofs with IDE or floppy computer cables.

Following the same path I tried to make plowed field with this kind of cable. Found out that it is out of scale. perhaps it is good for Z, not for N.

What I have done was to cut a bit of IDE cable, paint with a latex earth color paint, then spread a bit of fine brown turf. Finally i drybrushed it with a nice green paint and it became fantastic, but out of scale. Too tiny!

Anyone knows how to have/make this kind of flied with a similar techinique?


thanks for your time,

Cheers!

 

[Bikerdad]

Just guesstimating here, but it seems as though a thin coat of plaster/mortar/thinset etc dragged with an appropriately spaced comb will do the trick. All you need to do is figure out your row spacing, then go to a beauty supply place and find an appropriate comb.

If you can't find one, then you could simply make one using an old plastic card with "teeth" filed at the appropriate spacing.

Another possibility would be to "lay up" a bed of dried pasta. Angel hair for Z scale, thin spaghetti for N. (If they can build bridges out of spaghetti at MIT, then surely we can make farm fields out of it!)

Grace and peace, BD

 

[Xaniel]

That sound an excelent idea. Gonna try it tomorrow mornig to see what happens.

Thanks a lot. I am in debt with you.

 

[billk]

Here's another idea, Luis - kind of a derivative of the ribbon cable thing.

1. Cut a piece of cardboard the size of the field.

2. Cut little V-shaped notches in the edges of the cardboard where the furrows woul start/end.

3. Stretch (doesn't have to be real tight) wire between the notches. The size of the wire would depend on your scale. Any ideas on how to fasten the ends? If you could get a layer of plaster over the whole thing thin enough to not cover up the details, that might work.

4. Paint and so on like you did with the ribbon cable.

 

[screwysquirrel]

Originally posted by billk
Here's another idea, Luis - kind of a derivative of the ribbon cable thing.

1. Cut a piece of cardboard the size of the field.

2. Cut little V-shaped notches in the edges of the cardboard where the furrows woul start/end.

3. Stretch (doesn't have to be real tight) wire between the notches. The size of the wire would depend on your scale. Any ideas on how to fasten the ends? If you could get a layer of plaster over the whole thing thin enough to not cover up the details, that might work.

4. Paint and so on like you did with the ribbon cable.

a possibly better solution would be to take some corrugated cardboard, and peel off one side, leaving the wavy part exposed. it shoulds look like a plowed field after painting

 

[billk]

Thought of that, screwy, but the only corrugated cardboard I had around measured out to furrows 5 ft apart and 2 ft deep, approx, in N scale. Might work for the larger scales, though, or there's got to be cardboard around with smaller corrugations.