south central wisconsin division
As announced in the October Bad Order and also at the September & October meetings, the modeling project for this year is “Making Natural Trees”. This year we are trying something that will hopefully help you to make better scenery on your layouts. You will get the opportunity to make a mini-diorama and include on it the natural trees that you make from supplied materials and materials of you own choosing.
Rules for the project are that you must be an NMRA member, must make trees using natural materials as part of the scenery of a mini-diorama that is no larger than 160 x 160 scale feet in size. For HO scale this space is approximately 2 square feet and for N scale it is one square foot. The mini-diorama has to include railroad track of the appropriate scale. The mini-diorama may also include structures, vehicles, figures, other scenery items (shrubs, turf, grass, etc.), etc. as you prefer, but may not include any trees not made of natural materials.
A $10 deposit is required for you to receive your natural tree materials at the November SCWD meeting. The deposit will be refunded if you bring the finished mini-diorama for entry into our popular vote contest at the April 2024 SCWD meeting. We will be offering 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes separately for the N and HO categories again this year.
Note, to those who have been virtually attending SCWD meeting, you can participate in this project as well. Simply contact Mike Vivion not later than October 30, 2023, via email or phone to work out the details. Mike's contact information is in the SCWD Red Book.
To aid you in your project, the following are links to YouTube and other videos on making natural trees: