If you're thinking of modelling the cans using scale-size cylinders, try looking in the beading section of a craft store. I haven't actually measured them or anything, but some of that stuff is pretty small.

I have to admit, when I saw that first photo my immediate thought was that it looked like the confetti that comes off a shredder. Another thought would be painted small diameter wire cut into very small chunks.

There was an article in the NMRA's magazine The Bulletin (before it was called Scale Rails) that covered this very subject.  There is also a book called Open Loads (also published by the NMRA I think) that has the article in it.

Basically you shred aluminum foil in a blender, then glue to some kind of form.  For a dump load like this make the base out of foam and glue the shredded foil to the form in as many layers as it takes.  You can also make a load of baled scrap by using plastic tubing for an armature and gluing the foil to it.  This is the method covered in the articles mentioned above.

Sources for the foil include basic aluminum foil as well as some yummy alternatives.  The foil that wraps Hershey's Kisses is perfect for this, as are the foil protective seals on yogurt containers.  With the Kisses, if you buy them around Christmas, they come wrapped in red and green.  If you can find red, green, blue and gold foil, that should give you a pretty good mix.

You can buy a used blender at a garage sale for $5 or less.  Have fun with your project and let us see the results.

For years I have been attaching aluminim foil to the wall at the side of my spray booth, when I test the flow of paint before painting or getting rid of excess paint after painting I spray the foil. When the foil is covered in a variety of colors i put it in an old blender and it makes an ideal scrap load.

DC Snr

I will go and check out the local craft store. I t\like the idea on some sort of bead. It would give that cylindrical look and if I can find them small enough they could work well.

Paul Scoles in his DVD series (http://www.paulscoles.com/) used the sheathing from various sizes of wire.  He cut them in into small sections (a couple of inches) and then pulled the wire out leaving the sheathing.  He would then cut the sheathing into "can size" pieces.  Painted silver, brown and black and hit with a quick weathering wash they looked pretty good. 

Might be a pain to do car loads but if you used it with something else it might look convincing.... say something like Charlies rusted tie plate treatment in the last issue of MRH and tweaked to look more like flatten cans.  You could add a few of the of  Paul style cans to sell the illusion.  Placed on a painted foam insert (like Charlie did for some coal loads) and they would be removable too. Anyway just a thought

Steve

You could get yourself some 0.030 thousandths styrene rod and set a chopper to clip off pieces a scale 6" long and then go to town.

Once you have a few thousand of these small round nibs, then I'd put them in some various colors of paint bath using a cheap tea strainer and then set them out to dry.

Then glue a random mix of the various colors to some contoured foam using Charlie's recent Scenery Scene on making open top car loads (with a metal washer included so you can pull the load out of the car easily with a magnet).

I would think this should work - and if someone would actually try it and take a few nice photos of the process and write maybe 300 words or so of explanation, you'll have a nice scenery scene piece that could net you $100 or more. (hint, hint - we are always looking for more article submissions)

They look like they are sorted by type or color? Is that right?

Bernard Kempinski

 www.alkemscalemodels.com

 

Personal Layout Blog: http://usmrr.blogspot.com/

 

Yes, they look like they are sorted by type.

Looking a little closer, it might actually make sense to paint the rod, THEN run it through the chopper, since the ends tend to be unpainted - only the sides have color.

I'd hazard a guess that that they were sorted for some reason by the collection company, but the destination doesn't care.  Otherwise, wouldn't they be sorted into different cars?

Following Joe's thoughts, why not just cut the rod, glue it to the base, prime one pile one color, the other another, and than drybrush and or wash color, shine, and rust on?