CaneSIG to the rescue

Hi Neil,

Have you had a look at Lyn Zelmer's CaneSIG website? Home page is at  http://www.zelmeroz.com/canesig/ But the bit that should really interest you is the Modeller's Handbook at  http://www.zelmeroz.com/canesig/resources/resource-02hbk.html specifically chapters 6 and 14 on modelling sugar cane would be my first suggestions to take a look at. There is probably stuff in some of the other chapters that could help as well,

Cane is hard

I keep thinking I want to do some for my n scale Louisiana themed layout . . . . but I have yet to find a substance tha will give me the look I want. Good luck!

Harvest Season?

You might have to wait until the harvest season.  The fields could be essentially barren with just cane debris.  The cut cane (the last batch of it) could be loaded on carts/rail cars/trucks (whatever you're using) for the trip to the mill.

Maybe you could use a painting or photo for a field in the background that has not been cut yet.

I do not know if this would

I do not know if this would work or not Neil but thought it might be worth an experiment.

1 Consider two pieces of clear 2 sided tape. One a bit below the top of your shortest cane and a strip above the bottom layer.

2 Place a thin layer of your stalks on the tape and then add some additional clear scenery cement to add to the stickiness. The cement could be added to the tape first if it is easier that way but if done after the stalks are added it would have the added advantage of glueing some of them to each other as well as the tape.

3 Make additional layers with tape keeping the tape to the inside of the stalks. A field could be made rather quickly by planting the equivalent of hedges with them resting against each other. A few straight pins glued to the stalks protruding down past the bottom should make pushing them into scenery easier as well.

4 If your terrain has some slope to it shorter sections will work better than long ones, and will be easier to have follow the contours.

Hope this helps, it should also have the advantage of keeping the cane from looking like tall weeds around a pond.

Plowing on

@John - Great resource, thank you! I'd seen this before but could not remember the site. It is now saved on my desktop. 

@Philip - Keep checking back. I haven't given up yet!

@Jack - great ideas. I have been looking for someone to print some images that I can play with behind the cane. In the past I would have been reluctant to add photos but am going to give it a try - stubborn, I guess. 

@Rob - great minds think alike. If you went to the CaneSIG then you would see the many ideas being used and tried. O scale is good and bad. Good for older eyes (or born that way, like me) but HO cane could be more a representation or character of a stalk without having to model the stalk or grass blades. 

One method I thought I'd try was using a cardboard strip to glue the stalks to then trim and paint. The product I found in a craft store looks promising!

That's enough for today. Only took a few minutes to glue this 10"-12" section in place. 

Aloha!

Neil

One I'd forgotten

Hi Neil,

Steve Pettit did "Lomo Lomo" based on Fiji in 2013  Sadly the layout is no longer bur from memory he used millet brooms for the canestalks in O scale. You should be able to track it down on CaneSig site ( hint see chapter 37 of the handbook). First up a distant view of the canefield (no zoom on the camera from about 3' from the layout edge)

Next up a closer view of one of the locomotives some cut cane on whole-stick wagons and the cane.

The photos of Lomo Lomo were taken when it was on display at the 2013 Australian Narrow Gauge Convention.  

Hopefully some more inspiration and another way forward,

Cane requires more hard work

• rave pants

Cane field modeling

A little more searching on Mr. Zelmers site gives you this PDF on methods of modeling cane.

http://www.zelmeroz.com/album_model/basics/06_cane.pdf

Neil's Young Harvest

That site turned out to be a treasure trove. My little factory (above) got an unexpected shower one night so back to work. Headed to California so won't get much done for a couple weeks but the misses said "Why don't you move that inside where it won't get wet again?"  Don't have to say it twice ; -)

My apologies to any "Young" fans but I've been thinking about my father-in-law who just passed. "... take a look at your life, I'm a lot like you were" - not 24 any more though.

Neil E

Looking great!

This is quite an interesting layout in the works...

TM247

Thanks! Haven't heard from you for a while. Hope you found a dcc system to try

I use to raise cane...

oh, not that kind of cane....Sorry!            John

Dark Winter

@John:

You now clearly raise bench work and durn nice stuff too! (Nice signals to btw) I've been following your posts and envious of your nicely finished space. I'd post a room view of my layout but it has all the elements of a hoarder! Former drafting studio and everything my wife and kids thought they couldn't live without probably could hold up the layout. 

Nowadays I only raise cane - er cain - when staff decides they won't do what they are paid for. My O scale employees are always willing and agreeable. 

Thanks for dropping by!

Neil E

@Neil

We purged our self of all the "stuff" we didn't need or want, kids stuff included, and gave it to Good Will, trash man or burned! We lived in our old house 27 years and kept a lot of junk, insert stuff, we didn't need. It felt really good to move into this one with very little extra stuff.    But I know how you feel.    John

Did and it works great,

,waiting on a wowsound decoder coming tomorrow.

Welcome

TM247 - Welcome to the high tech world of DCC! Glad it worked out and hope those switches help with your new project.

This hobby always amazes me with the variety of experiences to explore from SMC in electronics, audio mixers, JMRI, Arduino & sketches, to making sugar cane, ground cover with actual dirt, ground foam on weeds from the yard for trees, bench work, artwork, historical research, etc., etc.  

When I began building layouts at age nine it never would have occurred to me that it could continue to capture my interest nearly fifty years later. It has lead me to a career in design, construction, architecture & planning, code development, and historic preservation. Hope I can encourage you or others to follow a similar path. 

Neil E

Thanks,

I have a wow sound decoder install later today.