Unfortunately, I did not want to spend $10K or more to have someone move this sewer vent pipe which is smack in the middle of a section of my layout. A mountain is not going to work since this is going to be a yard maintenance area and part of a dock to the right. There will be a city street area around there as well. I was thinking of Walther's modular sections around it to about 5 stories and then some N scale brick face around a square box going up about two feet. I can add printed windows, etc. to the brickface. I just don't want to leave it completely exposed when we get over 6 inches or so.
Unless it's in the middle of a big city I can't imagine a building over 5 stories being plausible (when has that ever stopped modelers?). I would paint the majority of it the same color as your backdrop (sky blue, not the color it is now...) and that should camouflage it fairly well. I think wrapping it in brick sheeting too far up may only add more attention to it.
A building or a large industry...make that the smokestack or cooling tower with cotton ball smoke disguising it.
Giant Sequoia tree? That may be the wrong part of the country for you. Got any tall grain elevators in your part of the country? http://www.trainyard.net/boxcar/flower_city_tin_plate/tbc_passing_the_local_grain_elevator.jpg Ben
Tornado , Zeppelin crashing nose first , Building till normal height has been reached for the area , then paint the rest as background . Fire with column of smoke . Gods finger pointing to who has the best layout in town . Bean stalk with Jack .
That's what I did. Not the best solution, but the best I could do with what I have. Mine is a concrete post. Would your pipe ever require maintenance? Pictures of my concrete post. Not so noticeable here with the top cut off in the picture. In the background, above the gray building. To the left of the yard. On the right. Electrical conduit running up the side.
I knew that there was no easy solution. The pipe has a diameter of 8 inches. It is too big for any scale work. It is convered with a 1950's style mosaic tile pattern, to make it worse than it seems in the picture.
you could make a tornado around it -- and have an excuse to leave that part of the layout in mess!! ha ha ha. dave f.
When I see these situations, I always recall what John Allen did to hide a problem. Creating his famous Eagles Nest. Whatever happens, I would paint any exposed area above the scene, to match backdrop. To certain extent, that will help blend it into the background. Boxcab E50
Can it be painted? Painting it stealth blue may help. Blue clothing is what moviemakers use for the "invisible man" type of scene. Makes the character "disappear." And have you ever noticed how invisible blue police cars are until they are right on your rear bumper? Or you can learn to love it. Ben
How about moving it yourelf? This aint rocket science. Go down to the hardware store. Get a hacksaw. Find the diameter of the pipe. get some plastic pipe about the same diameter. then you also get a couple of rubber connectors with pipe clamps for each end to hook to the vent pipe and the new vent pipe extension. You will need four elbows. Around four 10' sections of plastic pipe. Two rubber connectors. Some plastic plumbers cement. Cut it off near the top. Cut it near the bottom. Connect the rubber connectors at each cut. Bypass witht the plastic. It aint that hard.
Why not design the benchwork so the pipe is not in the middle of the layout? Did it just show up one day in that spot??....dave
ctxm I know I am a butter spreader in a drawer filled with Exacto No. 11's, but if I could have, I would have. It did not just magically appear one day. I thought I would be able to do something about it and it didn't work out that way.
Fotheringill and all tuned in. I'm with Oldrk. Are you able to move or re-route the pipe on your own? If the pipe is steel or roof tile composition this isn't going to be easy. If the pipe is plastic it's a piece of sewer cake to fix. Grin! How about an illusion using wrap around mirrors. Although, I like the idea of God's finger pointing down to the best layout in town. Nice one. I don't know other then you can just work around it and ignore it. Encasing it with a tall building would at least make taking pictures of the layout easy on the eye. I wish I was close enough to come over and help you.
Where is the clean out for that big fella? That is the one thing that you will need access to, usually if Murphy is on the ball, right after you've enclosed and detailed it. You said a dock, as in nautical dock? Hmm how about a Port Authority Bldg. with a large central tower, to control port shipping movements, similar to a yard tower. The demented side of me goes one further with an already mentioned funnel cloud looming over the bldg. with railyard and dockyard workers running in panic everyway. Hmm the Wicked Witch of the East circling the funnel with Dorthy and Toto's house dropped on a flatcar in the railyard.
Well. it will work out! You just don't know how yet!! I think that layout with the square painted column looks like a good solution. Make it look like it belongs there and no one will think anything about it. I've got a heater vent enclosure along the wall of my layout and I don't notice it anymore. That finger of god idea is pretty good as long as you are sure he's pointing out the best layout and not flippin you off !! Another thought is you can pretend it's texas and build a big UFO around the pipe......dave
Rick- It is 56 years old and zinc or somesuch. It ain't moving. I will go with the box and just edit photos that take it in.
