Rail Fence - HO Scale

Rail Fence - HO Scale from Woodland

A scenic accessory for layouts and dioramas in HO scale: a rail fence of horizontal rails carried on posts, typical of rural landscape and corrals. It is not a model of a vehicle or a building but an element that divides a scene up and gives it a sense of size. The manufacturer supplies it hand-painted and weathered, so it is set straight into finished terrain.

What a fence does for a scene

A rail fence is open, so it divides a scene without hiding it. That helps exactly where you want to break an area up and still let what is behind it be seen, at paddocks, along paths and at the edges of fields. At the same time it gives a diorama a vertical rhythm: regularly repeating posts lead the eye along the route and the scene stops looking like a flat carpet. Beside track it also works well as an informal boundary of railroad property.

Installation tips

• Lay the route of the fence out dry first and only then set it into the terrain.
• Push the pins into a soft ground; on a hard board mark the holes out beforehand.
• Run the fence along a contour or follow a slope, so that it does not hang in the air anywhere.
• Bring the manufacturer's weathering into line with the surroundings using a fine dust pigment at the foot of the fence.
• Add the grass and growth right up to the fence, so that the transition does not look separate.

Who it is for

For builders of rural scenes in HO scale who need an open boundary of a plot, one that divides an area without blocking the view of what is behind it.