Your layout is looking great. You have roads, clouds, park benches, picnic tables, trees and even buildings. Now it is time to add details! Get creative.
If you have a park, or a house with a driveway, add a basketball court. A toothpick or a wood coffee stirrer can be used as the upright and a piece of a straw for the basket. Fray the end of straw to simulate the net.
You have roads, you also need lane lines, cars, trucks and even bikes. Purchasing the cars and trucks is easier than trying to make them. Matchbox cars look good on HO layouts and start for as little as US $1 each. Lighting them can be difficult as they are so small, but you can drill a small hole and push a led light up through the hole. O-scale cars go for around $9 on average. They are bigger and you can use small watch batteries to power the lights.
Now don’t forget road signs. Go to the printer and make road signs, billboards, street signs and even signs for the buildings.
Dream up something unique! If you have a neighbourhood scene, maybe add a garage sale on a front yard of a house. Why not set up a swim party by a pool? You can even add a barbeque cooker with cotton as smoke escaping from the grill.
You can add mail boxes throughout the neighbourhood. If you want to add a few telephone or electricity poles, be forewarned that while the wires to the poles may look easy, they may seriously impede work on the layout.
A fire hydrant is an interesting detail. You can use fibre optic filaments to simulate water coming out the hydrant. Drill a hole in the bottom of the hydrant up to the first connection. Run the fibre optic through the hydrant and out like rushing water. Place a few children in swimsuits between the fibres. Place the hydrant on the layout and put a blue bulb under it; and viola – water!
A pond is kind of fun. You can build up a small area. Place some fish in the pond and fill with blue tinted epoxy. A few kids fishing from the shore adds intriguing detail. If you want to go crazy, how about a house fire? You can get a small set of flickering red and orange lights to simulate the flames. Perhaps add a smoke machine: Position firefighters spraying water at the flames. Again the fibre optic filaments can be attached to the ends of fire hoses to simulate water.
Once again, be creative, experiment, and do not be afraid to use the internet to collect even more ideas.
