The center section of the layout is just scenery, so now that the mainline is in place, I can start building the terrain. I am using my favorite technique which is to use one-inch wide strips of cardboard. These are interwoven to form a web and held in place with hot-melt glue.

This web was covered with newspaper. I used some hot-melt glue to hold the newspaper in position.

I made a batch of plaster ("Plaster of Paris") and dipped strips of newspaper in the plaster. Draping them over the first layer of newspaper was all it took to get a nice shell. As the plaster started to harden up, without letting it go to waste, I dipped my finger in the mixture and spread it over the uncovered areas. Although newspaper is still visible, painting and scenicking the whole thing in the future will hide all that.

The strong vertical surfaces I want to cover with castings. Because I placed the "ridge" too close to the track I had to make some thin castings (see my article on how I made them). I then broke them up and glued them in place with a Liquid Nails adhesive. This next photo shows castings glued to the base, and staining and dry-brushing has already begun.

After the castings were done, including staining them, I covered the ground surfaces with some basic ground foam.

The gaps between the castings were filled with green foam to simulate bushes and shrubs.

After completing the scenery I did a rough draft of the skyline on the back panel. It's starting to look like something.

Almost 8 months into the construction of this layout, I was able to take this nice scenic shot. However, I did forget to brush the dust off of the E8! Oops!

Taking a break from track laying in the industrial area, I cut and installed some cardboard strips to serve as the foundation of the scenery gaps.

Finally on June 18, 2007 I was able to get some more solid ground in place. I used newspaper over the cardboard strips and followed that with plaster cloth. The area on the right that still has newspaper showing will house two industrial structures, so it needs to be very flat.

After a week of applying the "ground goop" (see my Scenery Base article for more info), I had the area finished, including spreading ground foam for grasses and placed the various structures I was going to use for this area in their spots. It is finally starting to look like a layout! The two structures against the background were placed in still-wet ground goop. I wanted them to appear that they sat in the ground, rather than on top of it. The problem, however, was that once the ground goop dried, the buildings could not be removed, at all! It took a lot of effort to salvage them when I tore down the layout!

This close-up of the back corner of the layout shows the road I built leading up to the furniture factory. I created those using a spackle mix. I followed the idea and methods described on a friend's web site. The spackle creates a real smooth surface (something not possible with Sculptamold).

The track cuts across the corner of the layout. Rather than have the Masonite of the spline roadbed showing, I decided to decorate it with some rocks; to make it look like a rock cut. You can see the result in the lower, right-hand corner of this photo. It shows a different angle of the furniture factory. The scenery has been installed to hide the edges of the furniture factory diorama, but the diorama can be removed, if necessary.

Finally on November 4, 2007 I started painting trees on the back drop.

Trees were the natural next step. This photo was taken on December 13, 2007. I made all these myself. I enjoy making trees from scratch. What I like about the trees is that they really add life to the layout.

Together with the hand-painted backdrop trees, the furniture factory already feels like it is in the middle of a forest. More trees will be added soon.

In the meantime, a little night-time operations.

More trees. The back spur on this side will be mostly hidden by a row of trees. The trees add some mystery to operations. I used cheap spray glue to hold the ground foam to the trees, and I found that pieces would fall off from time to time. This meant that I had to "rake the leaves" before I could run the trains on most days.

In this low-angle photo taken toward the Woods Furniture factory, you can see the effect that trees provide. There is a spur behind those trees. It makes train movement on that spur very dramatic. One of the many things I learned from this layout is how trees can be used very effectively as partial view blocks. Not only do they bring the layout to life, but they also make a small layout seem larger.