April 8, 2010

The next photo shows the step-by-step construction method. Individual strips of cardboard were first bent and glued to the profile board in the back. I then shaped and trimmed the strip so that it just fits under the sub-roadbed, and glued it in place. After I did a section, I went back and weaved horizontal strips in between the previous strips. This forms a solid webbing that is quite strong. It is easy to cut a strip to make it shorter or to glue another strip in to make it longer. The idea is that there is a down-slope from the track (for drainage), and then an up-slope toward the back of the layout for the hills. I used hot glue to glue the cardboard strips in place. It takes only a few seconds for each glue spot to dry and it goes remarkably fast.

Here's the finished section. I left a gap in the middle because that's where the two modules meet. I will have to think about how to solve that issue.

April 15, 2010

This next photo shows the scenery moving along. I started painting the backdrop, but then I realized that as I put the scenery base down, the backdrop is going to get dirty. I then back-tracked and started working on the scenery base first. Just the area between the track and the backdrop. I placed some Woodland Scenics plaster cloth over the cardboard webbing I had created last week. So far, the backdrop has the outline of the distant hills marked off, some basic shading colors for the hills, and the sky painted. The sky is hard to see in the photo; it is very subtle, but it is noticeable against the other sections of the layout that just have a basic blue painted on them. I am actually quite pleased with the sky portion. I will be adding clouds in the near future. The hills still need lots of work. I am following Greg Gray's video on how to paint backdrops. It is what I used before on my P&C RR #4.

April 17, 2010

Today I completed the foundation of the scenery space between track and the backdrop for this section of the layout. I only put down a single layer of Woodland Scenics plaster cloth, because that stuff is expensive, and because I always follow that up with some layer of Sculptamold anyway. I followed the steps in my article on scenery base. I used the "ground good" to form the final layer of the scenery base. It takes quite a while to dry, so it easy to add some rocks and the basic ground cover to make the area not look so barren for the time-being. Once it is dry, I will vacuum up any loose material and then it is back to painting the back drop. More work will be done to the scenery, but it is good enough for now.

April 26, 2010

The two photos below show the backdrop painting I have completed to date. More will be added soon, before I continue with the 3-D scenery.

May 10, 2010

I completed the backdrop painting by painting a small section in the center to look like a small community's streets and some homes or factories. I also painted the clouds. I am not 100% happy with those yet, but it'll do for now.

I've also been putting a lot of debris, rocks, leaves, ground foam, and small sticks down on the forest floor on the scenery base between the backdrop and the track. The edges of the outcroppings were dry-brushed with white acrylic paint to make them look more like rocks. I also sprayed everything down with India ink and alcohol mixture. Finally the whole area was dowsed in white glue thinned down with water (50/50) to try to keep everything in place. A lot of this area will be covered with trees, but I wanted to have a finished forest floor before working on the trees later.

July 14, 2010

It has been a while since I've worked on the scenery of this area. I am now beginning with the scenery base for the front section of this area (the part from the track to the front fascia). In the photo below I have cut the vertical boards of the two modules that make up this area. The Chartiers creek flows through here, so part of the boards had to go. You can make out the pencil lines that represent the planned edges of the creek.

On the other side the DCC bus for the modules went across the creek. That needed to go.

I cut away the bus wires, and (not shown in the photo) routed two new wires behind the bridge along the back edge of the module to the other side. In the photo you can see the previously existing wires up against the back edge. I've added two more. I'll need to deal with hiding those down the road.

The next two photos show the overall state before the scenery base is installed. I removed or adjusted a couple of wooden blocks that route the wires so that they would not interfere with the scenery base.

I trimmed a bunch of cardboard strips (half of a box), and I'm now ready to start the scenery base.

July 25, 2010

The next two photos show the cardboard webbing installed for the remaining scenery area of this part of the layout. You can clearly make out where the Chartiers Creek is to be. This is near the origins of the creek, so it is still rather skinny. The cardboard strips were glued about 1/4" below the final scenery surface (near the track and near the front fascia boards) to allow for room for the ground goop.

With the cardboard in place, I put one layer of Woodland Scenics' plaster cloth over top, followed by several sessions of "ground goop". While the ground goop was still wet, I applied a basic ground foam to show some grass, and sprinkled on a few rocks here an there. The whole process took about a week of free time. The photo below shows the first train going through the area. The ground goop allowed me to make the bridge abutments appear to be set into the surrounding ground, making sure not to leave any unrealistic gaps. Next up will be to make this new front area look like the area in back of the track.