"Shoo-fly" Free-moN Module (2'x6')

[MisterBeasley]

I'm thinking that both of those trees are works of modeling art.  I don't see anything wrong with either of them.

But what do I know?  Those N-scale cows clearly agree with your choice of the "better" tree.  I guess I should trust their opinion.

Again, thanks for posting this whole thread.  Seeing work like this inspires me to do better modeling myself.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

After making a couple more, I've learned what NOT to do:
When spray painting the polyfill, just shoot from underneath, leaving the tops green.
On this recent batch, I sprayed Grimy Black from the top, too, and it didn't turn out so well:



The newer tree on the left looks more toy-ish & blobby, while the first tree (sprayed only from the bottom) has a better blended look.
It also helps to spread the polyfill out a bit more horizontally, rather than clump like q-tip heads around the wire branches.

Here's the "wrong" tree:



And here's the first one that turned out better, IMHO:



The other two I made the same "wrong" way turned out a little better, and I planted on the hill.
A couple more smaller oaks will help blend the scene better, so I'll post some picts when I get those built & planted.

Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

So I finally figured out how to use my iPhone & iMovie, so I've posted a three-part step-by-step video series on how to make the N scale twisted-wire oak trees to my YouTube Channel.

[sorry the first one's not in HD: casualty of the learning process]

Don't have 30 minutes to spare?
Don't want to listen to me ramble for a 1/2 hour?
Don't blame you!

Here's a SIX-MINUTE "abridged" video: All the Oak, 1/5th the Fillibuster!

watch?v=7tnBIdbL9sY&feature=plcp&context=C433f96bVDvjVQa1PpcFPo5FJc9Aov08UbbGiy6815n6vRlpl9Fg=

I'll be uploading more "how to" videos to my YouTube channel as I make them.
The good news it that it took me a few "takes" to get the videos right, so I should have about 4 more oaks planted by the end of the weekend.

Enjoy the weekend!

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Thanks for both slogging through the video and for all the suggestions for ending the fence at the fascia.
Right now I'm hesitant to put a gate, post, bush or climb-over right at the edge, as things get knocked off pretty quick during transport, set-up & take-down.
So I just clipped the wires at the last post and I'll let the viewer's imagination extend them off-module.
The anti-cattle crossing gate could work on one end, I'll just have to mock it up and see how I feel about it.
I'd rather not draw too much attention to the edge.

The oak tree is, of course, a mighty oak, and is firmly rooted in it's beloved Northern California soil (i.e. between Aileen's super tacky and the diluted glue for the dirt it's pretty firmly planted & really not going anywhere anytime soon on its own).

Now that the fence is up, the cattle rancher has release a few more heads from his herd into the pasture:









Thanks, Joe Fugate, for the corner-post brace idea.
Its little details like that that are easy to do, add some realism and break up the pattern of purely vertical posts.

I'll redo the cow pond near the end and add more cows, but otherwise the cow pasture is pretty much hunkey dory for me.
Thanks for looking, and for sharing all your thoughts & suggestions.

[AlienKing]

mcfunkeymonkey

Haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do with the wire that runs off-layout.
Stiffen it and hope it stays?
Posts?
A place for cows to escape?
Hmm...

 

You could put in a metal gate that is open, with a farmer either pushing it closed or carrying/driving something through it.

[Paulus Jas]

gentlemen,

amazing indeed, chapeau!!

Paul

[Anonymous]

M.C. - it is really hard to believe that this is N scale.

Looking at your pictures, I start to feel humble, as your achievement dwarfs my own efforts.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Moo-ving right along.

Spent this afternoon blowing my eyes out while stringing a wire fence with E-Z Line:



There's Bessie, laughing at my efforts after an hour.
(That's what it took to figure everything out and do the lower wire all the way around the cow pasture)

Luckily, I figured out how to do it much faster, so the second wire took only about 15-20 minutes.
Then I decided to share my new-found wisdom and make a video (first one on my iPhone), so the third wire took about an hour (15 minutes without all the video broo-haha).

So here's me rambling for about 8 minutes, along with a rising-crane-helicopter-seagull-on-speed shot of the completed fence:

watch?v=aU6tj 2f50&feature=g upl&context=G20f5a38AUAAAAAAAAAA

[Hmm... picture's not quite as clear as before exporting to YouTube... Will figure it out!]

As my little doohickey to attach the iPhone to the tripod hadn't arrived yet:



And for those of you who wisely bypassed the blather, here's some shots of the finished fence:





Haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do with the wire that runs off-layout.
Stiffen it and hope it stays?
Posts?
A place for cows to escape?
Hmm...

Not sure if you can see, but I also planted that oak & fixed some dirts around the base.
The roots look cool.
I'll see if I can't get a close-up tomorrow when the glue dries.

Anyway, my eyes are shot, so I'm going to take a break and play some Wii with my son.
Or take a walk.

Thanks for looking (and listening, if you dared).

[mcfunkeymonkey]

I pulled some foliage off some lower branches & trimmed some others:





Not a huge difference but a little lighter & airier underneath so you can see the trunk, roots & future cows better.

Anyone see the latest addition to the module in those last picts?
It's super tiny, super detailed, and a super "selling" addition to the model:



That's right!
A super backsaver turnout throw detail by super David K. Smith & NZT. (still needs some weathering)

Just showed up in the mail today (Monday) from Chuck at Feather River (ordered it on Saturday, too: dang Chuck's good!) and had to go on the module lickity split.
(Though now I'm having second thoughts about adding a super-fine (and a wee fragile) detail so early in the game. Oh well!)

The SP tank car showed up in the same box as well.
Heck, if you have to pay for shipping, you might as well...

Ok, tomorrow I'll string the fence.
Promise.
Really.
Unless work gets busy.
Or I build another oak.
Or...

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Thanks for the kind words.
Your suggestions / comments / feedback is much appreciated.

A few more details to add:
I started with 3 stripped lengths about 7-8 inches long:



Probably ended up trimming about 1-2 inches by the end, but I figured it's easier to cut away than to add on
I'd have liked a few more wire branches (and so less polyfil), but as this one is pretty big, the same amount of wire should be fine for the rest.
Maybe 6-7 inch lengths.

This tree ended up about 4" tall and 6" wide:





[I kinda like how the Mt. Coffin & Columbia River layout is now proving useful as a "backdrop" diorama]

I intentionally made it large as it's a single oak on this side of the module and compositionally (counter) balances out the hill and future trees on the opposite / kitty korner side.
The rest (on the hill and one between the vineyard and river) will probably be about 3" tall and 4-5" wide.

The bamboo skewer does make the trunk a bit straight, and I'll be using shorter ones for the rest.
The sawdust / glue does a good job of making knobs & bumps in the trunk, and I planted this tree at a slight angle (you can see it leaning right).

I'm definitely going to trim the bottom a bit, maybe expose more wire branches by pulling the polyfil/foam completely (or nearly) off.
That should reduce the "puffball" appearance and show off more of the nifty trunk as well as the cows lounging in the shade underneath.
Once I plant it I'll spread some more dirt & make it look more "lived in".
Should be a very moo-ving scene.

Thanks for all the ideas, suggestions, and comments!

[Anonymous]

McFunkeymonkey - you are an artist!

["JaBear"]

Gidday, The North American Society of Highly Esteemed Oak Tree Huggers and Finicky Arborists, NASHEOTHFA, may find fault but looks great, along with the rest of the module, to me. 

Once again thanks for sharing the process.

Cheers, The Bear.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

So here's some shots around the module for your consideration:









Sorry for all the clutter in the background.

If anyone has any suggestions, especially how to improve the oak itself, I'm all ears.

Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

So here's the polyfilled oak:



Word of advice from the future (now): in regards to the density of the polyfil I applied, and in the immortal words of Beck's "Loser," I "went crazy with the cheeze wiz."
A bit too much / dense.
Next oak I'd go 2/3rds or 1/2 (you'll see!)

Misted the fluff with Grimy Black to tone it down and make it more branch-like:



So a bit better.

After some hairspray, WS "Dark Green" coarse ground foam, some "Weeds" and "Medium Green" fine ground foam sprinkling on top, it "blossomed" into a mighty oak:



But a darn-tootin' FULL mighty oak.

I actually started pulling polyfil & foam off here & there, and completely off a couple branches to bare them.
Helped a little.

And then planted it on the layout in the corner of the cow pasture to see how it looked:



It's not glued in, and there's no dirt around the base.
Gonna let it sit for a day or so to see if I like the tree enough to permanently plant it.

[cont.]

[mcfunkeymonkey]

After that dried, I mixed a better batch of bark (very little water), and touched up everything:



Much better.
About all those blobs on the branches: some snapped off later, some I left, if it looked "oakish".

Spray painted the whole thing Grimy Black:



A bit too dark, but ok.
Then "misted" it with Floquil "Concrete" spray paint:



Brought out some details.

Then, this morning, I started the incredibly fun process of applying Clear Tacky Glue to each branch and attaching small tufts of WS polyfil:



Hello, Dr. Seuss!

[cont.]

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Thank, Stein.
Very much appreciate the kind words, especially from a fine modeler and writer yourself.

Haven't posted in the past four days, but I have accomplished: a single tree.
And not quite sure it was worth it.

But first, the turnout control rod update.
Cut off excess wire, took two pieces of .06 styrene, cut a slight slot in one, and sandwitched a tab with gorillaglue:



Here you can see the whole mechanism, plus the relationship to the harp switch stand graphic that indicates the location:



It actually (actuatorly?) works pretty well.
Probably should round the edges of the spacing block to save some manicures any grief.

And now: The Tree.
More specifically: The Oak Tree.

Oaks cover the hills around the Bay Area, and so are a key detail to "sell" the Sonoma scene.
So I gotta gettem right.
(We'll be the judge)

Started with some 16 AWG stranded wire stripped and wrapped around a short section of bamboo skewer:



Twisting all those branches were a lot of fun.
Tons.
Can't wait to do it again for the other 5-6 oaks I'll need.

Then I mixed some fine-sifted sawdust with white glue & water & brushed it on:



Added way too much water, resulting in some goopy bark.
You can see where I thought I could make some branches by sprinking some 4mm static grass.
D'oh!
Stopped that quick.

So far, not so good.

[cont.]

[steinjr]

 MC -

 You are not only a good modeler, but also a very good writer and teacher of modeling techniques.

 Thank you for posting these excellent posts.

 Stein

 

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Thanks, Jeff, for the thanks.
Hope you and others are enjoying it 1/2 as much as I am!

Not much layout-wise the last couple days as I catch up on everything else I missed while sick over the weekend.

Painted some Modge Podge on the cow pond, but then decided it looked too clear and alpine-y, so will peel off the MP layer and do another (SMALL) pour of tinted Magic Water, this time with the proper ratio.

My daughter and I did hook up the home-built actuator wires for the Bullfrog turnout control.
I had glued some small squares of scrapwood to the cross-brace nearest the Bullfrog onto which we would mount the support shaft & brace.
First gorillaglued / sandwiched some styrene around one end of a small metal "L" bracket, then gorillaglued a short section of 3/32" K&S alum pipe through it:



[Yes, that's an outhouse behind them. That'll pop up on the module later]

A major coup d'etat: I thought ahead enough so I did not block the screw hole with the pipe!
Taught my daughter how to drill a hole at a right angle using the "Orbiter" (I supported the drill's weight, she pulled the trigger).
Then I found out I had forgotten that there wasn't enough room to fit a screwdriver in (D'oh!) and the Orbiter was too big too (Double D'oh!) so I had to put an extension on the screwdriver and drive the screw in at a slight angle (tough).
Luckily, before the second one, I remembered the "soap on a screw" trick and that one drove in much easier.

Here's a shot of the support tube / bracket with the actuator wire running through it:



We also remembered to push the Bullfrog into it's farthest position before measuring the bend in the wire: earlier I had dreams of bending it and then finding out it became a stop, preventing the points from getting thrown (Dream D'oh!).

I taught my daughter how to use a Dremel and cutting disk to get the music wire to the correct lengths.
She thought it was really cool how the sparks flew off the wire.
(Yes, she was wearing goggles, and I was guiding her hand)

After test fitting everything three or four times and mimicing operations, we gorillaglued and crimped the actuator wire ends into the short unit of wire and 3/32" alum tube I'd already installed on the Bullfrog itself:



Later I'll cut the vertical wire shorter (less than fascia bottom, as to be unseen) and then attach a button or knobby thing.
That way you slip a couple fingers under the fascia at the sign of the harp switch stand and easily push or pull to throw the points.
The wire's pretty stiff, so it'll probably last for awhile.
If I hadn't had these parts lying around, it would have been cheaper to get the Fast Tracks "Free-mo" actuator / control rod set ($10).
Probably would work better, too, with less Gorilla Glue.

I've been thinkin' oak trees lately, so hopefully we'll get to some more top-side shots soon.
Thanks for looking.

[tin can]

M.C. Thanks for the time you have taken to document and share your project. Your modules look great! jeff in college station

[Mark Watson]

mcfunkeymonkey

As I can't figure out how to embed a video on this forum, here's the link to the YouTube video.

Embed video exactly the same way you embed photos.  The software automatically figures it out for ya! :)

watch?v=GJ4YRTE3NYk&feature=youtu.be

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Thanks for the kind words.
After some miso soup (which made "miso warm & sleepy"), and 12 straight hours of sleep, I'm feeling much better.

The meet yesterday went pretty well: Steve Williams brought his Lockhart, TX module (two 5-foot sections in an S-curve) and the Shoofly clamped on and ran fine.
There was a slight gap between the tracks at the module-meet because both of us had worried about the rails jutting out and filed them a hair short, but it worked out fine (no real "bump" but a fun & prototypical "click-clack" sound )

Mark Watson came along and brought, in addition to his retooled 4-4-0, fab ventilated boxcars and telescoping boom lifts, a nifty little HD video camera in a 1"-square box, which he proceeded to place all over the "Alameda-Belt-in-a-Box" layout as well as the two Free-moN modules:

As I can't figure out how to embed a video on this forum, here's the link to the YouTube video.

The first operator, youngster Alvin, blatantly ignored the slow-order signs on the shoo-fly because, as he correctly pointed out: "There are no slow-order signs."
Not yet, Alvin, not yet.
(I'll get the yellow & green markers out today)

You can see Mark's unpainted ventilated boxcars (available at Shapeways) on the Alameda-Belt-in-a-Box portions of the video.
Those things are awesome: 34' long with great detail. Can't wait to get some for the Mt. Coffin layout!
They also fit perfectly on a Kato 11-105 critter chassis, so you could have some smaller dummy steam pulling the 1800s cars.
(Mark used the motorized boxcar as a helper for his Atlas mogul to get through the unpowered frogs of the layout)

Anyway, a good day (despite the gatorade-only diet all day): got to meet up with Mark (and hopefully gave him the Free-moN bug as well) and my module actually "works", which is always a nice feeling.

Now on to stringing a fence with wire and start building the abutments that will be "in process" of being built, with one more completed than the other.
I'm thinking of using screen mesh (same as I used for the static grass applicator mesh) to simulate the rebar sticking out of the wood forms.
We'll see how it goes.

Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

I guess I should clarify the "ugly" comment: everything on the layout is "new" looking.
Pristine grass, dainty bushes, well-groomed ballast.
So it looks very Toy Train-ish, rather than lived in & worn & real.
But I hope, in the end, it'll all come together.
Just needs lots more layers & textures.

Yesterday morning I planted the fence posts:



Used a peice of wood 8 scale feet long as a spacer for the T-pins.
After planting all the T-pins, I was tempted to leave all those shiny silver pins in, as it looked like a Christo scuplture.
But I used CA to plant the posts.
Good thing I had so much scrap stripwood.

Then I found a cool graphic of a harp switch stand, inverted the b&w, and then attached it to the fascia to indicate where the turnout control is hidden behind the fascia:



[I like how Mt. Coffin just juts up like a green Mont Saint Michel in the background]

Painted the paper with Modge Podge Matte to seal it.
Now I just have to finish mounting the actuator rods.

Right about then I realized I had totally caught the stomach virus my son's been partying with for the last 3 days, so I spent the rest of the day in bed or in the bathroom.
Haven't been sick in 4-5 years, and then I get a pretty harsh bug the day before going to the Pacific Coast Division Meet to take the Train in a Box layout and my Free-moN module to see if it hooks up right to Steve's.
D'oh!

Luckily I was able to sip some gatorade and get some sleep and made it to the meet.
Before I left I planted some deciduous trees I had made the day before:





So that's where it stands now.
Need to figure out how to model oak and olive trees.
Especially the oak trees: a few details really place your scene, and I need oak trees for Sonoma.
I'm guessing twisted wire brushed with sawdust/glue, but if anyone has some good suggestions for oaks, I'm all ears.

And now I'm all pooped out.
My wife's making some miso soup for my son and I, and then it's early to bed for us dudes.

Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Thanks, Mr.B for the kind words.
Static grass is a lot of fun and can look great (though it can also look like mold or facial stubble).
I built my static grass applicator for under $30 & it works great.
I very much recommend giving it a try.

Yesterday my wife surprized me with a willing donation of her super solid fine-mist sprayer, so we're back in the scenicking service.
This atomizer is awesome & built rock solid (yeay Japanese beauty industry!) and should last for the next 10 layouts.

Finished laying down & securing the base ground cover (dirts, ground foam, some gravel here & there), as well as flocked most of the areas for grass:



Left the vineyard area bare dirt until I figure out what the ???? I'm going to do there & how to make the Lush Vineyard.

Much thanks to Jamie (lashedup) for taking the time to give a mini-tutorial on static grass application techniques, as well as share all his research into all things static grass.
Still got a long way to go to get to his level of layering, but with his great guide any failure is totally my own.

Also balasted the "main" and layered some more darker dirt on the shoofly.
The mainline ballast needs a bit o' weathering still.

Then, I thought I'd do a VERY SMALL pour of water, JUST for the cow pond:

Then, seeing how much Magic Water (tinted with grimy black, bnsf heritage green & some roof brown) I had left, I totally ignored my own advice / better judgement / Jimmny Cricket and thought, "Heck, why not do a pour in the river?"



Not quite sure if I over- or under- poured it: usually I like to do a very small pour first so it seals the bottom, but it was going in so well I just couldn't stop pouring.
And for a second I thought it was going to seep under the tape dam (D'oh!) which it probably will anyway as MW can find a crack in a microscopic plumber.
And then it started soaking in to the dirt (D'oh!)
Which actually helped pull the stuff back from the dam (ha ha! my planning on the edges being slightly raised worked!)
But that leaves just some "wet" dirt.

So I'll have to go back and do another pour later.
Here's the other side:



I think it'll turn out alrighty.
Right now the module's at the stage where it looks pretty ugly all way round (gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette) but I know it'll look decent when all the layers and textures get put in.

[The section line you see in the dirt on the right actually disappears when I tighten the bolts underneath: I have them loose while scenicking so I can pull them slightly apart when glue is drying so they don't get stuck together]

Now I'm just hoping the Magic Water cures completely before I take the module to the meet on Sunday!
(Maybe I shouldn't have eyeballed the 2:1 mixture... D'oh!)

We shall see if I'm in a sticky situation on Sunday!

Thanks for looking.

[MisterBeasley]

I'm enjoying this thoroughly.  I think I need to consider trying static grass.  The results are great, as is the rest of this project and its chronicle.

I really like the "bumper" at the end of the extension.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

So today I brushed the rest of the module with diluted white glue, got the tan dirt down, used the brown dirt on the shoofly mound for a slight bit of differentiation (newer dirt, or trucked in), and then started putting down the groundfoam and static grass around the cow pasture and endplate:





Not sure how I feel about the application of the static grass: I need to be able to concentrate it in smaller areas.
But not bad for a basic first covering.
Once everything dries I can go back and add some here&there with spots of glue and a vacuum.

Everything was going great and I was on track to glue down the dirt and get a lot of groundfoam & grass down when...
My fine-mist spritzer crapped out.

I tried just pipetting the alcohol onto the dirt in the vineyard and then pipetting the 50-50 glue, but it was just too flooded with alcohol so I stopped.

So pretty much all the dirt you see in this picture is still pretty loose:



I brushed glue on the surface before sprinkling, but all the top stuff is loose.

So tomorrow I need to raid my wife's side of the bathroom cabinets for another atomizer / fine mist thingy or take a trip to the drug store.
I don't like the trigger spray bottles as they seem to always throw droplets along with the spray.

I just hope it's not windy tomorrow when I open the garage door, or we'll have a re-enactment of the Dust Bowl, and my vineyard will turn into the Grapes of Wrath.

But I should have basic ground cover and ballast done by tomorrow night, which will be nice.
Then I just have to figure out how to make a bunch of oak trees

Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Well, lots done, just nothing very photogenic.
Masked off the fascia, primed it & then painted it flat black:





Then, after almost forgetting to slip in some replacement ties under the turnout (D'oh!), I masked off the track and spray painted it Grimy Black:





[The weights are holding the temp tubes in place as the caulk dries]

You can see I laid down some dirt (mostly tan, with some slightly browner stuff scattered here&there).
I didn't do the left side because I ran out of dirt (D'oh!), so had to run back across the street from the LHS to get some, then bake it, then lay down the rest.

The siding has a messier paint job because I had to hand paint that section with Poly Scale Grimy Black, as that section is down directly on the foam and Floquil on Foam is a good way to watch you foam melt into a moonscape (yes, I should have painted the latex under the track before laying it down: I'll try to remember for the next layout).

Kinda looks like Mars right now.

[cont.]

[mcfunkeymonkey]

After the spackle had dried, another coat of the brownish tan (or tannish brown) mistint-bin latex, and then I mixed in some muddy & black paints to color the creek bottom and cow pond:



My daughter said sadly, "It looks so lonely!"
So we fixed that:



[though a single cow might make the place even lonelier]

Installed the "true" mainline (the one being worked on):



It'll all look better when painted!

Almost forgot to make sure the track lined up towards each other on both sides of the future bridge!
But here's how I left everything last night to dry:



Today I'll prime the fascia sides and then start laying down dirt.
Going to need a lot of dirt!

Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Busy day yesterday.
Realized I needed to get the fascia cut & installed, so did a bit of tracing & jigsawing:





If I had more time I might just glue & clamp, and for some reason yesterday I wasn't thinking about glue until after I'd screwed it all in (D'oh!).
That's ok: I think the screw heads give it a solid, industrial appearance (yes, I countersunk them, but not all the way as it's waaaaay too easy to punch through the 1/8" masonite. Next time I'll try the 1/4").

I filled the spaces between foam & fascia with lightweight spackle:



I made it around the module with the spackle I had left: literally used up the last drop (chunk?) so that saved a trip to the hardware store.

Later I cut some 1/2" split cable tubing from Radio Shack to use as the temp tubes:



I've looked at tubing in a lot of places, and that gets as close as it can.
The tubing is spiraled, but by sliding the sections along the split you can make it concentricly corrigated.
You can also see my custom tunneling tool: sandpaper wrapped around a marker.
Worked great.

[cont.]

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Well, the pinkfoam prairie is no more.
Now it's a brownish blob.

This morning, after eroding the hill down into more of a rolling Sonoma shape and sanding the whole thing with a foam sanding block, I used some lightweight spackle to cover over the seam lines, smooth the riverbed, cow pond and some future dirt roads, and fill in some chunks:



[I'll ream out the holes for the temp tubes later, when I get them]

Then I took the latex interior paint I found in the mistint bin at the local hardware store ($3), and covered the whole shebang:





I occasionally dipped the brush in water to allow the paint to flow into all the pink places.

It's the same paint I used on the detachable extension, so I think it'll work out okie dokie.

Then I went to go wash the brush before it dried and got all stuck together...

STUCK TOGETHER???

D'oh!

So I ran back and undid the bolts and separated the two sections before I had just one:



Phew!
Now I just hope everything stays in alignment when I put it back together!

Thought about blending in the darker creek-bed bottom paint, but I'm going to have to touch up the bed anyway after I put the temp tubes in, so I'll do it then.

I also painted the two rock castings I'll be using: Sonoma really doesn't have that many large bare rock faces.
A weird change from the Mt. Coffin & Columbia River layout, which seems to have more rock face than foam.

Tomorrow I can rejoin the sections, lay the real mainline track, paint the tracks, and start dusting some dirt.
It will be interesting to see in what shape the scenery is next Sunday at the Pacific Coast Division meet!

Thanks for looking.

[mcfunkeymonkey]

Well, today I was ec-static: fired up The Banananator and used an old piece of scenery as a "grass palate" trying different combinations of long & short grasses of various colors.
Gotta say: It's going to take a while to get the static grass technique down, somewhere between too little and too much or too even.

Also tried some small "super trees", though not too ecstatic about the results. But will get better with practice, I guess.

That didn't stop me from starting to scenic the detachable extension with grasses, bushes, some trees and a wire fence:









'Twas not a great day for photos.
The lighting gods were not on my side today (I really need to get some good spots: the CFLs from the hardware store just don't cut it).

Got the grass a bit too uniform, even though I did "squish" some of it with the tweezers to break it up.
Actually looks better in person, though a little "chia-pet" in places.
Going to try some different mixes tomorrow.

But it's nice to be back in scenery after the benchwork.
Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!