I have been working on a few trees recently and am now ready to plant them. however I needed to add some grass and forest floor before I could plant the trees.
The area I chose to treat first was the small hillock to the left of the silos, being only a couple of feet long by 5 inches deep. The first task was to bed the silos into the scenery with 'Das' modelling clay.
I also made a couple of retaining walls using 'Wills' random stone sheet, to represent the road access to the loading area behind the silos. I also covered the clay with Woodland Scenics 'earth blend'
Jon
Sweethome Chicago is now on Facebook
Sweethome Alabama is now on Facebook
Hudson Road is now on Facebook
my videos
my Railimages
Once the silos had been bedded in and the track inside the shed ballasted, I added a few mud landslips from the Das modelling clay which, when dry, resembles the colour of Alabama clay.
I also tore up various Silflor grass mats and glued them to the sub-base in small patches, varying the colours as I went. The next job will be to blend in some forest ground cover before adding some bushes and trees.
Now, fetch me a shrubbery....Ni!
I added some forest floor scatter, weeds, bushes and some dead trees to the grassy hill. The scene is starting to come together.
Next job will be to plant some trees.
A shrubbery, eh? You must be planning on running your layout at Knight.....
I'm curious about the clay. Does it harden up after a while and become a solid scenery base, or does it remain somewhat soft and pliable? I could see advantages and disadvantages either way.
I really like the bare, "washed out" clay on the steep sides of the embankment.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Is a herring involved?
It really does capture the look of a partially eroded hillside. It seems a bit harsh at first but if you look at actual pictures of similar formations, it's really spot-on.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Looks real good. Pretty much looks like the real thing.
Rich
Alton Junction
Where are the rabbits?
Looks great, even the coloring of the clay is pretty good.
Vincent
Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....
2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.
I got the trees and temporary backscene added late last night, so the scene is pretty much complete, although I may darken the clay erosion slightly. I also added some flowers to the grass and have a few other plants to make and add later.
Details will be added to the yard area later, but for now, I want to concentrate on the tree-lined areas at the back of the layout
HI AGAIN JON: papasmurf here from the old railroad forum. as I looked at your successive photos of scenic detail added with each, it made me immediately think of Miracle Grow Plant Food commercial I just saw on the telly and made me chuckle, LOL. This is meant in the best possible way, as I think your scenery looks SUPER GREAT; wish yours truly could do half as well, when I get my bloody HO layout finally started, shortly. TTFN....Old Tom aka papasmurf in NH
papasmurf HI AGAIN JON: papasmurf here from the old railroad forum. as I looked at your successive photos of scenic detail added with each, it made me immediately think of Miracle Grow Plant Food commercial I just saw on the telly and made me chuckle, LOL. This is meant in the best possible way, as I think your scenery looks SUPER GREAT; wish yours truly could do half as well, when I get my bloody HO layout finally started, shortly. TTFN....Old Tom aka papasmurf in NH
Hello Tom,
Miracle Grow has nothing on what I use - the sequence of photos in this thread represents a period of just over 24 hours to get from bare hill to dense Alabama forest. Must be something we put in the glue over this side of the pond.
Looking forward to seeing some progress photos of the NH layout, or even a small module to get back into the swing of it - the wooded area in this thread is under 2ft long by 5 inches wide. It would fit nicely on a lap tray, sitting in front of the telly - the best way to model.
My next scenic adventure is to plant a forest on the 21in x 15in board that fits next to the one seen here - see my next post
Taking the bull by the horns, I am going to jump straight to the next board that butts-up to the area just forested. It is only 21in x 15in but includes 2 roads, a bridge and a stone loading platform.
The first photo shows the board from the back - the backscene will cover the white area
The next photos show the part of the board that joins onto the area just next to the silos - just visible are the brass aligning dowels.
These photos show the whole area to be scenicked - the wood bridge will sit at the far end, as a view block for the hole through the backscene into the as-yet unbuilt fiddle yard
The last photo shows the front of the board (maroon) and the stone loading dock
Now to lay some tarmac
I added a dirt/gravel access road using torn up pieces of Silflor scenic matting, glued down with household glue. I had earlier added some DAS modelling clay to simulate bare patches, but these seem to have been covered up
I'll continue with the grass until the area is covered, then add some bushes and weeds. The bridge has only been added temporarily, as it is easier to work without it in place.
I made a bit more progress on the grass, completing the coverage on the small board. I also bedded in the bridge and started adding bushes and shrubs
Now to continue with the bushes before adding weeds and trees
I've added some trees, flowers and a colour light signal to the small board. I originally had the trees much more tightly packed, but removed over 15 of them as I couldn't see the wood for the trees.
Here are the latest photos
definitely the South my man, any insight into the types of trees and where you got them/how you made them?
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
Packers#1 definitely the South my man, any insight into the types of trees and where you got them/how you made them?
Some of the trees are 'sea foam' Super Trees, and others were made from wire wrapped in tape, with polyfibre branches, as in this thread...http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/190271.aspx
Jon, you captured the look! Well done with the slopes, washouts, and trees. It captures the feel and look of the deep south. Now you just need an old hound dog.
And, of course, I like a nice expensive shrubbery!
The Cedar Branch & Western--The Hillbilly Line!
Thanks! I've never heard of the sea foam technique for super trees, although I have a box myself
Packers#1 Thanks! I've never heard of the sea foam technique for super trees, although I have a box myself
Sea foam is the rawe material for Super Trees. I get mine in the UK as either 'Forest in a Box' or Forest in a Flash' . I choose suitable shapes/lengths, spray with cheap hairspray (the more lacquer the better) and sprinkle ground cover over the tree - repeat as often as required.
I sometimes give the finished tree a light spray with track colour, just to tone the colours down a bit.
Into June, and the work on Sweethome Alabama begins again, after a short hiatus while Sweethome Chicago was prepped for exhibiting a couple of weeks ago.
I chose the area just to the right of the silos for treatment, to continue the scenic progress along the back of the layout from left to right. So far, Silflor scenic matting has been glued to the hill base and loose leaves have been glued in place.
A few more photos of the ground cover
Now to add some bushes and trees
I added a few trees to the bare hillside tonight to give some height to the scene. Tomorrow I'll add some bushes, flowers and weeds
Sawyer, RUGBY PLAYER
GO PAC GO!
All of the pictures look great. Oh, and Sawyer, ya got it wrong.. It's
GO MOPAC GO
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
I'm a big fan of your work, especially as I model the south (central Arkansas.) I always look to your stuff, either video or images, for inspiration.
Your work is so realistic. Do you have a web site?
Keep it up, it's more than great.
I made a start on scenicing the slope in at the front of the layout today. Usual method of gluing grass mat to the base and adding some bushes
Beautiful! And impressive! Keep it up! Would love to see a track plan for Sweethome Alabama.
jon grant Jon
Jon,
How did you weather the structure so perfectly? I was noticing in one of your other closer-up photos of it, that it just appears so naturally weathered. The coloring around the "rings" are so well done, not to mention the rings themselves are so crisp and sharp. And on the overall surface areas there are no obvious paint drips or splotches-- but wonderful "dirt & mud" splotches-- and all the fabulously subtle color gradations are so spot-on... how do you do that?
And the detailing in your "woody" areas-- especially the dried leaves and such. How do you do that?
What do you use for your photo backdrops?
Your modeling abilities are superlative-- proper adjectives to describe it are simply lacking!
John
jon grant I made a start on scenicing the slope in at the front of the layout today. Usual method of gluing grass mat to the base and adding some bushes Jon
Have you ever considered doing a sort of "cut-a-way" diorama to show off and illustrate your various techniques? Such that a viewer could start at one end seeing the bare bones and then the progression of elements and techniques as they get layered onto the scene? You have a talented eye and an incredible gift for modeling what you see. My jaw drops every time I look.
Have you ever traveled to the southern USA? One of the plants that you see growing wild all over the place is a vine called "Honeysuckle". Usually you see it all tangled up in other vegetation and bushes. Generally not in tress so much though unless they're bent over and also entangled in the lower vegetation.
Honeysuckle is deeply engrained in my memories of growing up in the south (Southwest Virginia and middle Tennessee), and its smell is enough to bring back many pleasant drives with my family in the mountains as I was growing up.
Wikipedia, Honeysuckle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeysuckle
Usually more of these varieties (Wikipedial classifies several as 'invasive' species):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonicera_japonica
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonicera_maackii
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonicera_morrowii
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonicera_subspicata
Another thing you often see growing wild are blackberries and raspberries. I don't know if it's that way as far south as Alabama, but definitely in Virginia, Tennessee, West Virginia and throughout the Carolinas you see it growing wild-- even on the side of the road, and definitely along the railroad track right-of-ways. I recall many happy times going up to the mountains to pick 'em with my family when I was a kid. We'd find a patch growing by the side of the road and then stop and have a picnic lunch and stuff our faces with berries!
Wikipedia "Rubus" (Blackberry / Raspberry family):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry
Thanks for the information and the links, John.
No, I've never been to the USA, let alone the Southern states, so I rely on useful information from fellow modellers such as your good self
Kudzu seems to be the invasive weed of choice in Alabama, but I'll have a go at modelling some Honeysuckle as well.