We need another Forum Clinic

[SpaceMouse]

The last one was for operations how about one planning for landscaping/scenery. Although most of the layouts here and in the magazines are wonderfully decorated, most of the layouts I've seen in person the visuals seem to be an afterthought and poorly done. It seems a certain amount of planning needs to be done for visual effects and structures as well. How many of us layout the tracks then try to figure out how to make it look good after the tracks are done?

What goes into planning the visual layout?

Personally I want both visuals and operation.

Any experts care to take the ball?

[cwclark]

a few things that I have found that work when it comes to scenery are as follows: i try to raise a cluster of buildings above the track and try to include "forced perspective'...it looks good if the city scene is at least 1 -3 " above the track especially in yard areas...and i try to build the city as follows...1. backdrops, 2. flats against the backdrops, 3. half buildings, and 4. full size buildings in the very front of the scene..place roads and streets at angles instead of horizonally and vertically with the buildings and the track and finally install fences..fences can divide scenes into many scenes in small or limited areas... for mountains I use newspaper strips dipped in plaster around a cardboard or chicken wire skeleton and then incorporate foam board carved into rock formations inter messed in the plaster mountain scene...color is very important ..i like southwestern scenes so the colors i use are acrylic raw and burnt sienna, raw and burnt umber, red iron oxide, and yellow ochre...start first by spraying an india ink / water mixture in places where shadows fall...let it dry, then start staining the mountains (50% paint/ 50% water) with light colors at the top, and as you work down the mountain the colors get darker...after it dries i'll take a small amount of white paint and with a fine brush, paint small highlights on the edges of the modeled rock outcrops....i then add fine blends of dirt and various ground foams, polyfibers , and foliage using dilute white glue as the adhesive medium...I then build trees and place them in clusters around the layout..i try to avoid putting a lot of scenery material in high volume areas like yards and spurs...the easiest thing i've found is to try and picture the scene beforehand and try to match the scenery to the picture in my head...sometimes it doesn't work out too well but most of the time it does...Chuck

[SpaceMouse]

Thanks, I've already got a few new things to think about.

But I had more of an extensive on-going Clinic like the one run by Joe Fugate the past couple months. One where the topics are divided out in a logical order and dealing with everything from paper (or software) to benchwork to cities and forests and mountains and structures and weathering, you get the picture. Each few days a new topic and time for questions and answers.

[jfugate]

I'm willing to consider sponsering another such clinic. Here are a couple I could run and provide lots of items for:

1. Using DCC
Not yet another "what's the best DCC system", but instead a practical discussion of installing and using DCC on your layout. Wiring tips, short management, programming locos, installing decoders, stuff like that.

2. Scenery
Simple how-to discussion of everthing from ballasting track to tips on backdrop painting, building trees and techniques for making realisitic scenic vistas.

Should we conduct a poll on which of these two topics has the greater interest?

[grayfox1119]

Joe, I am all in favor of DCC clinic, especially handling reversing loops and turnouts, pros and cons of insulated vs conductive frogs.

[mcouvillion]

Joe,

Please, no more polls! Just pick a topic and go. Do the other one in a couple of months. Thanks for offering to conduct the effort.

Mark C.

[mcouvillion]

You know, there have been great posts over the last few months that would make a bunch of detailed archive posts if there was a way to winnow it all down to the meat and get rid of the comments and chit-chat. I was wondering if there was a way to build a forum of "Best Recommended Practices" and somehow keep these current, but gather up all the past good info. It would make finding data on specific topics a lot quicker and simpler.

Mark C.

[AggroJones]

Scenery Joe. I think there are enough DCC threads out there already.

[SpaceMouse]

I am for the scenery, but as I stated before, I like to understand about scenery from a designe standpoint as well as a here's how to make it look good standpoint.

DCC would be useful, but not as interesting to me.

[jfugate]

Okay, scenery it is. Then we'll circle around and do the DCC one a bit later.