Siskiyou Line photo time

[jfugate]

I thought I'd share a recent photo of some new scenery on my HO Siskiyou Line with you ...


Slater Creek trestle on my Coos Bay coast branch. (click to enlarge)

This is located in the Oregon coast mountain range, and now finally, has the foreground scenery looking like I've been envisioning it to look, with that "deep in the Douglas firs" forest look.

I'll post more photos later on ... [swg]

[dknelson]

That sure looks real. Beautiful work, as usual.
Dave Nelson

[reklein]

Nice Trees, I been there man!

[SpaceMouse]

Impressive Joe. Like your work.

[selector]

Nothing less than spectacular, Joe. The Doug firs are phenomenal, and the trestle and abuttment are Grade A-1. I suppose you'll now tell us that it is all in about 25" square [:-,]

-Crandell

[NZRMac]

Nice job Joe, I suddenly feel like walking through a forest somewhere and coming up on a mainline and seeing a freight train go thundering through!!

Ken.

[jfugate]

Yes, this scene was also on the cover of the January 1997 MR, minus the foreground trees:


(To see a larger image, click here.)

Here is a panoramic photo of this area of the layout, also from about the same time, circa 1997. You can see there's lots of bare spots here and there in the scenery. I pointed the camera to the right of the scene to get the end of the bridge with the trees:


(To see a *really big* version of this panorama photo, click here.)

Just recently, I've gone back in and added lots more trees and vegetation in the bare spots, finally getting this area closer to its final look. [swg]

[cspmo]

encore,encore give us more.

[selector]

I get an error when going to the link for the larger view.

[Anonymous]

Me too. [#ditto]

Nice Joe. Love that weathered look on the bridge timbers.

[johncolley]

Thanks, Joe, that's the look I'm after! Riverbend Module is looking better every day. Touched up all the bad spots on the ballast and did the track weathering. Now I'm working on the river, before cutting the hills down to a viewable height in anticipation of the brush and trees. Keep on teaching, Joe, it is appreciated! jc5729

[jfugate]

QUOTE: Originally posted by selector

I get an error when going to the link for the larger view.

Sorry, guys. I fixed the larger views links so give 'em a try now. [swg]

[SilverSpike]

Once again Joe, you shine! Thanks for keep me interested and pumped in this great hobby!

You are fuel for my drive to keep on keepin' on!

Cheers,

Ryan

[jon grant]

Most impressive


Jon

[Anonymous]

That is as good as it gets!

Great work.

[jfugate]

In the left part of the panorama photo above, you can see Tunnel 3 and King Creek bridge. Here's a closeup of just that part of the scene taken about the same time (1997):


(For a larger image, click here.)

Here's a couple more shots of this scene from different angles:


(Click image to enlarge)


(Click image to enlarge)

As you can see, circa 1997 this scene was also incomplete in the foreground, needing lots more vegetation -- more trees and bushes. Also, I needed to model Highway 42 running under the bridge, and I also wanted King Creek running out of a culvert and down into a nice fishing hole.

So I finally got around to finishing this scene too in the last year or so. Here's how it's looking now ...


(Click to image to enlarge)


(Click image to enlarge)

If you look real carefully in the image above, you can see my modeling trick I used to add depth to this 12" deep scene -- Highway 42 runs under the bridge and curves to th right into a mirror nestled in the trees. This makes the road seem to go on and on and fools you into thinking the scene is much deeper than it really is. The mirror is angled so you can't easily see yourself in it from the aisle (seeing yourself in the mirror destroys the illusion).

Also, you can see I've added the culvert with King Creek running down into the fishing hole ...


(Click image to enlarge)


(Click image to enlarge)


(Click image to enlarge)

I used envirotex to do the fishing hole ... I poured it in three separate pours. I first put rocks and dirt down and glued them in place using thinned white glue similar to how I describe in my ballasting article in Kalmbach's Realistic Layouts issue. Then I painted the bottom of the fishing hole with some browns and greens.

The first two pours of the envirotex I tinted with a few drops of green and blue dye. The final layer of envirotex I tinted with a couple drops of yellow to add just a hint of silt in the shallows.

Finally, I painted acrylic gloss medium down the rocks between the culvert and the fishing pond and painted gloss medium on the top of the envirotex to create the ripples. I took a bit of acrylic white and put a few streaks down the rocks to add a sense of motion to the trickle of water running down the rocks.

Envirotex sets up completely smooth -- which often isn't very realistic, so I add ripples on top of the envirotex once it has set up using acrylic gloss medium. You can see the results look pretty good. [swg]

[ereimer]

fantastic Joe , not many people would build such a nice scene and then hide it by putting trees in the foreground ! the look is very realistic and i'll bet your operators like to railfan that spot [:)]

[zgardner18]

Joe, will you be doing any water on your video 3? Should we be checking our mailboxes soon for the video?

[SilverSpike]

Hey, Joe!

This is starting to look like another one of your great tutorial threads!

[Pruitt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jfugate

I thought I'd share a recent photo of some new scenery on my HO Siskiyou Line with you ...


Slater Creek trestle on my Coos Bay coast branch. (click to enlarge)

This is located in the Oregon coast mountain range, and now finally, has the foreground scenery looking like I've been envisioning it to look, with that "deep in the Douglas firs" forest look.

I'll post more photos later on ... [swg]

Is this the same scene that appears in that tree vendor video you'd posted some time ago, or is it just a similar spot?

[conrail92]

very impressive i like the moss on the trees

[trainboyH16-44]

Ahh, that makes me want to go there even moer...I love how I can indetify where all of those are in my head...Always loved your trackplan! As usual, thanks for the photos!

[Train 284]

Very nice!

[SpaceMouse]

Joe, you should give a clinic or something.

[Anonymous]

I say we take Joe Fugate and Pelle Soeborg and lock them in a warehouse and they can't come out until they have a complete model of all of the railroading in California and Oregon.

That looks so much like Oregon, it's scary.

Joe, I have to admit, I think of you as this "model railroad concept guy" with all the mushroom concepts, etc. But I'm going to have to re-file you in my mind into the "king of scenery" category, because your scenery looks so true to the area you're modeling, it's just a trip.

[SpaceMouse]

CARRfan, I think if we were to cut Joe open all we'd find are circuits, decoders, envirotex, and small shrubs and trees.

[pcarrell]

Great stuff Joe. There's lots to rave on about in these pic's, but the thing that strikes me most is how well the scenery blends with the backdrop. You have to actually look for that line as the eye doesn't immediately see it. It's blended that well. Thanks for sharing Joe.

[jxtrrx]

Joe,
Beautiful as always. The thing I always enjoy about your photos is that 90% of the time, as great as the scenery is, the railroad remains the star of the show.

[jfugate]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Brunton
Is this the same scene that appears in that tree vendor video you'd posted some time ago, or is it just a similar spot?

I think this may be the same spot since some of these trees are by Canyon Creek Scenics, which are basically similar to Aggro's famous trees thread. You use a stick for the trunk, and then put furnace filter fragments skewered onto the trunk, and finally add ground foam to fill in the foliage.

But there's actually a lot more to it if you want trees that look like this photo than what Aggro describes. Here are the additional things you need to do:

1. Put bark texture on the trunk with a rasp or "nail board tool".
2. Add a dark wa***o bring out the cracks in the trunk.
3. Dry bru***he trunk with a light tan color to bring out the trunk texture.
4. Don't just use irregular furnace filter chuncks, but cut them into "pads" with scissors to form rounded star shapes -- this gives you a more correct looking conifer foliage structure.
5. Alternate the star shapped pads up the tree big - little - big - little ... this gives you a much more realistic layered branches look to your conifers.
6. Trim the tree with scissors before applying the foam, removing any unnatural stray furnace filter fibers.
7. Spray just the furnace filter fiber with adhesive, but not the trunk!
8. Make sure you use *fine* ground foam on the trees so you get the proper needle texture for conifers.
8. Start by using a dark green fine foam color and sprinkle it on with the tree held upside down. This coats the bottom of the tree foliage and gives it more realistic shadows later.
9. Finally, sprinkle medium green fine ground foam *very lightly* from above to create a sense of sunlight highlight on the foliage.
10. Drill some holes in the trunk and glue bare branches for a distance down the trunk using a single furnace filter fiber for each branch.
11. Paint the branches to match the trunk.
12. (optional) Spray the branches with adhesive and add some dark and medium green fine ground foam to simulate moss.

As you can see, Aggro's technique gives you what I would call great background/filler conifer trees. The techniques above take take these trees into the super-realistic realm, but they require some care and time to do, so you want to save this for mostly foreground trees.

And yes, this is basically how the Canyon Creek Scenics trees are built, so that's why they cost what they do, but as you can see -- you get a killer foreground conifer if you do this! You can either do this yourself, or you can buy the trees ready-made from CCS. I've done both.

[jfugate]

By the way, here's another shot of this same area from a higher angle:


(For a larger image, click here.)

People have asked about me doing a clinic ... well you have several options. There's my online scenery clinic, which you can find here:
http://siskiyou-railfan.net/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?1270

There's also my scenery how-to DVD which should be out this fall. You can find a content outline of that DVD here:
http://siskiyou-railfan.net/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?708

And finally, it's likely you'll be seeing many more of my how to's coming from MR as video PDFs kind of like the ballasting video -- but stand alone and not part of an article. You'll have to wait and watch MR for more announcements on the video PDF front.

And I'm always happy to answer questions on here, give pointers, tips, hints, whatever!