Building my layout thus far has been mostly a linear process, starting with
benchwork, then track, electrical, plaster terrain, and so forth. This
one-step-at-a-time progression meant that I always knew what I needed to
work on and what my next steps were in the construction of my model
railroad. Once I finished my hard-shell terrain a couple months ago however,
I had several options as for what project I wanted to tackle next. It was
now time for scenery.
I quickly realized that the ‘scenery stage’ was quite a broad, encompassing
term. I needed to break down this scenery stage into more manageable pieces,
starting at the back of my layout and moving towards the front. With that
plan in place, what a better section to start on then the main feature of my
layout: the mountain.
I unfortunately don’t have any evolution photos of the mountain scenery;
only before and after shots. This is mainly due to me experimenting with
different ground cover techniques. As I did this, I hit that magic moment
when my scenery all of a sudden looked good, all before taking photos. So
instead, I will describe the materials used. I had previously already
painted the terrain and rock outcroppings which I covered in my
Painting the Terrain
post, so I didn’t have to worry about this step.
I started by liberally applying thinned white glue with a paint brush
directly onto the painted terrain, spreading it over about 6” by 6” sections
at a time. I sprinkled Woodland Scenics earth-blend blended turf over the
wet glue. The earth-blend turf really complimented the tan colour paint I
had used on all of the hard-shell terrain. I used the same green-blend turf
to highlight certain areas, such as more level areas where green grass would
be more common. I had a rather large gap between the bottom edge of my
backdrop and the mountain terrain, so I filled this space using Woodland
Scenics light green lichen. Everything was then sealed in with a light spray
of thinned white glue.
Trees were the next step, which I had previously completed putting together
(see my
previous post). I started with smaller trees in the background, placing them quite
densely so they would blend into my backdrop. As I moved forward, I used
increasingly taller trees which seemed to add a bit more depth to the
forest. I also found that placing tall and short trees side-by-side made the
terrain look steeper than it actually was. The install the trees, I didn’t
use the supplied bases that came with the tree armatures. Instead, I drilled
small holes directly into the plaster terrain so I could attach the trees
using the small insert pins at the bottom of each tree. Any plaster dust
that came up from drilling was carefully blown away with a can of compressed
air.
Bushes, coarse turf, underbrush, lichen, and other various types and
colours of ground foam were added next. This step took a lot of trial and
error and paying around with different materials to achieve the look I
wanted. However, nature is quite random and has a lot of variety when it
comes to colours and plant life, so applying the different scenic materials
in a haphazard manner only adds to the realism of the forest scene. I chose
mostly Woodland Scenics material because the different ground foams and
colours can be easily combined in any way and still look natural, which is a
great, fool-proof method for first-time modelers.
To finish the scene, I added natural talus rock that I found in the coulees
near my home. I added small tufts of Woodland Scenics field grass in random
areas and added any filled in spots that I had missed or that looked too
thin. For deadfall, I used small wood pieces that I carefully picked out of
a bag of old potting soil as well as actual real deadfall I found in
nature.
I’m quite happy with the final results, and will continue this process
across the rest of my background mountainous scene over the next month. It
makes sense to finish the background scene first, as I wouldn’t want to be
reaching over a completed foreground scene to work on it.
