I got quite a bit of work done over the holiday break, essentially finishing a big chunk of real estate on the final leg of the layout. The entire layout is now ballasted, with the exception of KC Yard.
Originally, the section that now contains a forest was going to be on the lower level, but I ultimately decided that it would work better on the upper level. The forest was very labor intensive and took far longer than anticipated but I am very happy with the results. I also finished the livestock loading area and the land around the grain silos.
First up are the construction shots of the livestock loading facility. It's a combination of the Tyco livestock loader hooked up with a concrete extension made from modular loading dock pieces and Central Valley fencing. I decided not to use the handrails along the railside, so even though you see them in these shots, you won't see them on the installed facility.
I dirtied it up quite a bit, because livestock is messy. I'm going to make HO scale haybales by finely chopping some straw colored grass and then gluing it to appropriately sized wood blocks. We'll see how it comes out. If they work, I'll stack quite a few of them in the open area between the loading gates and around the storage building.
The office/storage building is pilfered from another ancient factory kit. I think it was originally a brewery, but the little building with a slight modification of adding a door worked out nicely from a size perspective.
This is the area where the hay bales will go, when complete.
Here's the first shot of the mostly finished (and newly "raised" area). It's a grassy field leading into the forest. I wanted something of interest in the field and thought "how about a dirt track through it where a service vehicle or something might cut through to inspect the turnout." I painted the area a light dirt color then used chart tape to mark the wheel lanes, painted over it, then applied the static grass. When I was done, I pulled up the tape -- it worked great.
I cast something like 14 new wall sections using my Bragdon Enterprises mold that's more then paid for itself. They were a bit short, so I used some foam cut to side to serve as a concrete base. I'll use some more foliage and scenicking to hide it a bit because it's far from perfect (but what concrete wall is). I'm not quite sure what I want to do with the area in front of the curving tracks yet, so that's why there's nothing there right now.
A better shot of the dirt track.
Here's the forest: You can see the printed trees in the background. Overall, the printed trees add a little depth to the overall scene. The trees are primarily Woodland Scenics. There are some fine foliage trees in the foreground. I carefully placed each tree in the front to hide gaps and the so-so trunks of the WS trees.
Here's a view over the front set and onto the back. They are on a 1/2 inch piece of foam to give them a little more height. The weedy mess along the tracks is my custom mix of cut-up dried moss and lichen combined with some random Woodland Scenics turf and then sprinkled with yellow and green turf when applying glue to give them more texture. It ends up looking like a wild and weedy mess -- perfect! I used this mix to hide as much of the forest floor as possible.
Here's the edge of the forest and the transition to the flat farmland. I found an image of a distant farmhouse on the Internet that I used for the initial transition, then tied it into another image of a distant farm with cornfields in front. All along the backdrop is the same image -- repeated five times. But it doesn't look the same! I used mirror image to flip where the buildings were in the scene and because they were almost on the horizon, selectively cut some of them out each time. In one scene, you see all the buildings. In the next, you might only see the barn or the silo and in one image, I cut all the buildings out. I did the same thing with some of the tree clumps -- in on scene all the tree clumps are there, in others, I cut some of them out or changed their shapes. I used chopped-up lichen to line the front of it to serve as a visual barrier between the layout and backdrop.
Here you can see more of farm backdrop, the parking lot for the grain silo and the scenicked area around the livestock facility.
The rest of the farm background and the grain silo. I still need to make signage for the grain silo. I didn't like the giant decals that came with it -- the grain silos I'm familiar with never had the big signs on the side -- they were always blank with a sign for trucks on the street level, so that's what I'm doing with mine. It's not that the big painted signs don't exist, it's just I want it to look "right" to me.
The end of the farm backdrop, plus a view of the rest of the cast walls and the overpass supporting the mainline. Another ancient building sits to the left -- it will either be a small factory or a small warehouse/team track. You can also see the pink foam in the "cut" just beyond the overpass. That will be the location of a powerplant. Originally, it was going to be on the lower level, but decided it would look cool elevated, giving the mainline and the two coal unloading tracks a neat appearance as they cut through the "canyon" created by the walls on either side.
A closer view of the overpass and the cut.
Here's a look down into the cut. Obviously the walls haven't been installed here yet!
The area of blue foam on the upper level will be all trees with a treebackdrop, so the farm area will be bracketed on either end by forest to give a little more sense of distance.
An overall look from the far loop looking back toward the forest and the transition into the city.
Other than figuring out what to do with the area on the far side of the livestock facility and deciding what I want the ground around the small warehouse to look like, this area is mostly done.
Next up: Installing the walls in the cut, finishing the bits of ground that still need finishing and determining what I want the power plant to look like. The power plant is the last major structure on the layout.
Originally, the section that now contains a forest was going to be on the lower level, but I ultimately decided that it would work better on the upper level. The forest was very labor intensive and took far longer than anticipated but I am very happy with the results. I also finished the livestock loading area and the land around the grain silos.
First up are the construction shots of the livestock loading facility. It's a combination of the Tyco livestock loader hooked up with a concrete extension made from modular loading dock pieces and Central Valley fencing. I decided not to use the handrails along the railside, so even though you see them in these shots, you won't see them on the installed facility.
I dirtied it up quite a bit, because livestock is messy. I'm going to make HO scale haybales by finely chopping some straw colored grass and then gluing it to appropriately sized wood blocks. We'll see how it comes out. If they work, I'll stack quite a few of them in the open area between the loading gates and around the storage building.
While this tree shot doesn't look like much, it's the starting point of my forest. I had some trees from Woodland Scenics already built. I wanted to make the forest look a little deeper than it really is and came up with an idea: Cluster the trees, take a photo of it, clone it, then use it as the backdrop behind the forest. It worked really well. The only issue I had was the trees ended up being too bright, so I applied a grayscale over them to darken them and make them look further away.
Here's a shot of the completed livestock facility installed with the holding areas. You can see the weathering effects used. I still need to paint the wheelbarrow and shovel. I'm really happy with the feedlot look of churned up earth. It's seed starter soil sifted through a screen to remove the large pieces, then applied over a mud color paint with some yellow and brown ground foam applied for additional texture. Now, I just need more cows.
The office/storage building is pilfered from another ancient factory kit. I think it was originally a brewery, but the little building with a slight modification of adding a door worked out nicely from a size perspective.
This is the area where the hay bales will go, when complete.
Here's the first shot of the mostly finished (and newly "raised" area). It's a grassy field leading into the forest. I wanted something of interest in the field and thought "how about a dirt track through it where a service vehicle or something might cut through to inspect the turnout." I painted the area a light dirt color then used chart tape to mark the wheel lanes, painted over it, then applied the static grass. When I was done, I pulled up the tape -- it worked great.
I cast something like 14 new wall sections using my Bragdon Enterprises mold that's more then paid for itself. They were a bit short, so I used some foam cut to side to serve as a concrete base. I'll use some more foliage and scenicking to hide it a bit because it's far from perfect (but what concrete wall is). I'm not quite sure what I want to do with the area in front of the curving tracks yet, so that's why there's nothing there right now.
A better shot of the dirt track.
Here's the forest: You can see the printed trees in the background. Overall, the printed trees add a little depth to the overall scene. The trees are primarily Woodland Scenics. There are some fine foliage trees in the foreground. I carefully placed each tree in the front to hide gaps and the so-so trunks of the WS trees.
Here's a view over the front set and onto the back. They are on a 1/2 inch piece of foam to give them a little more height. The weedy mess along the tracks is my custom mix of cut-up dried moss and lichen combined with some random Woodland Scenics turf and then sprinkled with yellow and green turf when applying glue to give them more texture. It ends up looking like a wild and weedy mess -- perfect! I used this mix to hide as much of the forest floor as possible.
Here's the edge of the forest and the transition to the flat farmland. I found an image of a distant farmhouse on the Internet that I used for the initial transition, then tied it into another image of a distant farm with cornfields in front. All along the backdrop is the same image -- repeated five times. But it doesn't look the same! I used mirror image to flip where the buildings were in the scene and because they were almost on the horizon, selectively cut some of them out each time. In one scene, you see all the buildings. In the next, you might only see the barn or the silo and in one image, I cut all the buildings out. I did the same thing with some of the tree clumps -- in on scene all the tree clumps are there, in others, I cut some of them out or changed their shapes. I used chopped-up lichen to line the front of it to serve as a visual barrier between the layout and backdrop.
Here you can see more of farm backdrop, the parking lot for the grain silo and the scenicked area around the livestock facility.
The rest of the farm background and the grain silo. I still need to make signage for the grain silo. I didn't like the giant decals that came with it -- the grain silos I'm familiar with never had the big signs on the side -- they were always blank with a sign for trucks on the street level, so that's what I'm doing with mine. It's not that the big painted signs don't exist, it's just I want it to look "right" to me.
The end of the farm backdrop, plus a view of the rest of the cast walls and the overpass supporting the mainline. Another ancient building sits to the left -- it will either be a small factory or a small warehouse/team track. You can also see the pink foam in the "cut" just beyond the overpass. That will be the location of a powerplant. Originally, it was going to be on the lower level, but decided it would look cool elevated, giving the mainline and the two coal unloading tracks a neat appearance as they cut through the "canyon" created by the walls on either side.
A closer view of the overpass and the cut.
Here's a look down into the cut. Obviously the walls haven't been installed here yet!
The area of blue foam on the upper level will be all trees with a treebackdrop, so the farm area will be bracketed on either end by forest to give a little more sense of distance.
An overall look from the far loop looking back toward the forest and the transition into the city.
Other than figuring out what to do with the area on the far side of the livestock facility and deciding what I want the ground around the small warehouse to look like, this area is mostly done.
Next up: Installing the walls in the cut, finishing the bits of ground that still need finishing and determining what I want the power plant to look like. The power plant is the last major structure on the layout.
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