Jacobs' Landing Light Railway in On18

[Larry C]

So I've been starting on the scenery work:



The first layer of scenery material has been applied. "Painted" small sections at a time with white glue before sprinkling on some grass then sprinkled the dirt over that. Once done I applied a mixture of 50% white glue & 50% water with a couple drops of dish soap added so it wouldn't sit on top of the material but soak in. Applied with an eyedropper due to the small space. Also added a wood rack on the side of the Shed filled with firewood.



Before I started the scenery material I spray painted the rock casting with gray primer. Once dried I went over it with a diluted mixture of black paint/water painting it on then wiping it right off with a piece of paper towel for shading. Once dried it was weathered with tan and brown chalks. To keep it in place I put down a small amount of plaster and added glue to the top part of the casting. Set the bottom in the plaster and pushed the top against the backdrop. Cleaned up the plaster along the bottom and waited for it to dry. Once dried the rock casting was firmly in place.

While the trees are certainly not up to "Roland" standards, I think they came out pretty dang good compared to my previous attempt a couple of years ago. Started with 1/4 inch dowels, cut to 9 inches, which were grained with a wire brush then painted a light tan. Once dried I brushed in a little black chalk to highlight. The tree itself is made from furnace filter cut into squares then cut to shape differently than I did before. They were glued in place with white glue. Once dried they made their way to the garage where the branch parts were spray painted with a coffee color paint. Once dry the branches were given a coat of spray adhesive then fine green ground foam sprinkled on top with the excess shaken off. By drilling the depth of the holes at different depths the trees appear to be different heights for variety then glued into place.

Next will be to add some weeds to the area and a little more dirt for the second layer of scenery material. Trying to add some depth to the scenery. As always thanks for stopping by and for your comments and/or suggestions.

[Larry C]

Moving along:



This small area is finished with scenery. There are two layers with weeds, grass, and overgrown grass besides more dirt added.



Checking the internet I ran across an idea for overgrown grass that I thought was pretty cool so I tried the technique out. I started with some very small pieces of a Scotch Brand type scrubbing pad cut in odd shapes to get rid of the straight lines. Then I pulled up the fibers with a pair of tweezers. After that they received an application of light green spray paint. They held the glue well and when dried looked like tall overgrown grass; on both sides of the rock formation. I also blended in the right side of the dirt pile at the end of the track as well and around the rocks.

That's it for now and next I'll start making the primary building as well as adding the details and scenery. As always thanks for stopping by and for your great comments and/or suggestions.

[deemery]

Try different textures and colors of flock/turf on those tufts of Scotch pads...

dave

[friscomike]

Howdy Larry. It's always a pleasure to look at your updates.  The weeds look great.  The green pad weeks look terrific.  Nice work and persistence. Have fun, mike

[Rick]

Larry, the colors on the rock casting are spot on.
The new overgrown grass looks good except I'd tone down the red one some.
Dave made a good suggestion.

[deemery]

There's a discussion of Scotch Pad shrubberies here:  https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/simple-way-to-make-wild-bushes-13554906

dave

[Larry C]

Dave thanks for the tips and for the video link; I'll watch it when I get a chance.

Mike thank you for your nice comments.

Rick thanks and yes I few touchups are needed in that area; that's why the building
isn't glued in place yet.

[Michael Hohn]

Nice job, Larry.

[Jerry]

Looks great Larry.  But I would tone down the red one also.

Jerry

[Larry C]

Micheal thank you and it's nice to see you around here.

Jerry thanks, yes I have some fine green flocking I'm going to add the the scotch pad bushes
and also some on the red weeds to tone them down somewhat.

Dave I checked out the link you provided and they look great, thanks again.

[deemery]

That link was a nice discussion of some uses of cleaning pads.  I've seen similar discussions on furnace filters, same basic idea.  It's always good to pass around these kinds of ideas.   Here's a good video on modeling white pines, using a similar (furnace filter) material: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANt10bmaVnY

dave

[Larry C]

Thanks Dave I'll check it out.

[PRR Modeler]

Looks great Larry.

[Larry C]

Thank you Curt, much appreciated.

[ACL1504]

Larry,

This is looking very good. I'd like to add my two cents here. I love doing scenery.

You can add more realism if you add a little more underbrush around and in front of the bolder in the rear. Also, a few shorter or smaller trees/thick bushes against the backdrop.

Here is how I blended my foreground scenery to the back drop. It gives the area depth and thus compliments each other. Of course, your scenery won't be as green as my Florida scenery.

Tom