First Layers of Scenery Revisited

Before the holidays I wrote about focusing on scenery and structures as a solution to modeler's block. Since then, I have gone down several rabbit holes with prepping for and analyzing an initial ops-session and, although I haven't written about it here yet, weathering rolling stock. In my quest to avoid the reoccurrence of severe modeler's block and the associated lack of visible progress on the 4th Subdivision, I have occasionally attempted to add some more scenery elements to the area around the NP interchange track.

In scenicking the plywood plains in this area last month, I decided to add a hillside in the foreground. While partially following the technique I explained in a post from last year, the front edge of the hill was made from one-inch pink foam. To achieve a flat face representing part of the fascia, I turned the foam on its edge, marked the hill profile with a marker, and cut it with a long-bladed, "wall paper" knife. Then, after gluing the foam in place and forming a base for the rest of the hill with newspaper and masking tape, I went ahead and applied several layers of plaster gauze as explained in the earlier post.


After the gauze, or plaster cloth, was dry, I painted the hillside with my standard brown-earth, latex paint. You will notice that I am including a small shack in this scene. While it is a cheap plastic structure, I have painted it and added split, real wood to the box on the side of the shack. It represents a car inspector's shack, as this is an interchange with several cars coming onto the line daily. I also spent fifteen minutes one day painting more ties in the section, so the track would be ready to ballast once the first layer of scenery was completed.

In the past few days I have made some additional progress. First of all, finding my Rubbermaid container of ground goop almost empty, I mixed up and added an additional batch of goop using the formula I first wrote about here. I applied the goop to the new hillside and the unscenicked foreground. The ground goop hides the gauze texture and provides a more realistic ground surface than the perfectly flat plywood. Another advantage of using goop over Sculptamold is the lack of a need to paint and wait through several dry times before adding a first layer of ground cover.

In this photo one can see the tools and materials needed for this combined process. I find a small putty knife and an artist's palette knife to be the ideal tools needed to apply the ground goop. I need a brush and a container of water to apply white glue to any "ungooped" plywood. Then I have a standard set of fine and medium ground foams and natural materials that I apply. I described these in more detail in the earlier post. Applying the scenery materials works best for me by tapping a plastic spoon containing the material over the area. I use 70% isopropyl alcohol as a wetting agent and Scenic Cement as the adhesive; I find that eye droppers work fine to apply both materials. During this same scenery session, I went ahead and painted the fascia side of the hill with my standard fascia/valance color.

The next steps for this area, when I choose to take this area to the next steps phase include some track work, adding some details to the car inspector's scene, and adding shrubs and trees. The track work I allude to includes adding a pair of feeders, ballasting the rest of the interchange track, ballasting the mainline and small yard, and adding switch stands and track bumpers. I need to add a chimney pipe to the shack as well as continue the trackside path. Finally, revisiting tree construction is looming in the future.