For a variety of reasons, some good and some not so great, I have not been working very steadily on the railroad. I have made some progress though with next layers of scenery, ballasting, and finalizing the plans for scenery here on the East Branch section.
This photo shows the area behind the tracks where I envision extending the clearcut. I continued to work on staining and painting some stumps that I had ordered, but they are not yet where I want them. I got them to a point where I am happy with the color representing just-cut trees, but the stumps need additional weathering to age them for this scene. Also, they are stumps of large trees! I have ordered some more smaller stumps to mix in. Once the additional stumps are ready and the clearcut area is expanded, I will post with details about the process.
Working outwards from this same area, I started the next layer of scenery, which in this case, consists of ballasting the track and adding ground cover along the track. One of the standards that I have established for the railroad is the use of real rock ballast instead of the ground walnut shell materials from Woodland Scenics. Here, I am using Arizona Rock and Mineral 1152 "Empire Builder" for the mainline and passing track. For the spur track I am using Scenic Express #50 Blended Ballast. In an earlier
post, I discussed my ballasting techniques.
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After ballasting a section of track and while the scenic cement was still wet, I sprinkled on some fine ground foam along the ballast edge. I used Earth Blend and Green Blend of Blended Turf from Woodland Scenics. As seen in the photo, I applied the Blended Turf in gaps between the ballast and earlier applied sanded grout. While I plan to later apply additional scenic layers such as static grass tufts and mats as well as static grass fields, shrubs, and bushes, for now my goal consists of applying a first layer obscuring any painted plywood.
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While I am working outward from a clearcut patch, not all of the East Branch staging section is intended to be clearcut. Evergreen trees are part of the identifying atmosphere of the "Evergreen State," so as I mentioned in my last post, I have gotten into my stash of trees. I found one bag of somewhat derelict trees, some from my module days with a layer of "snow" and some half completed furnace filter trees. After picking out the best and poking them into a foam block, I took them outside for a quick blast of dark green camouflage spray paint. I plan to utilize trees I have on hand here on this sceniced staging section before going into a new phase of tree construction.
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The far end of this section where the track runs into the backdrop has been a bit of a conundrum. One temptation is to apply some mirror trickery. On the other hand this is a "temporary" staging section and that might be considered a bit of overkill. In fussing with some of the trees I have on hand, I think that I have a plan. First of all, in placing some conifers temporarily, I see that painted trees on the backdrop are needed to hide the shadows from the three-dimensional ones. With the tracks running into dark shadows and patch of trees, I am thinking the dead end will be sufficiently visually disguised.
I still have quite a lot to do on the East Branch, but I plan to start by focusing here at this end before working my way back towards the clearcut and the Nooksack section. The first phase of work here at this end will include:
- Backdrop painting
- Track ballasting
- Gluing the crossing planks
- Applying ground cover
- Applying static grass mat and tufts
- Adding shrubs, bushes, and trees
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