East Branch Scenery Updates -- Part 3

Working from the east end

In my last post I ended discussing a patch of trees as a way to disguise the dead-end of the far end of the East Branch Staging.

The first step was to pencil in the location of shadows on the sky from the temporarily placed trees. Then, during a recent Thursday modeling night, I painted in some trees using acrylic craft paints and some brown from the lid of my gallon of latex brown dirt color. Finding the green to be too light compared to the furnace filter trees, I mixed up a slightly darker color and added some darker brush strokes with slightly more detailed branch ends. The next day I drilled holes for the trees and marked them with toothpicks before adding a layer of a Scenics Express "Conifer Floor Blend," a ground foam and static grass mix, to the area.

In addition to gluing down the ground cover, I also applied ballast to the track, here between the tree locations. After the scenic glue had dried I went ahead and fit the five furnace filter trees in place. While no one has been able to explain the the reason for the phenomenon to me, I am a believer in the "odd number groups of trees looking more natural" theory. The five trees are made up of different colors, sizes, and construction techniques. While they actually block the track, the illusion and hidden shadows by the painted trees on the backdrop works well enough for me. 

In my previous post I explained the materials and techniques used for ballasting here on the East Branch staging section. While working here, I went ahead and finished ballasting the main and passing tracks between the clearcut and here at the east end. As seen in the photo, one segment of the ground needs some additional first layer work behind the passing track. My notion is that a path needs to be added, a gravel parking area at the end of the gravel road should be included, and some landscaping needs to be worked out around the yard office (which needs to be finished). 

Working backwards from the patch of trees, a section of the backdrop needed work. If nothing else, the patch between sections of backdrops created with the runaround extension from last September has never been resolved. I decided on showing a clearcut going into the distance. 

Using Google image, I went through a number of photos online until deciding on one from an online report from the University of Cincinnati. I did a screen grab and then saved a portion as a JPEG. My first idea was to do some old school cut and paste before glueing it into the backdrop as an experiment with collaging a photo into the painted backdrop. While trying out various positions of my photo cut outs, I changed my mind. Why not just use the photo as a source and try painting the distant ground and trees instead of trying to blend the photo with the rest of the painted backdrop? So, that is what I did. 

By having a source photo to work from and using my standard latex brown as one of my colors along with a few craft store paints, I think the transition from 2D backdrop to 3D bench-top works. I am not going to give up on ever collaging in a photo into the backdrop, but I will save that technique for buildings. The technique that I think will make that work is applying visual foils on either side of the building, an approach suggested by one of my model railroad inspirations: Paul Dolkos. Paul passed away earlier this month, but I was able to briefly meet him and visit his Baltimore Harbor Railroad several years ago before his railroad was taken down. 

In the last photo, the railroad crossing boards can be seen glued down, and the stumps are loosely positioned, but still need additional weathering. While I am making progress here on the East Branch staging, I still have more to do before I can say, "The first layer of scenery here is complete, let's run some trains and return to Nooksack." First layer of scenery is a doable goal here within a reasonable length of time, and may supply inspiration for additional progress on the railroad as a whole. 

Next Steps:

• Stump weathering
• Yard office completed
• Switch stands
• First layer of ground cover where missing
• Experiment with static grass and static grass mats