Yesterday was our last working session before Christmas and I decided to experiment a little bit with the foreground scenery in Clermont.
After looking at many pictures of the area, it was quite evident a lot of tall grasses and weeds grew along the tracks back in the 1960s-1980s. My memories of the early 1990s called for a quite manicured track, but it seems it wasn't that much the case.
I started by applying a coat of white glue straight from the bottle with a paintbrush and pressed light yellow dead grass over it. A second fine layer of short fresh green grass was added to show life is back in the springtime. I'm not sure if the colors are right for the season, but at least it looks good. I'll have to experiment again on grass when I'll continue the scene.
Later, I insert small rocks into the floral foam landform and applied a generous coat of dead leaves. Some fine and medium size scenic ground foam was sprinkled here and there to represent small plants starting to grow with the first warm days.
The next step followed by adding reddish Super Trees armatures cut to size to make a transition between the grass and forest cover. I'm planning to add more weed there later to make this transition softer.
Later, some trees were selected and painted with spray cans. I'm always surprised how you must paint your trees a lighter tone than reality to make them pop up on a layout. A few were darkened to represent dead and fallen trees. As usual, it took far more trees than I first thought! It's crazy how many you need. I'm glad I'm not modelling summer!
Total amount of time? Three hours for a 3 feet by 1 feet patch of layout. And for the first time, you really feel the track is indeed running throught scenery. It's an amazing sight and it really separate the scenes efficiently, making the layout looking longer.
I have no idea on which side I'm going to continue the scenery, but with the turnout repaired, I see no reason not going further east. Meanwhile, I'll have to create an asphalt road and print the backdrop in Clermont. I'm not sure I'll be able to get it done during the Christmas holidays.
Looks tremendous! I like how you have the leafless bushes and then the leafless trees coming out of them. Very effective.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike! I've spent last spring watching closely how vegetation grew along highways and tracks to better understand the transition between open fields and woods. I will probably add a layer of weeds just in front of the bushes to smooth things a little bit. Scenery is truly a fascinating aspect of the hobby. I'm ashame to think I waited almost a decade before taking the plunge.
DeleteLooks great!
ReplyDelete