Cisco Bridges: a new layout concept

[Scottl]

Don't worry, your progress has been great with the infrastructure and gizmos. 

That is a great shot, just what I am aiming for. 

I have an idea to try with grout powder and selectively use trees to hide some of it.    You might be right though and I should re-align the slope to hide it.

[Cajonpassfan]

Dang, Scott, that will look GOOD! 
Nice going!
Otto K.

[craigolio1]

This is awesome.

Craig

[Chris333]

Now that it is dry I'd maybe try a second coat along the seam.

Like the rock coloring!

[Scottl]

I think I will build up around the crack on the foreground side with Sculptamold.  I'll leave it for a few weeks while I travel and see how I feel when I get back.

[Scottl]

I built it up with Sculptamold and repainted it.  It is almost invisible unless you know to look for it, so I think this problem is solved.  Now just some trees and onto the rock sheds.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Looks great.

And I think you'll be fine, because visitors don't usually want to get into a game of "find the crack".

[James Costello]

More inspiration Scott:

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/585180/

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/585181/

[jpwisc]

It looks fantastic!

Once trains are running through the scene, they will grab the viewers attention. Consider the seam gone.

[Scottl]

Thanks guys.  This thread has been neglected along with my modelling in general.  I had two separate hiking trips and lot of field work, so I've been away from modelling and progress has been slow. 

For this section of the layout, I have opted for Ebay trees.  I bought a few on a lark to see how bad they were, and it turns out, they were not too bad at all.  Roughing them up a bit with scissors and painting them matte brown and green makes them presentable, and at less than a dime each and the time saved, I think I could get used to these.  I might do more detailed foreground trees, but what I am aiming for here is to impart a sense of distance by using shorter trees in the background and scale them higher closer to the track (down slope).  In the prototype scene (thanks for the inspiration/links James!) the trees don't get down very far anyway.

I have planted 400 little trees here and about 100 taller ones.  I have another 1600 on order so I hope to be able to finish these off in the weeks and months to come.   



Rock sheds are the main next task.  I've had good success casting parts with concrete forming marks on them and I hope to put a full sample together soon.

I also want to start running trains again, since there is really no reason not too.  Just need to clean things up.

[eja]

For this section of the layout, I have opted for Ebay trees.  I bought a few on a lark to see how bad they were, and it turns out, they were not too bad at all.  Roughing them up a bit with scissors and painting them matte brown and green makes them presentable, and at less than a dime each and the time saved, I think I could get used to these. 

Care to share the E-Bay seller's name ?

[Scottl]

Sure, there are three types I am using, all to represent conifers. 

There is a small tree about 36 mm tall  in pkgs of 100:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/311555261969?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The medium trees (on order, still not in hand yet) are 50 mm tall and in pkgs of 100:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/260806479522?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The tall trees are 96 mm tall and come in pkg of 10:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/351570738462?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

All of them are a coloured a bit strangely out of the package, but a quick rework does them wonders.  The foam is too vivid of a green tone and the trunks are shiny and not a great colour.   The density of branches is also very regular, which is visuallly jarring. 

For the short ones, I just put them in a holder made from foam board punched with holes and mass spray paint them first dull brown-gray, and then immediately dust with flat green and then a very light oblique shot of lighter green for highlights.  It takes about 20 minutes to process 100 trees.  Very fast work- all the time is loading the holder.

The taller trees can benefit from some roughing up with scissors to remove some of the branches to make them a bit irregular and then the same painting treatment.  They take a little longer to do.  I also trim off some layers of the lower branches to shorten some of the trees, and I also paint the outer lower branches with matte medium and sprinkle on additional ground material (lichen in my case, but foam would be OK).  This gives them a bit more taper and irregularity before painting. 

I still expect to put more effort into some foreground trees, but I think this is a simple, inexpensive and fast way to populate a forest.   

I might add that I have yet to see anything convincing on ebay in terms of deciduous trees.  They all look ridiculous to me.  I would use Supertrees for this task if I had need for these.

[eja]

Thanks for the links.......

[Scottl]

A package came today from the second source above.  They turn out to be wire armatures, which is a really nice bonus.

[Santa Fe Guy]

Scott your layout is looking way cool.
You might want to take a look a trees from a European company called Busch and or Heki. I used their wire armature trees on my On3 layout and they look very nice straight out of the package when blended in with others.
They come in a plastic bag with I think about 40 trees in.
They come in various sizes also with larger ones for the foreground.
Keep up the nice work.
Rod.