It’s been a very long time since I’ve worked on any scenery, the last serious work being on the Midland western layout about eight or nine years ago. The Gulf Coast Extension is a semi outdoor layout that has multiple issues regarding scenery, but I began to go ahead anyway with something to see how it holds up.
Every layout I’ve ever built has been a branch line since the 4 x 8 back in the Jurassic. Branch line track in my opinion is a lot more interesting to model because of its much closer relationship to nature and often irregular features. I painted my Kato Unitrack and it really came out pretty good, not needing ballast because I’m going to want to pull it up and save it in a couple of years. But I decided to put down some various turfs and earth covers around the track and add some growth right up against the track, very close as if it’s a branch line. It came out great, it’s very encouraging, and I plan on doing about a square foot or two every a few days until I get my 32 ft.² of layout finished.
You don’t see many layouts with near-overgrown track like this:
The code 83 rail makes a big difference, too. Could 70 would’ve been a lot better, but I’m waiting for someone to bring out sectional track with that rail.
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The only thing is that almost all aspects of scenery building are wet processes. That’s fine if you’re inside in a heated wintertime house with 5% humidity, but down here with an outside layout,no matter what the season is unless it’s a rare dry week in October, the humidity is 85 to 95%. Which means it’ll take forever for scenery to dry..
I’m not a big fan of helicopter views of unfinished layouts or layouts at all, really. But this is when I first spread the glue down to start sprinkling various turf and foams to start the scenery work, which I’ve been “chicken” to do for the last three years.
Here’s the diluted glue:
And here it is after various fine turfs
were sprinkled over it:
This was before the growth along the track was added, but by itself is a big improvement.
Now all I have to do is wait two or three years for it to dry in our usual 80% humidity and higher.
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The Gulf Coast prairie is beginning to appear.
This is very minimal scenery. It works just fine for me. A light brushing of diluted white glue with some various turf powders from Woodland scenic, a little bit of lichen, and code 83 Kato Unitrak lightly dusted with brown paint, no ballast, none needed. Cheap plastic structures and oil tanks made from cardboard cookie cans. It’s exactly what I want and it’s not vulnerable to damage from nighttime Woodland critters popping up from time to time.
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The other thing that ought to be said here is that this couple of square feet of scenery only took about an hour to do. I say to those of you who are intimidated by scenery, this is so easy that a chimpanzee could do it, jump right in and get it done, look at the difference it will make.
It’s going to get cold here for a few more days but after it warms up again, I’m gonna hit a couple of square feet every night on this layout. It should be done in about a week.
I’d like to do better than that lichen, but two things keep me using it on this particular layout:
- The short life of this layout coupled with the nightly Woodland patrols on it.
- I already bought enough lichen to cover John Allen’s layout twice.
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It looks fine! But you can enhance the lichen, if you want to go to the trouble, by soaking it in hair spray and then sprinkling on ground foam or static grass.
That’s a good idea. I had known about it in the past, but I had forgotten about it. It’s a really good idea because the cheap lichen bought from the craft store tends to dry out and be very brittle and crumbly. That’s the stuff you see in my pictures that is very light in tone compared to the others. The least little squeeze can reduce those pieces to dust. I actually worry about that dry stuff being a fire hazard, because I’ve heard of fires starting on layouts from mechanical sparks. Although I have a hard time imagining what would make a spark enough to light something on fire in an HO scale mechanism.
I do have some static grass and an applicator that I’ve been too cowardly to try out for a couple of years. This is a great place to do it because mess doesn’t matter in this semi-workshed setting.
Why outside? Especially in the south it seems fraught with various problems beyond scenery.
I lived in Atlanta 7 years. I can’t imagine having a non-garden layout outside. Warping from moisture, termite and other critters, wiring short circuits? Is it covered from above? Do your adults allow?
He has said he is a teenager so parental approval is necessary as one factor. I suppose he already got it since Patrick is a very responsible guy.
I’m my own adult. I’m 78 yr old!
Although I don’t always act like a grown-up!
Can’t recall ever saying that I was a teenager. I can’t remember that far back.
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I’ve covered all this many multiple times in other threads, but I’ll do it again.
It’s undercover, but in open air. Rain does not blow far enough inside to get on the layout. Moisture is not a problem because I don’t have any structures made out of anything except plastic, And a couple of cardboard tube oil tanks, which are thick enough to not warp. I get woodland visitors patrolling on top of the layout almost every night, so I can’t leave any equipment out, I have to pick it up like a train set. That’s not so bad though because only put about a dozen cars on it at one time and one engine.
I’m near the Gulf of Mexico so salt air does work on the track. It erodes electrical contact switch points, but I have ways of dealing with that. It’s all sectional track so that I can pick it up and replace it if I have to. I’ll never ballast it, but the paint job is convincing enough without ballast. Scenery is minimal, grass turf Glued down with random lichen, Which is fine for coastal prairie since I don’t care the least at all about doing mountains and coal mines, which to me appear to be an unwritten requirement for your Model Railroad to be called a Model Railroad. Not on mine. None of that is in my background, and I have no familiarity with any of it.
In short, it’s what I have because I don’t have space inside. But some layout is better than no layout. I’ve always lived in the Gulf Coast and I’m totally accustomed to the heat and humidity. It doesn’t bother me when I go down there to run the railroad except in just a very few hot weeks in high summer. It rarely gets cold enough in the winter to not go down and a good hoodie parka takes care of that.
Most of the layout a long time ago before I did any scenery or a good backdrop.
The layout is behind the lattice.
The same corner with ground cover and lichen scenery.
Code 83 sectional track. No ballast, just one light dusting of brown paint. A little bit of stray ground foam got between the ties, which actually helps things a bit
So! Here’s my challenge! Who will take it up? Build yourself a little outdoor layout and see how it goes. All you need is a one by eight board and make yourself a run around tracki with one spur. Built complete scenery. It’s not that much to do. You can look at it as practice. You could pick that board and take it out in the sunlight to use as a photographic diorama. But make it possible to power it up and switch cars a little bit. Who will do it? I’m anxious to see!!
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It’s quite nice, Patrick. I no longer have space in a 4th floor condo. And in Illinois outdoors, even under a deck, is crazy. Sorry about the age misunderstanding.
Haha, I can regress from time to time.
Don’t worry about the outdoor challenge. Just get yourself a one by eight board, buy a Kato passing track kit for 150 or whatever, a couple of extra switches and pieces of track and make yourself something you can watch your engine run back-and-forth on. I did that for a year before I started my more permanent layout in the other house that I only occasionally go to anymore. I’m over here on the coast in a caregiving role in the house, I only have room for the layout shown above. It’s not as good as the real layout back at the other house,but it’s better than nothing. In fact, I think I’m going downstairs now to watch my engines run.
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I never have cared for helicopter views of layouts. But this one gives a pretty good old view of what scenery is going to look like on the whole thing in a couple of weeks. It also shows the really sharp 18” inch radius curve I have to live with.
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