Another newbie here with very little artistic talent. Have begun my first layout and was thinking of doing a fall type theme. Putting trees and mountains aside for now (thats way down the road yet), I’m looking now at ideas for landscape/turf. It will be cork roadbed on bare yellow foam insulation to start with. Looking for maybe a southwest fall theme. Which is made more difficult since I’ve never been to the southwest, fall or any other time of year. I’ll be googling as many pics as I can find and scrutinizing the Woodland Scenics website. I am really artistically challenged, and require a paint by numbers layout! [:D] Does anybody have any suggestions (or layout pics) for a fall type turf that they have already done?
Southwest and fall? Not California? Are you planning to do up in the mountains or out in the plains/desert. There isn’t a whole lot of difference in pine trees or cactus reguardless of the season, and there aren’t that many dedicuous trees that turn pretty colors like in New England. Cottonwood trees generally turn from green to brown at the first hard freeze. In the next week all the leaves fall off. The only colors are up in the mountains with the aspens.
Hmmm, Yes, good point about the difference in geography vs season. My appologies, as I have table done, track ready, and am still trying to decide on a geography to model. Unlike most, I have no particular favorite RR I’m after, so it will most likely be a fictitious RR. I want to do fall. So let me ask then, does anybody have advice/pics for any fall season anywhere (east, west, mountains…anywhere)? I’m trying to see what is possible and if I am up to doing it talent wise (again, I’m a paint by numbers person).
Autumn is the most difficult of the four seasons to model believably and is made all that much more difficult if you have never personally seen the area you intend to model at that time of year. If you are going to model a specific prototype, do a search on the web for appropriate color photos of that railway’s terrain and also consult historical society sites from the region for possible scenes.
In general, the variety of colors displayed by autumn foilage becomes more limited and less striking the farther west you go across the United States, although there can be marked exceptions to this in certain regions. As Texas has pointed out, if you are modeling an area in the southwest where trees do grow, they will likely tend toward mainly pines and some aspens.
Whatever you do, don’t attempt to create an autumnal scene without reference color photos or you’ll likely end up with something that no one will accept as believable.