I am still working on designing my “Man Cave” train layout and would like to get some advice on the scenic lay out. What would be the best way to put down the grass area in my city area, foliage in in my farm land area, and the asphalt roadway in my city, and the dirt roads in the farm land area. The dirt roads may as well be as simple as brown painted plywood surface, but I want to make look as close to reality. The areas outside the city/farm land area will display a mountain scene appearence along the walls of the “Man Cave”. I think the best possibility would to paint the sheet rock walls for the sky scene, but what about the land terrain scenes along the course for visual effects as if the train in making a mountain tour appearance even over creeks and wilderness and deserts…
Any help would be much appreciated.
Some where in the use of PhotoBucket.com they have the ability for you to see my JPG layout design, but I do not know the correct cut/paste to allow you to view my jpg file except the following links etc…
As in most of model railroading, there is no “best” way. There are usually several commonly used methods, one or two of which will suit you better than others. With scenery, a lot depends on your personality and goals also. I view scenery as a form of art to convey a message about our layouts. There are minimalists who just put suggestions of scenery in, and let their mind’s eye fill in the rest. Most of us do that until we get around to detailing out scenery. There are the theater types who often use caricatures or out of scale props to emphasize the message rather than the actual scene itself. Impressionism and Realism also have their place. There are those who like to model a multitude of very detailed mini-scenes that have stories with them. Others prefer to have the scenery be a relatively simple background element to the trains.
I’m a big believer isn using methods that are suited to the outcome I want. If I’m modeling terrain that is mountainous with large changes in elevation relative to the track, then I don’t want to start with a flat plywood or foam surface. S
