Two major accomplishments this weekend. First of all, the room where Phase 1 of the Redwood Empire is going is done. Where you see cinder blocks there will be layout–with the exception of to the right of the door, where it will just be a diorama that matches the layout theme.
I asked my wife to paint clouds in the room. She paints abstract landscapes, a genre which she invented. I should have known how the clouds would turn out. They look really good, just not backdrop material. Since I’m not going to build more than the benchwork for 8-10 months, there’s not problem. She assures me she will paint an extension of my redwood scene when the time comes. And yes she can paint very good landscapes.
And the second thing I got done was my staging tracks. Well they’re not done. I was short one piece of flex and I ran out of joiners. And it is not wired up.
I even got the backdrops for the Rock Ridge cut and primed. The layout has taken two steps back, but at least it is now ready to move forward.
So…New Year’s Eve…looking at the track, thinking about going out to celebrate…decided I really wanted to work on the layout…and did…woke up sick as a dog, worse than if I’d gone out, no doubt. I’ve omitted pictures for obvious reasons. Maybe the bright side is that this crud, combined with a hangover…
I like the add on yard…except…it’s got me thinking…not a good thing…no…we’re staying with 4 by 8…even though there’s an extra six to eight inches along the eight foot side now…could fit three, maybe four eight foot staging tracks in there…nope…well…maybe…
WOW Chip! Great sky! Must be nice to have a painter in the family to help with the backdrop. I am thinking of hiring my sister (the artist) to paint some parts of my backdrops as my skills in that department are not… well I’m thinking of hiring my sister to do some of the painting.
I think you should keep the clouds. How would you “improve” them?
The scale is off and the will over-power the layout. We’ve talked about it. When the time comes we will incorporate mountains trees etc. And reduce the could sizes closer to the track.
NICE! NICE! NICE! It is good to see you started. The clouds in pic three are wonderful, though it is hard to disuss scale from pics. Whether they will overwelm the layout is doubtful. I have seen too many backdrops which look, to me, too little. With dramatic scenes as you will have, you may need that level of sky.
We’ll see. Although I plan a large sawmill operation in this area, with the town and yard there will be little room for trees. Certainly not an entire forest of redwoods. I’m tring to get a couple in just to tie everything together.
I am happy you said it first about the scale of your clouds, they are alittle on the big size. Its much easier to just paint the sky blue back drop first, then after you finnish your benchwork put in the clouds and rest of the backdrop.
