Scenery that is. My little brothers and I had a sort of a layout when we were kids but it never had any scenery except possably some paint on the plywood sheet.
I have no artistic tallent at all but I am persistant. The rolling hills took a week (I don’t spend a lot of time every night) The painting I changed maybe 5 times over another week.
I told myself to start in the center and back and work to the front but I don’t listen to myself any better than my kids did. I just realized today that tree trunks are gray not brown but it is coming along.
Not a bad at all[:D] The right of way cutting through the hill looks so cool I might use that feature on my layout. I also like the code 55 track, better than the code 80 on my old layout.
Good start. Don’t be afraid to be daring. Alow random detailing. If you try to be too careful it will look artificial. Use lots of different shades and textures. Scenery is the most fun and you may discover you are more of an artist than you think. My 11 year old Gson now looks at scenery details as he drives around. This will build a mental catalogue of good ideas. He is getting good at it.
Change the tree trunks before you get youself any deeper. Each time you take a step back in your progress, you probably learn 10 things that will be useful later. For instance, not only did you learn that tree trucks are grey, you learned observation skills.
Theres a Clinic here that talks about all aspects of scenery. Very practical stuff. Like dusting the tops of the trees with yellow where they will be reflecting the sunlight.
Thanks. I grip enough about the pizza cutter wheels clattering of the ties. The leaf clutter on the forest floor is tobacco crushed & run through a sieve. It looked better until the hand sprayer crushed it down (I need to find one that sprays a fine mist.) The plowed field looked better until I washed the chalk dust off with glue.
My stepdaughter saw it today and told me she had been really worried about it before. Best of all the train runs.
It is fun, I will give you that. I mixed a half dozen brown before I decided the “Caramel” paint we have on the walls was the closest to the local soil.
The trees are “Forrest in a Flash”. I saw them at the Train Show after the NMRA convention. I will redo the trunks before I add anymore. A few of the smaller ones can stay brown, some of our smaller trees have darker bark.
The Clinic is great. I have read it twice and refer back often then make my own mistakes anyway. After two weeks of working at this I have really developed a respect for the work we see on here.
It looks terrible when you first start…then, as you add more stuff, it begins to look not half bad. Suddenly, you are nodding your head and the motor really kicks in!!!
I like what I see. I caution people to use at least one shade LIGHTER than they decide is the real one for them. Everything looks darker under artificial lightings…AKA “indoors”.
Looks good! I like the tobacco leaf litter. Try using a coating of hair spray to hold it down rather than glue. I also found that taking a lot of photos of scenery (the 1:1 kind) helped me to better my scenicing skills. I now stand back and ask myself what is different between the photo and the model and how can I best get that look. Believe me I still have a LONG way to go to match many of the people that post their work here. You are off to a great start! And Talent is mostly learned… Keep it up and have fun.
By the way, I notice you are in Oxford, Ohio. Great town and lovely part of Ohio! My youngest son got his masters in Engli***here at the U of Miami several years ago. He is now working for the U of Chicago as the Senior Internet Producer.
It’s looks darned fine to me Sir.
Tobacco for leaf clutter! What a fine idea, why a cheap canister of Drum would last a good long time… great idea, one I’ll be adding to my book. [tup]
Looks great to me! I really do like the way the cut turned out. Using tobacco is a novel idea (I’ve heard of using coffee grounds for scenery once). Another possibility is to use leaves and run them through a blender (not my original idea, read it in one of the Kalmbach books).
Looks good! I like the tobacco leaf litter. Try using a coating of hair spray to hold it down rather than glue. I also found that taking a lot of photos of scenery (the 1:1 kind) helped me to better my scenicing skills. I now stand back and ask myself what is different between the photo and the model and how can I best get that look. Believe me I still have a LONG way to go to match many of the people that post their work here. You are off to a great start! And Talent is mostly learned… Keep it up and have fun.
By the way, I notice you are in Oxford, Ohio. Great town and lovely part of Ohio! My youngest son got his masters in Engli***here at the U of Miami several years ago. He is now working for the U of Chicago as the Senior Internet Producer.
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Oxford is a great town. I have only lived here about 5 years but I think I appreciate it more than some of the lifetime residents. I grew up in the foothills of the Appalachians, outside of a town called Felicity, Ohio, about the farthest North and West that tobacco is grown commercially.
Last year in my garden I grew some for old times sake. I harvested it because some people on a gardening newsgroup asked how it was done. So when I was wondering what looked like dried leaves I had some untreated tobacco on hand. I don’t smoke it or chew it or use it for anything except insect repellent and now scenery.
I tried the hair spray idea. It worked much better than the sprayer. Thanks for the advice.
I think you’ve got a terrific start, there. Actually, if you were modeling California, you could leave the tree-trunks brown, just call them Eucalyptus, which they sort of look like, anyway LOL! Seriously, I’d leave a few of the trunks brown, anyway, just for color contrast. Keep posting as you progress, okay? I’ll be interested to see how you’re doing. But like I said, you’ve got a terrific start. And I REALLY like that cut through the hillside!
Tom [:D]
