Scenic update for Sweethome Alabama

[Jon Grant 4472]

I have been working on a few trees recently and am now ready to plant them. however I needed to add some grass and forest floor before I could plant the trees.

The area I chose to treat first was the small hillock to the left of the silos, being only a couple of feet long by 5 inches deep. The first task was to bed the silos into the scenery with 'Das' modelling clay.

I also made a couple of retaining walls using 'Wills' random stone sheet, to represent the road access to the loading area behind the silos. I also covered the clay with Woodland Scenics 'earth blend'

Jon

 

[Jon Grant 4472]

Once the silos had been bedded in and the track inside the shed ballasted, I added a few mud landslips from the Das modelling clay which, when dry, resembles the colour of Alabama clay.

I also tore up various Silflor grass mats and glued them to the sub-base in small patches, varying the colours as I went. The next job will be to blend in some forest ground cover before adding some bushes and trees.

Now, fetch me a shrubbery....Ni!

Jon

 

[ianacole]

Looks fantastic!! I really like the effect that modeling clay provides.

 

[Jon Grant 4472]

I added some forest floor scatter, weeds, bushes and some dead trees to the grassy hill. The scene is starting to come together.

Next job will be to plant some trees.

Jon

 

[402drvr]

looks good. Is Das the brand name of the clay?

 

[RW&C]

Very nice. The nights of Ni have been good to you.

 

[Photogdad]

Excellent work. Looks great

 

[Jon Grant 4472]

I got the trees and temporary backscene added late last night, so the scene is pretty much complete, although I may darken the clay erosion slightly. I also added some flowers to the grass and have a few other plants to make and add later.

Details will be added to the yard area later, but for now, I want to concentrate on the tree-lined areas at the back of the layout

Jon

 

[N-gauged]

Jon, you do some really great detail work.
Everything is so realistic looking.
​

 

[Rico]

How deep is that area?
Hard to tell where the backdrop starts, very nice Jon!

 

[Jon Grant 4472]

How deep is that area?
Hard to tell where the backdrop starts, very nice Jon!

Thanks Rico.

From the rearmost track to the backscene is about 4-5 inches.

Jon

 

[Jon Grant 4472]

Taking the bull by the horns, I am going to jump straight to the next board that butts-up to the area just forested. It is only 21in x 15in but includes 2 roads, a bridge and a stone loading platform.

The first photo shows the board from the back - the backscene will cover the white area

The next photos show the part of the board that joins onto the area just next to the silos - just visible are the brass aligning dowels.

These photos show the whole area to be scenicked - the wood bridge will sit at the far end, as a view block for the hole through the backscene into the as-yet unbuilt fiddle yard

The last photo shows the front of the board (maroon) and the stone loading dock

Now to lay some tarmac

Jon

 

[CNR Glen]

Very nice scenery work. I also use the woodland scenics earth blend to start my ground cover.

 

[Jon Grant 4472]

I added a dirt/gravel access road using torn up pieces of Silflor scenic matting, glued down with household glue. I had earlier added some DAS modelling clay to simulate bare patches, but these seem to have been covered up.

I'll continue with the grass until the area is covered, then add some bushes and weeds. The bridge has only been added temporarily, as it is easier to work without it in place.

Jon

 

[Cjcrescent]

Jon that really is looking real good. Now all ya gotta do is model enough Kudzu to cover it all up!

 

[Jon Grant 4472]

Carey, so far it's a Kudzu-free zone, but I'm still looking for some large-enough leaves to show the effect of kudzu (The Red Weed) in at least one area of the layout.

I made a bit more progress on the grass, completing the coverage on the small board. I also bedded in the bridge and started adding bushes and shrubs

Now to continue with the bushes before adding weeds and trees

Jon

 

[Jon Grant 4472]

I've added some trees, flowers and a colour light signal to the small board. I originally had the trees much more tightly packed, but removed over 15 of them as I couldn't see the wood for the trees.

Here are the latest photos

Jon

 

[Outback]

All I can say is... WOW!

 

[RW&C]

All I can say is, well, what Outback said.

 

[grande man]

Jon that really is looking real good. Now all ya gotta do is model enough Kudzu to cover it all up!

You just had to bring up Kudzu didn't you CJ? I was enjoying a look at the beautiful Alabama countryside without the invasive species infestation.

Jon, your modeling is superb.