Scenery - step by step

Prior to my local clubs' Fremo-meeting a few weeks ago, I wanted to update my Grimstad modules a little bit. Section one, where the turntable is, has had only very basic scenery so far. About time I did something about that. Here's a couple of evenings of work (fun) step by step.

First of all I had to make some wooden extensions to the section itself. The rock formations is a ready made product from Noch.

Then I filled up the space behind the rocks with some scrap bits of styrofoam.

I used expanding foam to fill in the rest. This makes for a very strong and light base for further scenery work.

The foam has to dry for at least 24 hours. Then I shaped the basic countours with a kitchen knife.

Next step is to paint the base with a light beige color. Then I sprinkeled sand in the wet paint.

Time for the green stuff. I use various shades of Woodland Scenics Fine Turf for this. And fix it all with scenery cement from WS.

The Noch rock formations are very grey and uniform in their color, so I painted them with diluted acrylics to make them come alive.

Then I covered most of the area with various grass mats from Heki. I use Woodland Scenics burnt grass and green blend fine turf to cover the "seams" between the mats.

All the mats are in place and trees are starting to grow. Notice the sand underneath peeping through in several places.

All the trees and bushes are in place.

I finish the rocks with a light drybrushing with white paint and plant some weeds on them.

A closeup of the base scenery. Here I've used Heki 1842 for the grass, MiniNatur bushes and the white flowers to the right are from Czech manufacturer Polák Model.

Here's the finished hill put in good use as a backdrop for an incoming freight train on the Fremo-meet.

A NSB Skd202 in front of the new rocks and scenery.

A small area complete

For the first time in a while, I've actually more or less completed a scene. A magazine article featuring my layout was all the inspriation I needed to get going :)

Some other pictures from this area are shown in earlier posts under here.

Scenery work at SjB

Last week I helped one of my good modeling friends, Steinar Jeppestøl, with some scenery work at his layout; Sjuskogbanen (SjB). All of his trackwork is now complete, and he has basic scenery in place. I'm lucky enough to be able to work at this wonderful layout from time to time, and I have "free hands" and can do what I like scenerywise. Here is the result of the scenery work we did this time.

New scenery shots from Grimstad

This Morris Minor has to be brand new as it's extremely clean, and for some reason it has no numberplates!

A Cmdeo 10 from NSB is handling today's passenger service between Grimstad and Rise.

It seems the owner of this rowing boat don't care about it's appearance anymore.

No news is good news?

Well I guess in this case this saying is not entirely true. But I have at least started the indoor season now, so updates will be more frequent from now on. Not much to show for so far, but the modules will receive a scenery upgrade. the picture shows a little experiment with weeds from Polak Model.

Water - the making of..

Now for something really scary - water! I'm venturing out into unfamiliar territory here, but I'll give it a shot. Grimstad is a coastal town, so I wanted to add a lot of the water to place the modules geographically. First I smoothed the surface as much as possible, and painted it all black.

Then I added embankments made of styrofoam and some rock castings to the left.

After the embankment and the rock castings were painted, I glued some small rocks and weeds in place.

The fun begins: The first coat of dark blue paint (Lifecolor UA047) was applied with a brush over the whole area.

Close to the shoreline I painted with a light brown color while the blue paint still was wet, and without cleaning the brush. It was suprisingly easy to blend the colors into each other this way.

I used the same technique at the edge of the section, only this time with black colour to simulate deeper water.

To represent the water, I used artists acrylic "Heavy Gel Medium". This stuff can be bought at most art supply stores and dries completely clear and glossy.

The waves was by "dipping" the brush in the gel in this fashion.

This is how it looked after drying overnight.

And this is how it looks with a little norwegian morning sun shining on it. The "waves" look much better with some direct light shining at them, so I'll point one of my layout's spotlights directly at it.

I like "before and after" shots :) Compare this picture with the first in this post to discover what I did over the last 5-6 weeks. This last picture is shot at a hobby fair in Neumunster, Germany. More pics from this event soon.

More gardening

I've planted some trees today.

Three more days now, and I'm leaving for Germany with my local model railroad club; Amjk where we are going to show some of our modules. This'll be Grimstad's first outing with scenery.

Gardening

I feel like a gardener these days. Now it's the area open area on the middle section of Grimstad that has received some basic greenery. I need some good looking trees here, and some weeds in the road, and it'll be complete.

A railfan is photographing a T3 in front of the freight shed. But what's up with that hovering fence to the right???

Section three is more or less complete now.

More ballast

I'm done with ballasting all three sections of my Grimstad-modules! That's a good feeling. Next job is weeds and grass, water, seashore, telegraph poles, details and more details.

Ballast

In Norway in the 60's, the norwegian state railways used mostly sand for ballast. I've tried to replicate this the last couple of days, and now 2 of the 3 sections that make up Grimstad are completely ballasted. I'm not entirely happy with it, but it will do for now. I will later weather the track and ballast, and that'll hopefully lead to the look i'm after.

To the left in this picture you can see the recess i've made for the water, which will make up a nice harbour scene eventually.

Scenery, details, buildings

I'm steadily working towards the completion of the area around the station building in Grimstad. The latest projects include building and painting the freight depot seen here (not done yet), the fence by the road, and scenery and trees in the background here.

Scenery around Grimstad

I've just started getting some "green stuff" around Grimstad. This is the work I really love to do. I'm using a mix of mainly Woodland Scenics and Heki materials with some Silflor thrown in here and there.

I really look forward to when this whole section is complete. It'll be the centerpiece of my layout.

Trees, trees and more trees

I've started planting some trees now. I think correctly coloured trees in great quantities can really make a layout stand out. So I'm hoping to be able to add hundreds and hundreds.