Thursday, March 3, 2016

Scenery Development - Layer 1

As we move towards adding scenery at locations around the Onondaga Cutoff, I find myself referring to photos of the areas where the railroad would have been located to get ideas for how things should appear on the layout.  The area around CP277, just east of Fayetteville, NY, is the current focus.  Much of this area has more open space than buildings, and most of the wood lines appear distant with scrub growth or fields closer to the view points, with some swampy waterways nearby.

The railroad, approaching the summit of the hill into Ram's Gulch, would have a rock cut wall to the north, and swampy river to the south, in the foreground.  So, I added the rocks and some basic greenery along the view block, with the full photo backdrop coming soon too.  Here's the view, looking east, with the 'rock' alone:


After that, I added some greenery as a first layer, with more shades and types to come soon.  I find the clump-foliage to be a good backround material, with lighter shades and super tree bushes adding depth and detail once the background is in.  Green and black paint are obviously temporary, ahead of further layers of scenery and detail.  Ballast will come here too, and that will make a huge difference.


Before I get too far along here, I am seriously considering a photo backdrop for this entire scene.  A photo backdrop showing typical Central New York farmland and countryside would do a lot to add depth to this scene, and I don't want to have to work around finished trees to install it.  Work done as shown here is a good start that helps to get the thoughts moving forward!

~RGDave

2 comments:

  1. Cool layout, and cool blog. I'm interested in your prototype, given the fact that there are some geographical and traffic pattern similarities to my Penn Central-era layout depicting the Niagara Branch outside of Buffalo. Post about your progress on the photo backdrop. I'm curious to see how you go about doing it.

    -Hunter

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    1. Hunter, thanks for the comment. I will certainly post about the backdrop process. I'm considering backdropwarehouse.com for their selection and products. Thanks for the comment!

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