Going Green!

With an impending house move bringing the effective deadline for this project ever closer I have been making progress on both layout and locos. This is an exciting time for the layout build as it quickly progresses from bare boards to a scenic layout. The first step in making it green is the grass: first I give the ground a layer of traditional flock as a base layer, then apply static grass using the cheap applicator I got last year. A blend of shades and lengths works best, with longer grass a straw colour.

 

Next up comes the bushes. I use a variety of methods, here rubberised horsehair covered with ground foam and flock makes quite effective brambles.

 

While here I've used lichen, teased out carpet underlay, with various flocks and foliage, and clump foliage. PVA neat and diluted is used, but cheap hairspray makes an effective way of sticking flock to bushes.

 

I felt the layout needed some trees to reinforce the feeling of being an industrial site surrounded by woodland. The method I use is the twisted wire approach, here I used wire that has been sold for this purpose but stripped multi-strand mains cable is just as good. This is surprisingly easy to do and each tree takes about 15 minutes to make up, though with hindsight I could have added a few more branches lower down. Once the shape has been made up I covered the trunks in PVA glue - about three layers helped hide the twisted wire.

 

Foliage fibres are teased out and stuck onto the wire with PVA, then covered with Woodland Scenics foliage, again teased out and stuck onto the fibres with the hairspray. More hairspray is applied and extra ground foam in a similar shade is added, including from underneath. The small tree uses a plastic moulding I picked up at an exhibition.

 

I haven't planted the trees yet as they will be close to the edges of the board and get in the way! However I have obtained a few accessories to dress the scene. I've failed to find a suitable fork-lift truck in 1:43 scale, so started looking for other suitable road vehicles, this Mk1 Transit by Vanguard should be perfect for setting the period between the late 60's and early 80's. It comes heavily weathered (though not completely convincingly to be honest), but was far more suitable than other available liveries. The pallets and concrete products are from Skytrex, a bit pricey but are ideal for the scene.