Projects continued

Well I've had a great week. I've completed Marshal Canyon to a point that I am very happy with. The photos below will show the starting point - roughed in scenery and the processes I used to get the scenery to a basic completion. This involved shaping the styrofoam slopes; Placing the rock embankment; adding the ground cover and lastly installing trees.

Thanks to the help of Steve Ord and Trevor Phillips on Wednesday we completed two hundred fir trees of which 160 were planted on the layout. This effort has transformed the scenery on the layout, almost making it seem live. 

The picture of Marshal Canyon that I envisaged in my head is now actual and I can't be happier with the results.

Looking West along  Marshal Canyon at the commencement of the project a week ago. 













Looking East at Marshal Canyon.

 I've used both Styrofoam and expanding foam to make the basic scenery shell. Here in the photo you can see how I've blended the expanding foam to match the styrofoam. The pink colored landscape is expanding foam. I've used this technique for a long time now and find it helps on the smaller areas where you need to add scenery quickly. 

In the photo below I've commenced placing the first layer of ground materials on the styrofoam. My process is to: paint the area with an earth colored paint, place glue on the wet paint and paint this in, sprinkle real dirt on the paint / glue mix, add 3 shades of fine ground foam, then add the various colors and lengths of static grass as required.  

In the photo below I wanted a rock cut in the canyon. So I've applied rocks from plaster molds. once this has set enough I start the rock coloring process.

Upon completion of the rock coloring process I continue the ground covering process. 

Thanks to Steve and Trev2, I had plenty of trees ready for planting in Marshal canyon

Below is the final scene. I'm wrapped in how this has turned out and how it has seemed to come to life! My good friend Jim Younkins, whom I have traveled with to the Marshal Canyon and Spokane area, has said that I have captured the feel of the area well....That is good enough for me. Thanks to Steve and Trev this has happened fairly quickly. Now we are onto the next project...watch this space!!!