PSA: Now kids, smoking weed is bad for you.....M'kay! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCDnR6Px-co)
Today, Marcus came over. We watched a short video by a local model railroader Scott Teague on modeling fall color. We laid out three trays (I need to get more colors) of green, yellow and orange foliage Two of the colors were Woodland Scenics shaker bottle size which went on great. The orange Foliage and Flock by Scenic Express didn't go on that well. I'll have to unload the rest of that on eBay and get some more of the Woodland Scenics stuff.
We worked at it for about 40 minutes or so and made a little over 30 trees I would say. We typically rolled the weeds in the brighter colors and then sprinkled on the green. It gave a good affect dulling down the bright foliage.
We then moved to planting trees. I planted one big yellow tree (my favorite) by the new Rock Island Fuel facility. Man, that really looks great.
Marcus started planting trees over by Franklin Farms. I worked more up toward the plowed field and small pond. The scene came together really quick and looked spectacular! I was busting Jerry! Busting! But, wait there's more! We discussed the transition between the farm field and track. We added a tree line along the tracks as well as some overgrowth and brush. Wow! It turned out fabulous! But, wait there's more! Marcus took note of the indentation I had from the farm road up to the pasture and barn. I told him I planned on putting a dirt access road up to the barn. Well, Marcus started into creating it. I then mentioned that we needed to add some brush around the barn as it wasn't perfectly flat on top of the hill. We added some ground cover (hay, sawdust) inside the barn, dirt road up to the barn and brush and ground cover around it. Holy cow! Did it ever look great!
WOW!!!!!! I'm so excited how this scene came together!!! Adding the trees did wonders to the layout. I'm all jazzed up now ready to make some more super trees!
We ran a test train up through the area. The company photographer had the train spotted for various photo opportunities. I forgot to take a pic of before, but found one in the archives.
Thank you so much Marcus for coming over today to provide lessons and help with the ROCK forestation project! The results were outstanding!
I failed to mention before Marcus came over this morning, I painted all the rail from the country road crossing at Franklin Farms to the bridge just east of Rock Island, IL.
This evening, I ballasted that section (not glued yet). I need to go back and glue a lot of this stuff, but that shouldn't take long. In Rock Island, the main was ballasted, but not the siding. Marcus decided to add some cinders to the sides of the roadbed coming up the grade by Franklin Farms. He stated back in the day, those steam engines were workin' hard pulling upgrade from the Rock River basin. When I applied the ballast and spread it out, some of those cinders worked there way into the ballast. The results were outstanding! Great idea Marcus! Marcus had his creative juices flowing today!
So, without further ado, here are photos of today's progress.
The scene before.
And now, after...
My absolute favorite!
I scratchbuilt (first ever) this barn last year. It's my pride and joy!
Tonight's progress after the ballast was laid through the area.
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