mountain in tight space

[csxengineer]

I have finished with the styrofoam, plastercloth, and sculptamold for the terrain, and painted it with a tan latex base. Of course the rock face will be painted, but which style of trees should I use for this tight space? In the pics, only 3 of the 4 yard tracks are laid (4th after scenery is complete, since it is closest to mountain). I used 3/4" thick styrofoam for the mountain between the hardboard backdrop and yard. There is about a 1/2" clereance between the track and the mountain, so unless I remove it, my only option is to paint it the same color green as the trees.

The two types of forests I could make is either the clump folaige type or the poly fiber forrest. What do you think? ANY ANY Advice is appreciated.

 

[csxengineer]

here's what I want..

This is my goal for the background forrest mountain.

 

[TrainNut]

I like the Woodland Scenics premade trees.... the ones that come 33 to a package. They are not too badly priced but well worth saving me the hassle of trying to make my own. They come in three different sizes and the smaller ones will fit in virtually any space. I also like the bags of lichen as you can take the taller pieces and take a pair of scissors to trim the bottoms flat (and trim off the garbage you don't need) so that they can easily be glued down. Something you also could do that I have never done is to fill that space with pine trees as they are tall and narrow with some sort of a green backdrop applied with a mottled sponge to blend them in so they don't stand out so much. Mountain looks good so far. it will really come to life once you paint the large rocks and add some talus slopes/smaller rocks/debris etc.

 

[UP SD40-2]

csxengineer, looking GREAT! so far:thumb: :thumb:. i have seen BOTH forest types done on several layouts. i think the clump foliage forest would look the best. i have done clump foliage forests and have had real good luck with them:thumb:...just my thoughts. whatever you end up doing, please post pics of your progress. -Deano

 

[TrainNut]

Ooops. Sorry, I posted my first response while you were still trying to post pictures. In the fourth picture, if that is what you want, I would suggest buying bags of clump foliage in multiple colors (light green, medium green, and dark green with some possible autumn colors thrown in for variation) and just covering the side of the hillside. I believe it will give you much the same effect.

 

[Herc Driver]

I'm more wondering this out loud rather than offering sage advice and those with a better understanding of "depth of field" and "forced perspective" help me here...What about larger trees in the front and transitioning to smaller as you go up the hill to give a sense of distance and height? Could you also lighten the base color as you go up the hill too? Would that make a difference in how that mountain was "viewed" over the entire layout as you blend it into your background? Me...I'd use the Woodland pre-made trees in the second row of trees and higher and look around the yard (or Michael's) for twigs that look good as trees for right near the tracks. I'd bet people who will view your layout will follow the train around and whatever is in their field of vision next to the train would be what I would target for the most realism. Overall, really great work! I envy that mountain...wish I had one like that.

 

[Chessie6459]

Looking Good csxengineer:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[MasonJar]

You can use the forced perspective a bit as Herc suggested. As you get further back, all you need is tops of the trees - polyfibre puffs coated with ground foam, and anchored to the slope with toothpick "trunks" would look fine.

There are a couple of threads about trees on steep slopes here somewhere - try maybe The Academy (link in my signature).

Andrew

 

[wickman]

Wow thats one nice mountain . I use the woodland scenic armatures with the clump to make my trees

 

[csxengineer]

went with clump folaige

I went with clump folaige on top of a bed of flat polyfiber that I tore up from previous layouts. I even used old polyfiber ball trees squished down to give it some texture. I sprayed adhesive (with a mask on) all over and pressed loose foliage on it. Tomorrow I will spray with hair spray. For the rocks, I painted everything with white primer I had left over from painting our basement shower. Then while everything was still wet, I dipped my foam brush in a little bit of water and in different weathering chalks and paintied the rocks. I use about 6 different colors from brown to rust to grey and black. Later I will spray a black wash. As for the right side, I am not sure if I should chop it off or attempt to scenic it since it is so close to the tracks and noticably vertical. I just left it for now. Any suggestions? Oh, I will put small WS trees in the lower part of the mountain as suggested for forced perspective, thanks.

Oh, random pic of other side of layout with CSX dummy tracks at port perry and the omnious garage door in the background

 

[MasonJar]

I would put some trees on the right side, even though it is nearly vertical. You did a great job on the current forest!

Try a bit of dry-brushing on the rock faces too - sometimes repeated washes start to look a bit "muddy".

When you say:

Oh, I will put small WS trees in the lower part of the mountain as suggested for forced perspective, thanks.

do you mean the space below the tracks?

Perspective means that stuff gets smaller the further away it is. Forced perspective means you use stuff that is even smaller than it should be to make it look further away. For example, using an Nscale barn at the back of an HO layout makes the viewer think it is really far away.

Putting smaller trees in the foreground or "middleground" will not help with the illusion, especially if they are in front of those tracks. The train passing behind them will spoil the illusion, because then there will be something to compare the size of the trees with.

Andrew

 

[wickman]

That looks good I have the woodland scenic scenery cd and everytime they put down some ground cover they would then add some burnt grass. I did this on my last layout and it really toned down the brightness

 

[Papa Bear]

That looks good, CSX. I like the clump foliage and am using it on my current layout.

 

[Chessie6459]

Looking Real Good.:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[MilesWestern]

About toning it down, I suppose you could, to create distance, but the hill matches the color of the one in the photo of the yard.