Boy I'm bad at keeping up with social media these days. It's been three whole months since my last layout update. I suppose I should finally fix that. After all, now that school is back in session and chugging along, I have a lot more time to get some genuine work done!
So I'm still focusing on structures for the most part in this update. However first I'd like to acknowledge the work that has been done on the scenery side of things. At least, the scenery that is directly attached to the bench work...
The leap from structural and foam work to ground cover and detail is admittedly a scary one to make for me. But it's time to buckle down and get it started, and it's time to begin plaster work in earnest.
Starting at the back corner and working forward, I plan to begin laying ground cover down in the near future. This is of course to make working on the hard to reach back edge easier so I'm not leaning over finished details at the front. It also gives me room to practice and get some experience before doing some highly visible areas.
Now onto the structures, first with a revisit to the green hillside house. I am proud to say that after 14 years of waiting, it can finally be declared finished! It has been lighted, weathered and attached to it's base, with figurines added for good measure! For those new to my layout, it is inhabited by animal characters, so don't mind the clearly non-humans roaming around
Next up is a new addition to the narrative in the form of a birthday gift from my lovely wife. This is a Woodland Scenics train station kit, and will be part of the railroad museum scene located in the hills of Fox Creek. The kit has been modified by me to include working light poles, interior lighting, and a wall lamp, but it otherwise stays true to the original instruction sheet. While not a direct match, my wife suggested we style the station after East Union station at the Illinois Railway Museum and she even mixed the paint colors for me!
Now, it has dawned on me that maintenance on a layout like this needs to be planned well in advanced, especially since I intend on moving with this layout one day, so going forward, the plan is to make scenes modular and easily removable to make cleaning, maintenance and moving easier. It also allows for easier upgrading and reworking sections if desired. The green hillside house will be hard to adapt for, but with the railroad museum scene onward, and even the apartment buildings already completed will be displayed on removable scenery "tiles" that will be easily removable from the layout itself. Which brings us to the final item of this long update... In the next post!