Chesapeake and Ohio in Central Virginia

[Caleb Austin]

Hmm, I've been neglecting this thread. I'll do a run own of layout progress over the last few months.

First up is ground cover. This was my first time using a proper static grass applicator. In the past I would just pinch bunches of grass into full strength glue and vacuum off the excess. I worked alright, but I built an applicator out of one of those harbor freight bug zappers, and its a huge improvement, though I am still getting the hang of the thing.

I'm using a mix of Woodland Scenics light green, Silflor 4mm autumn and Silflor 4mm Summer green statics grasses.


Just the static grass layer.


Now with fine and coarse turf applied.




Then finally patches of poly fiber with ground foal and leaf flake undergrowth and Super tree bits. Increasing the underbrush closer to the forest line.

Next up is trees.

[Caleb Austin]

The trees are Super Trees, spray painted dark brownish grey, with a few different foliage materials. WS medium green coarse turf is the most used. Its a good summer green color and does a good job of filling out the branches. I also use burnt grass fine turf to add a bit of color variation. I also use scenic Express Super leaf flake, both by itself and layered on top of the coarse turfs. The leaves are ground down in a blender to make them closer to scale size for N scale. They add a nice shiny texture to the trees.










Leaf scale difference.

[Caleb Austin]

Finally, here is an over all photo of the layout in its current state.



Thanks for looking!

Caleb.

[svedblen]

Caleb, that looks really great!

[SSW7771]

Looks great! This has helped me plan out how I will do my little wooded spot on my layout. Pretty sure my results will not be as good yours, but it will be a start. 

[Caleb Austin]

Thanks guys!

I managed to start making some sycamore trees over the weekend. I build these and other foreground trees out of Woodland Scenic plastic armatures with super tree bits CA glued to them. I'm modeling September, which is just when the Sycamores start to turn yellow in this region. I'll be making a bunch more of these to line the creek.











Thanks for looking,

Caleb.

[hnipper]

Wow! Just Wow!

[jmarley76]

Heck of a tree! 

[jpec]

Excellent work,  Caleb!

[chuck geiger]

OK trying to figure out how you painted the trunk, the armatures and the leaves?

[Chris333]

I'll take 10. Ring me up.