CN Yellowhead Division

[Tad_T]

Nicely done!

If the river is running back to front, you should consider placing a few of your driftwood pieces against the base of that piling.

[Bendtracker1]

Your scene is looking real nice Scott!

[James Costello]

Wow! Looks great Scott!

[basementcalling]

Prepared hundreds of spruce and birch trees, along with saplings and small bushes.  The Snake Indian River scene is pretty much done now and I'll be getting the trains out to run for the first time in 6 months and continue to finish the vegetation for the rest of the layout with backdrop- about 4' more.

Scott, which will be the primary viewing angle when operating the layout? The top and bottom photos look amazing, but that middle one leaves the forced perspective narrowing of the back of the river viewable.  It's an amazing scene any way you look at it. I don't think I've ever seen anyone include a detailed scrub flood plain in a river scene before.

[keeper]

Stunning!

[Scottl]

Thanks everyone! 

@Tad_T, good point, I need to add driftwood to the upstream side of that pier.  When you look at these mountain rivers they are often choked with woody deadfall and driftwood. 

@basementcalling, you are  right that the middle picture is the viewing angle and the river is quite dramatically narrowed and curved to try and hide how it flows out of the backdrop.  Not much room to work with but the trees help to mask the effort, but in the end, there are few ways to deal with the issue in such a narrow scene (about 16").  The floodplain is prototypical and is a neat part of the scene.  I'm modeling spring (late April-early May) so the leaves are all bright green and the rivers relatively low and clear. 

[NorthWestGN]

Looks great Scott, from any angle …

Brent

[chessie system fan]

Can you elaborate on how you made all of the evergreen trees?

[Scottl]

For the conifer trees, I used the methods outlined by Grant Eastman in his video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZjo041fz1Q.  They are basically bottle brush forms made from wire and sisal fibers that are spun and then trimmed and flocked.  I modified his methods in a few minor ways to make use of materials and tools I had on hand.  He used WS Burnt Grass and Earth turf flocking, which are interesting colors to use.  They look good in his videos and photos as well as in person, but are not green enough for my tastes.  The trees on my prototype are mostly Lodgepole Pine and White Spruce and I eventually ended up using Scenic Express Burnt Green foam after a lot of trial and error.

I make trees with 2, 3 and 4" wire forms, giving me a maximum height (after planting) of about 40'.  Most of my trees are 3"/~33' or shorter.  It takes me about 3 minutes per tree and I can do most of the work sitting in front of the television.  I do the messy parts (trim, paint and flock) outside.  Based on costs, it is <10 cents per tree and size does not materially affect the cost or amount of time to make them.

[chessie system fan]

Thanks!   

[Scottl]

Over the past week I have made about 250 conifer trees.  They go suprisingly fast once you get the hang of it.

I am pretty much done with the Devona and Snake Indian River scenes.  More trains are running the line now.  I'm struggling with the cell phone saturation and focus.  It is a newer phone but does not focus as well and gives everything a rather garish tone.

[NorthWestGN]

Nice!!

[James Costello]

Yep - I put this up there with Tom Danneman and one of those "why N Scale" scenes. Great stuff Scott, must be nice to see trains run through that too.

[shark_jj]

Beautiful scene Scott, it came together very well.  Loved your comment about trees, in N scale it seems to take forever to fill a scene with trees.  I have about 100 waiting to be planted and many more are needed. 

[Scottl]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate it.  Yes, @shark_jj, trees are my nemesis!

I decided I needed to get my images in focus and had some success with https://focusstackingonline.com/.  Here are a few views with some focus stacking.