Newport & Rock Falls: Another Retro Micro-Layout

[Angus Shops]

Hah!  I was thinking the same thing.

Hey DKS, got a minute?  One of those should have an open top painted with green glow paint...   

Or pulsating green LED...

[x600]

Not if you’re @x600 

 

If I finish it, Then it's no longer a house under construction, it's just a house. 

Greg O.

[DKS]

1 March 2021. Busy day today. First, I installed the control tower for the rolling lift bridge.





Then, I went on to create a micro-canyon scene...

For a very long time indeed I've wanted to model a scenic canyon with falls, along the lines of countless scenes that can be found in New Hampshire, Vermont, New York State, and many other areas in the Northeast... something along the lines of this (unknown location and photographer):



My dream was to model at least two square feet of this—which in N Scale is quite a lot. Now I've reached a point in my life when I know this will never happen. But small layouts such as mine all have something in common: awkward corner areas, where the track swings past a space that's difficult to utilize.



On this layout, one corner has a powerhouse (top left); another has houses under construction (bottom left); the third has a station (bottom right). What to do with the fourth? Well, how about some "negative space"? This is a reference to an area with no manmade objects or other evidence of development; it's simply ordinary, often boring scenery—Lance Mindheim, as an example, has been one of a number of modelers to leverage the realism-enhancing effects of negative space:



At first I was just going to make a tree-filled slope. But I had a fair amount of Cripplebush Valley rubber rock left over from prior projects. Why not utilize the space for a "micro-homage" to the rocky canyon scene I'd always wanted to model? (As an aside, being so dramatic, does this even count as "negative space"? The debate continues.) And thus, on 1 March 2021, I decided to do just that. First, I began chopping up bits of dramatic rock faces I'd liked but couldn't use until now...



I allowed the semi-random shapes of the rubber rock pieces do most of the "steering" in terms of the final shape of the scene, which is to say my only plan was to make something dramatic-looking while having no hard plan as to how the outcome might appear. And eventually, over the course of a couple of hours, a fairly dramatic—albeit quite diminutive—canyon began to emerge, complete with a little waterfall (below, center right).



By around five in the afternoon, I'd pretty much gotten everything into shape, and all that remained was to add vegetation and water effects—which would wait until the following day.



Stay tuned for the finishing touches...

[Chris333]

Love the waterfall area!  For some reason last year I went around to a few local waterfalls that involved a bunch of hiking down canyons just like yours.

[wm3798]

I've got just the spot for something like that...




I was just staring at that bit of scene last night contemplating what to do next.
Lee

[DKS]

2 March 2021. Work continued on the canyon micro-scene with greenery. I had some trees and shrubs earmarked for the layout, but in the end I didn't use any of them. Instead I went with good old lichen—can't get more retro than that—and I had a bunch left over from the Fort Hanover project.





In other news, I completed the last kit in my inventory: the foot bridge. I have one more kit to build, but I haven't found one that suits me for the Rock Falls passenger station.



And finally, in the non-photogenic department, I've completed the LED wiring for all but two structures.

[nickelplate759]

2 March 2021. Work continued on the canyon micro-scene with greenery. I had some trees and shrubs earmarked for the layout, but in the end I didn't use any of them. Instead I went with good old lichen—can't get more retro than that—and I had a bunch left over from the Fort Hanover project.





...

this "micro-canyon" idea brings to mind the Flume in Franconia Notch.  Intentional?

[DKS]

this "micro-canyon" idea brings to mind the Flume in Franconia Notch.  Intentional?

No, but I can see it. Been there countless times.

[CRL]

It’s strange how our mind’s eye can subconsciously guide us to use a familiar memory when free form modeling, especially scenery.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

It’s strange how our mind’s eye can subconsciously guide us to use a familiar memory when free form modeling, especially scenery.

It's so true. I don't know how many times I've subconsciously recreated Strasburg.

[Point353]

I have one more kit to build, but I haven't found one that suits me for the Rock Falls passenger station.

Have you considered the Atlas Maywood Station kit?
https://shop.atlasrr.com/p-1110-n-maywood-station-kit-tan-w-brown-trim.aspx

[DKS]

Have you considered the Atlas Maywood Station kit?
https://shop.atlasrr.com/p-1110-n-maywood-station-kit-tan-w-brown-trim.aspx

Maywood is too modern a kit; it would also be the only purely North American structure on the layout, and would thus stick out.

I'm looking for a first-gen (or thereabouts) kit along these lines, but smaller:



I may need to bash something.

[DKS]

Station problem solved. I'd wanted to use Kibri 7408, but it was too big for the space. After quite a lot of online searching, I failed to come up with a better alternative, so I bit the bullet and bashed one, starting with the Kibri kit. I decided to use the single-story half of the building. This would require fabricating a wall where it attached to the two-story part, so the hunt was on for a kit scrap with a substantially similar woodgrain effect. As it happens, the second story floor of a Bachmann Sears House was nearly indistinguishable, and as a bonus it had a hole in it that was a near dead-on match for a smaller window from the main building. So, this became the starting point for my bash:



I cut the Sears House floor to match the other end wall.



After assembly, it was ready for painting.



The brick-sided walls needed to be trimmed down because now the building wouldn't be as long as it was originally.



The little station is ready for the layout.



Now it just needs a simple foundation and some lights.

[DKS]

Continuing from the prior post... I used a chunk of the base from Pola's old brewery, along with stone foundation walls from the Pola freight depot, and steps from some unknown Cornerstone kit.



Added some rough scenic contours made from a few layers of corrugated cardboard.



Then the foundation was painted and promptly installed, and sanded grout applied.



Next: wiring, lighting and installation.

[peteski]

The building looks good, but I'm confused whether this layout depicts European or American locale.  I know you mentioned that many of the buildings have European flavor (but could still exists in USA), but the brick and timber walls (in Polish we call that "Prussian walls"), look uniquely European. 

I have seen contemporary strip malls (Bavarian themed shoppes) which have fake brick and timber walls, but in this case it is an actual utilitarian building, not some shoppe with a fake fascade.