Hello all...
in posting the pics from the 'Santa Fe' room layout, I intentionally omitted the bits about the building of the 'test' mesa/butte...
I had laminated some scrap pieces of layout foam together and started forming a butte, in the style of New Mexico topography that I had originall decided to use as a central scenic divider for this particular layout...the idea being to use a large one as a view divider rather than using a backdrop.
I originally wanted to replicate the formations seen throughout the regions of New Mexico North and West of Dalies...I've travelled this area so many times, in railfan and vacation trips, and I've always found it a rockhound's paradise, as well as being completely different from the topography I knew as a child (the flat bayou and swamp wetlands of coastal Louisiana)
I wanted to use this test piece as a tutorial for myself, to make sure I could replicate the scenery I wanted...using hotwire tools, knives, and rasps.
I also figured I could use the completed form as a photo prop (although, in retrospect, I should have created a tangent piece for this purpose)...still, the test piece has served it's purpose, both as an excercise if feasibility and a prop that allows me to visualize future scenes on the door layout, simply by moving it around the layout to give me some perspectives on planned heights and depths of the new 'Kingman Canyon' style scenery that will now frame the layout's locale.
Here you can see how I've been using it as a 'scenery' prop to help me establish the final scenery by placing it a various locations within the trackage...
With the change to a Kingman Canyon style trackplan, I'm afraid it's outlived it's usefulness, but it was great fun to build, and really helped me hone my foam scenery skill to the point where I now feel I can replicate the scnery I want for the layout!
thanks for looking,
Bruce
