have different textures. I make my own ground cover out of an old
foammattress which I grind up with a manual meat grinder. I then
dye the ground foamwith clothing dye and highlight the terrain
with Woodland Scenics material.
Gustav:
Your scenery is superb and the backdrop is absolutely
remarkable. Both are colorful, vivid and imposing. In fact, the
backdrop doesn't necessarily assume a supportive role to the
trains. In some scenes the scenery and backdrop rival the trains
themselves.
Jim:
Guilty as charged. The backdrop was painted by my wife who
I mentioned is an artist. She actually painted the backdrop before
I built the layout. I initially painted a blue sky on the wall behind
13: Close-up of the Glasstetter coal yard. Glenn, the
driver, heads for his loaded truck.
13
where the layout was going
to be and feathered in some
white clouds using the wet
paint technique but I wasn't
thrilled with the results.
So I proceeded to paste up
some photographs we had
taken during our vacations
and asked Pat if she'd be
willing to paint in the back-
drop from the photographs.
I had intended to include
some higher elevations on
the layout but when I saw
the beautiful mountains,
valleys, and alpine fields she
had painted, I couldn't bring
myself to cover any of it
with foreground terrain.
I did blend in some city
scenes using commercial
backdrops, adding single
structures, like hotels, etc.
using pictures I cut out of
magazines. I placed these
on the backdrop in locations where the small size of the pictures
suggests distance and enhances the perceived depth of the back-
drop scenes.
I discovered that if you use an X-Acto knife to cut out the top of
the building, but tear out the bottom of the picture, the ragged
lower edge lets you feather the picture into the landscape with a
bit of paint very nicely and then the sharp outline at the top gives
the picture a bit of a three- dimensional aspect.
14: The eastbound Fast
Mail, led by GN FT A&B
459 will be picking up many
happy passengers at San
Pablo, California, today.
14
Jim Ferguson’s GN - 9
MRH-Oct 2013
