Backdrop practice

 I enjoyed painting the backdrop for the last layout. Chris Lyon's videos on YouTube were super helpful and gave me the courage to give backdrop painting a go. 

This time I wanted to improve the look of my mountains and found some videos about painting mountains with a palette knife. I found a long piece of scrap 3mm MDF and started to paint. I started with just half the board and finished a scene. Then another day I tried to fill in the other side of the board and varying my technique. I found the palette knife technique helpful for giving texture and shape to the mountains. A brush smoothes things out too much. 

The next step will be to upscale and try and translate my learnings onto the larger canvas of the module backdrops. I am aiming for a higher horizon line. This gives the effect of the hills and mountains being closer rather than too distant. I feel a low horizon line makes me feel like I am looking down on the scene from a 'drone point of view'. A high horizon line will give the viewer the impression they are really in the scene looking up a the mountains. After all, I am trying to recreate the feel of mountain railroading and my line is set in the heart of the mountains. 

An aerial view of the practice board as a work in progress. 

The completed scene on the right hand side of the practice board.
I didn't give much thought to composition rules. But the lake would look a little
better if it was slightly more to the left. 

The completed mountains on the left side of the board before adding the foreground. 

The completed scene propped up against the module backdrop. The first attempt at scrubbing in the outline of the mountains on the module can be seen behind it. 

Rock casting part 1

After ballasting the yard I made a start in casting rocks. I needed plenty and use the Woodland Scenics rock moulds. The plaster that I had on hand seemed to do fine when mixed with my ground cover dirt, but the rock castings I made with it had a chalky texture. I wondered if it had been sitting too long. I discovered this after painting and staining the first rock moulds I had fitted to the hillside above the town where a lot of the detail sadly got washed out. They looked quite featureless and dull. I bought some new plaster, which fixed the problem going forward. 

I thought I would have to pull out the failed castings and refit and shape new ones. But before I did that I thought about carving the old castings to see if I could put more detail into them. I hacked and chipped away at the castings using a pick and a craft knife. They didn't look too bad at all, so I decided to leave them in place. This gave me the confidence to try carving rocks on another part of the layout, so it was worth experimenting with. 

The rock castings before blending them together and painting. 

The final result after carving the castings and painting.