Next Step with Woodyard

With the granddaughters arriving after Christmas, Granddad made plans for more work on the pulpwood yard.  The goal would be to represent a woodyard in the Southeast, maybe like this:

Yard shed, tracks almost obliterated, a little grass, lots of weeds, and a few ruts will add realism.

Next, a plan for the area:

To save time and ground goop, let's install a layer of cork along the woodyard spur.  So, a pattern needs to be cut:

Just laid a few sheets of paper taped together over the tracks and used a pencil to sketch the edges of the roadbed.  Then cut cork to template and glue with white glue:

An extra sliver of cork for the Cotton Mill side of the spur and a few "weights" to hold the cork in place for the glue to dry, and we're ready for the Granddaughters.

Back to the standard ground goop formula to mix the ingredients with the new tools, containers, and measuring devices gifted for Christmas from the Granddaughters:

And before spreading the goop, a few lengths of tape on the rails for protection as recommended by Granddaughter #1:

And now for the fun.  With the cork already in place, a relatively thin layer of goop was all that was needed.

A few ruts from the pulpwood trucks (using the open end of a wooden clothespin dragged lightly through the goop), placement of yard shed, woodpile, a few extra sticks of pulpwood scattered around, the crane and pulpwood truck and the scene is close to finished.  A pulpwood rail bumper and a few woodsman tools (ax, peavey, and cant hook by the woodshed toolbox) were installed, and weeds, grass, bushes, and debris will be needed, yet.

It's great to have the granddaughters to help -- although they may be doing this just to be nice to Granddad, their effort gets Granddad moving!

A Little Hedging

As recommended by the granddaughters, I "planted" a hedge around the middle mill house where the older couple live.  They have time to work in the yard, so their home looks a bit better than the neighbors'.  The girls also suggested a gate through the hedge to the family with young children.  I was coming back from a volleyball game in Charleston so I stopped by their favorite model train shop, Brookland, in West Columbia/Cayce.  They had plenty of white picket fence with gates.  So, a hole was left in the hedge to install the gate:

Lots of picket fence was left, so the front yard got the fence, too.  Probably need to put up those window boxes next. . . .

If you're at a model train shop, you can't just get one thing!  So, the Doctors' Office got a two-tone blue 1955 Ford.  Nothing fancy, just an ole Ford. . ..

Hurricane Matthew Provides Unexpected Dividends

To escape the potential hazards of Hurricane Matthew in Charleston, the granddaughters came to the upstate to visit family -- stopped by for lunch and some entertainment at the train layout.  We didn't have much time but we were able to get the yard in for the family on Mill Hill with a number of youngsters as well as the Greasers, I mean MILLners, on the far side.

We started by painting the yard with Woodlands Scenic glue then used a combination of green and "burnt" grass to show that in September the family with kids have a nice, but not manicured lawn.  A second "commercial" tree was used for the tire swing and installed just inside the yard.

The MILLners needed a few tufts of grass and maybe a little sand around the yard.  The sand grains are a little large, so some more work is needed there.

The girls also suggested a hedge around the older couple's house in the middle with a gate near the back.  So, now we need to find a gate!  Maybe a window box for the house?  Of course, the clothes line needs to be replaced for the younger couple at the far side of this last photo.

 And we'll put some woodland debris under the trees and some grown up weeds between the gravel drive and the blacktop road.  Always plenty to do on the layout.  I wonder how long the grands will need to stay away from Charleston?!

More Local "Flavor"

The granddaughters visited again for a belated birthday get-together.  They like to think of what would go with the "theme" of the train layout.  I understand from the parents that they took quite a while deciding what would be best at the hobby store in Columbia, SC -- a nice stop for ice cream and model train birthday present shopping on the way from Charleston.

They did well!  We decided the Queen City Trailways bus was better at the train station to pick up local passengers than the REA Express truck (don't know where to put the truck, now, but maybe it will make a delivery somewhere!).

That works, and the Queen City -- Charlotte, NC -- is only 20 minutes up the road from us.  Notice, also, that the bus is headed to Raleigh, NC, where Great Granddad, Granddad, AND Dad attended college!  Not so sure Rock Hill, SC, was ever on the bus schedule, but it could have been. . .

Also placed a cereal truck to unload at the Company Store.  The Rice Krispies gnomes were first painted by a local artist, Vernon Grant, so there's another good fit.  These young ladies are catching on well!

We had to move the milk truck around to the other side, which may require shifting the Company Store over to give Bossman's Lincoln room to park.  No big deal.

Planting a Few Hardwoods

So, after "constructing" experimental trees by various and sundry means, I decided to plant a few on Mill Hill.  I was suspecting that I would need a number more, but it doesn't look like it now.  Maybe one or two conifers. . . .

The tree at the far left is the "wire" tree -- a bit larger than I had imagined but it looks pretty good.  The other trees were mostly from "weeds" and one is so lopsided it needed clothespins to hold it up until the glue dried.  I just hope it will stand without the clothespins at some point!

Maybe the tree lying across the road at the left and the conifers in the upper right of the photo will be enough to complete the Mill Hill forest.  And, of course, some debris under the trees is needed.  Gotta save something for the grandchildren to add!

Another Attempt at a Tree

Several Internet discussions for making trees -- for model railroads, dioramas, wargames, etc.-- suggest using wire for the tree trunk and branches. So, here's a try!

I started with stranded electrical cord and stripped the insulation from a foot or so.  Three "wires" were used and wrapped around a plastic straw with a small paintbrush handle inside to keep it from collapsing.  Then the brush was removed.

Then I began to separate the strands down to about three as the smallest number; and twisted them together.  The limbs seemed a bit long, so I cut the length down to what seemed reasonable.  The goal was an old oak tree that had grown alone and spread out pretty well.  A few strands were twisted at the bottom for roots, potentially.

I mixed the usual gray and maple brown artist's paints together and tried to slather onto the trunk to fill the depressions between the wires.  That took several iterations and it's still not totally satisfying.  I tried some of the same paint on the branches but gave up and sprayed with a flat black paint.

Most of the Internet instruction used poly fiber of some sort; I used Woodland Scenics green fiber and pulled out relatively thin pieces.  These were stuck to white glue applied to the branches with a stiff paint brush.

Thereafter, I applied liberal amounts of "hard to hold" hair spray followed by sprinklings of WS fine green turf, then coarse green turf, then a light sprinkling of fine burnt green turf.

For a spreading oak tree, it might have potential:

I think I might go back to the sisal rope and twisted floral wire for most of the rest of the trees -- pine trees!!

Flora of Mill Hill

So, the center house is supposedly the best-kept with older couple having time to do some lawn and garden work.  Addressed the lawn first with white glue painted on the yard area and fine earth colored turf from Woodland Scenics:

Then sprayed some extra control hair spray and sprinkled with WS green fine turf; finished with another spritz of hair spray.  If nothing else, the layout got a fairly pleasant aroma!

With plans for a wooded area behind the houses, a few trial trees were thrown together.  Some branches from decorations from Michael's wrapped with brown florist's tape, sprayed with medium green paint and dusted with WS green ground foam:

Used some acrylic gray and maple paint on trunk, but will likely go back and cover better.  Foliage is a little sparse. . . .

Then tried something from Internet suggesting use of grape vine for "arbor" wrapped with florist's tape.  In this case, used WS clump foliage and white glue for leaves.

Clump foliage didn't seem to want to stick real well and grape vine was a bit whop-sided.

Last try was grape vine with most of the individual stems (one per grape) removed.  Applied white glue to stems in this case (dipped clump foliage in glue for previous tree) and added reindeer moss:

The second tree was a bit "green" so out came the hair spray and some WS fine burnt grass; the last tree was a bit pale so hair spray and WS fine green grass.  These will definitely be forest trees and not be planted as landscape items.  BUT, it's a start.  Maybe I'll keep looking for the perfect arbor -- but I was trying to avoid buying any!

American Graffiti Mill Hill Style

So, the granddaughters decided that the first house on the mill hill is owned by one of our Greasers' dad.  Seemed like it needed a little more to justify the hedge put up by those in the blue house next door.  Woodland Scenics to the rescue!  A couple more junk cars were added plus a rustier pick em up truck, a Model A frame with seats, and a couple of wheels in the back of the pickup.  Problem is, the best I can come up with for the truck is that it's a 1955 Chevy Cameo -- pretty nice ride in its day!  Since the date of the layout is supposed to be September, 1956, how in the world did that truck get is such bad condition?  Oh well, it is representative, right?

I guess that's Uncle Millner leaning against the house while Pops has just arrived in the truck.  Oh, and you guessed it, the Greaser over at Ebenezer Grill with the yellow Deuce Coupe has to be the character from American Graffiti with one letter added to his last name -- John MILLner.

OK, so nothing is glued down except the little 1953 Chevy scene picked up at a RR modelers' swap meet.  We'll do a little work on grass, bushes, and trees before everything is finally set in place.

Ground Goop and Families for the Mill Village

Always good to have grands visit, including the opportunity to have some fun with the layout.  We had two granddaughters visiting again and they responded well to the challenge of more Lou Sassi ground goop for scenes on the layout.  They seemed pleased with the results of the tobacco farm, so we picked the mill hill as the next scene.  My son was in the habit of calling the Styrofoam insulation we used to make a "hill" strawberry ice cream, so we really did need to do something.  This time we even had help from the DIL.

Granddaughter #1 was a little concerned with Granddaughter #2 using power sander to adjust the pink ice cream!

But there was little problem applying the goop.

Mom was a strong contributor, too!

We let the goop sit overnight after I added a little gravel for the drive up to the mill village.  Then we had to come up with the story behind the houses.  We had placed the "scene" of junked car in the goop, so it only seemed right that the closest house was owned by the father of one of the greasers -- haven't decided whether the kid drives the black '55 or the deuce coupe.  But we're pretty sure he's a high school dropout.  His dad is single and works at the textile mile.

We looked at the far house next and wanted to put up the close line.  The girls inspected what was on the line and determined the family consisted of father, mother, and two daughters.  We'll add some outdoor activities for them.  Maybe even tie a tire swing to a local tree WHEN we plant the tree.  Dad, of course, is at the mill; Mom is a nurse at the local Doctors' Office.

Then we had the middle house to worry about.  A slightly older couple lives here.  They worked hard to raise their children and saved as much as they could.  Their young folks are at college in hopes of a better life.  Now that they are empty-nesters, the couple have time to keep their lawn looking nice, feed a dog, and plant some flowers.  They are NOT pleased with the next door neighbor and have installed a hedge a few years back

Well, the hedge and lawn and flowers and tree swing need to be installed permanently, and a good bit more work is still needed. . . .

The Doctors' Office

As recommended by a granddaughter and mentioned in the back story, the layout needed a clinic or doctor's office to meet the needs of the locals who took advantage of farmer Nick O'Tean's cash crop, tobacco.  Some progress was made over Mother's Day weekend, but this Clever Bros' kit was a bit more complex that others (and was just now completed).  Here's the start:

This is actually the photographer's studio, but it had the look of a small house that might have been converted to a doctor's office in the late 1940's to early 1950's.  The studio includes a large windowed dormer.  I couldn't see a use for that for the medical profession, so that was not installed.

The Clever Bros were VERY concerned that this structure have internal bracing.  Rather than just use cardstock, I decided to try my hand at foamcore backing.  That created a number of complications that I didn't do a good job of foreseeing -- like glue tab placement, interference from two pieces of foamcore when walls were folded together, etc.  Still, I think what I got will stand up pretty well:

Note that the front door has a "glass" installed to allow view into the interior.  This occurred primarily because the door blind had "Artistic Photography" printed on it so I cut the blind short and installed the window from a piece of bubble pack.  The Bros had included an alternative front wall without "Artistic Photography" printed on the wall, itself, but they left the blind as it was. . . .

With a window through the door, an interior needed to be installed.  I looked through other Clever Bros kits I had and found something that I could make work in the Hobby Shop.  Now, what good is an interior if you cannot light it up.  So, my first stab at installing a light emerged.  Just one complication after another.  Hope this will work out on the layout:

The "room" doesn't exactly fit the rest of the floor plan, but with the roof on, who will know?

Adding exterior trim and gingerbread proved to me that I need another glue or more skills.  I have been using Elmer's white glue (softens the cardstock too much) and CA (dries before parts get positioned and seems to get smeared easily).  Maybe more skill at cutting out would be good, also.  How in the world someone would build an N scale model is beyond me.

Once again, from an appropriate distance, the finished model looks OK.  Although it is not easy to read, I had to come up with two doctors' names since I could not conjure up a single name to reflect the ills of the community.  Notice, also, the "veneer" door that the Bros came up with.  By gluing the door to the steps, you could position the rear door anywhere you wanted.  I'll probably go with the side entrance. . . .

Kudzu -- the Plant

OK, what would be more natural than a hillside covered with Kudzu -- the plant, not the comic strip -- along a blacktop road out in the country of South Carolina in 1956?  Well, we have just the hillside although it's along the railway right of way, not the highway.

A couple of modelers had suggested using Woodland Scenics poly fiber for the Kudzu vine.  I was in Hobby Lobby this weekend and decided to check on their poly fiber supply.  They had some, so the next step was trying it out.  I vaguely recalled suggestions for leaves and had Lipton tea bags (oops, I had the cheap stuff, Harris Teeter) and parsley flakes on hand.  First, I spread out the poly fiber, then wet the fiber with hair spray.  Following that, I dusted the fiber with tea followed by parsley flakes and sprayed more hairspray.

The tea, on the far left, was pretty dark while the parsley flakes were basically green.  Tea seemed too small for leaves, flakes too large!  With the darkness of the tea, spraying with green paint looked to be needed.  I used some Krylon Italian Olive Satin, not because I thought that was the color of Kudzu, but because that was what I had on hand.  While the paint was still sticky, I added some more flakes for coverage.  Then I used some Design Masters Prairie Grass spray paint for highlights -- didn't I remember somebody somewhere recommending highlights to make it look more realistic?  Don't know that I agree.  Maybe my problem was that the paint started sticking the individual flakes together, and they were already too big. . . .

So, the shop was beginning to smell like someone was cooking in a beauty salon with all the products I was using:

To glue to the hillside, I painted and dribbled (dribbling worked better) Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement over the area of interest.  The web of poly fiber stuck well to the hillside, but I took the opportunity to add a little more Scenic Cement to the edges and flatten them down a bit.  One of the Kudzu modelers had commented that he could have done a better job of blending the Kudzu into the rest of the scene.  I think sticking the edges down will help.  From a distance, you can get the idea of the vine covering the hillside over the summer.

I may go back when it all dries and try to separate some of the parsley flakes or even break some flakes up a bit and shake over the existing vine.  I did add a little bush for contrast, but I'm afraid it might look a little alien -- by the time Kudzu covered the hill, it would have swallowed the little bush, too.  

Looks like I should add a little more growth to the hillside to give it more of a 3D look.  That's for another day.