Backdrop by Artist

Wow, what a difference a backdrop makes!  An artist friend volunteered to work on painting a backdrop for the Blacktop Crossing.  This is what it looks like with only the left 1/3 or so nearing completion:

I'll need to work on the tobacco field a little to suggest that it's moving toward the right (into the backdrop) and I've asked if the flowers on top could be made a little more pink.

A few trees from Woodland Scenics have been added from this group:

They seem a bit too green and too "stylized" but only three were added and some fine turf, earth, was sprinkled over the top to dull the green!!

Interesting occurrence with the F-unit was that just past a turnout, the loco would jump the track.  The first thought was the flextrack connector on the outboard side was too high and pushing the wheel up and over.  Used a punch and hammer to bend the connector down.  No help.  Used same punch and hammer to bend the inboard (in relation to the layout edge) down.  Seemed to cure the problem.  Some of the "metalwork" can be seen (top rail is inboard):

Still Working on Ground Goop

Sort of finished up covering ground goop around to the Blacktop Crossing, itself.  Will probably add some broom straw (found the package this afternoon) and maybe a bush or two.  Hope to get some scenicking down around the blacktop between mill and mill hill tomorrow.

Not sure the taping did a lot of good, but maybe it helped keep gunk off of rails.

Used a good bit of fine turf, earth along with a little coarse turf, maybe green; a little lichen but the twigs look funky; some small bushes.  Tried a new brand of pump spray hair spray, but smell is a little obtrusive (applied after ground foam was in place).  Didn't use any static grass; not sure it's actually working like it's supposed to ;). 

Working on the Ground Goop

While the ground goop in the last post wasn't quite the dirt color hoped for, maybe further scenicking will help out.

Diluted white glue followed by a couple of varieties of ground foam and a little polyfiber got things started.  Then a few pulpwood logs that spilled over from the woodyard and two static grass applications later, the area looked better.  More weed tufts and maybe some broom straw will complete this small slice.

Ebenezer Grill gets some "crusher run" although a bit large for the scale (actually medium and fine ballast) preceded by and covered with diluted white glue.

Then replacement of hot rods, cop car, greasers, etc.; flagpole in place and a few flowers/shrubs out front.

Uh oh, looks like somebody's cutting in on the young lady in the pink Caddy!

Wild Hairs

A recommendation from somewhere in the past came to mind to use left-over paint to mix up good base color for a train layout.  So, with "free" paint available at the green boxes/trash collection site, why not give it a try.  Seems one problem is that most of paint was off-white!  Also, on this particular day, there were few choices.  Still, something with raw umber pigment might be a good start although it looked pretty much like tan -- also, a little light green, some gloss black, and a grey of some sort.

The mixture was a lot more grey than earth color, so some red and dark brown from the "house collection" was added to the mix.  Still looked a bit grey, but maybe it would mix up in some ground goop and turn out OK.

Before:

After:

Side note:  used blue tape within outline to see if that would help keep building footprint clear of ground goop; worked pretty well.

Before:

After:

OK, so color appears to be about the same, before AND after!!  But the "ground" now almost meets the level of the blacktop/road.  Maybe that's progress.

Think a dark, "professional" mixed color is better. . . .  Need to be pretty selective with "free" paint.

Interesting that mixed ground goop looked a bit different, as did the paint, itself:

A Request -- Layout Tour

A buddy was interested in the overall progress of the Blacktop Crossing Layout, so here are a couple of photos that might help a little:

While the "protective plastic cover" that had been in use was removed, a better, cleaner, heavier-duty cover was substituted:

Cotton Factory Parking and Stuff

Somewhere someone had used small grit sandpaper for a parking lot or highway.  There just happened to be a couple of sheets of 1500 grit in grey sitting around the shop, so why not try it out.  After cutting the paper to rough size, a parking space template was measured and cut out.  It can be used for 90 degree parking or 60 degree parking.

 The latter seemed appropriate for the Cotton Factory and the cars fit pretty well.

With a little Elmer's glue on the back, the sandpaper was placed on the layout.  Looks pretty good to me.

Granted, a cotton factory would need a LOT more cars to keep running in the prototype, but we're just representing. . . .   Oh, and notice the fire escape and "weathering" on the factory, itself.  Wow!

Took some time to re-glue some of the fence (particularly the top line), add a couple more trees to the backyard forest area (the white glue gives it away for right now), and add some cork to place the last manual turnout switch.  

Will need to come back when glue is dried to add switch as well as some sort of transition from highway to Cotton Factory parking lot.  Manana is soon enough for me.