A Wooded Slope

We needed a source of wood for our pulpwood trucks, and a "scene" of some sort to fill one more corner of the layout, so how 'bout a wooded slope?  The lay of the land is not mountainous, but a little hill here and there will keep it from being totally "table-top"!  This is not intended to be a "how-to" post, but just steps taken to provide another perspective for some common scenicky processes.

Early on, two pieces of 1/4" birch plywood were cut in a rough, "hilly" form for the far right corner.  In fact, they can be seen in an earlier post with the pulpwood truck.  Following that, ~1" wide strips of cardboard were cut and woven into a hillside.  Hot glue was the primary adhesive, but staples were used in a couple of places, especially when a strip needed to be cut in the middle to adjust its length:

Then dryer sheets ("exhausted"?!) were dipped in Hydrocal and draped over the woven hillside.  The sheets were "laid up" first to see how they would fit -- AND the rails were coverd with masking tape and newspaper for protection.  Although several methods with Hydrocal recommended using gloves to keep from drying out your hands, that didn't seem to be a problem. . . .

A darker "dirt" paint was used to cover the Hydrocal and would be used to mix for "ground" later.

Lou Sassi's "ground goop" recipe (see, for example, Kalmbach's "Basic Scenery for Model Railroaders") was followed to cover the hillside and give a bit of texture to the slope.  This is roughly the recipe used:  one cup each of vermiculite, Celluclay, and paint; and one-half cup of white glue.  If you decide to use the Lysol, you pour in one cap full.  I forgot the Lysol although I had it ready to go.  This seemed to be a combination of playing with mud and frosting a cake!  The texture was not real strong, maybe too much frosting and not enough mud. . . .

Next was an application of varied fine ground foam; at least a couple of different "shades".  Since this is a hillside with trees (at some point), having a bit of the ground showing through seemed to be appropriate.  The ground foam was adhered with extra hold hair spray applied after the foam.



We're looking forward to some undergrowth, the Southern Yellow Pines, and maybe a little Kudzu growing up the bank!