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. . . .