More Woodyard Scenicking

So, I couldn't let the granddaughters outdo me with work on the railroad, so I took a few moments to add scenicking touches to the pulpwood yard.  Seems most of my scenicking material comes from Woodland Scenics, and it seems I use a lot of different materials -- I'm sure WS is happy.

I jumped right on putting grass around the woodyard shed.  50/50 white glue and water was brushed around the shed and the "special blend" of turf used on one of the mill village yards was sprinkled on the glue.  Some earth fine turf was sprinkled from the doorway of the shed toward the yard -- supposedly, suggesting a footpath that had been worn in the grass.

Then I attacked the ballast, although according to the prototype photos that we established as our goal, much of the ballast will be covered with pulpwood debris.  Cody Grivno, Model Railroader, is my hero for ballasting, and I followed his approach, somewhat.  First, some fine buff ballast (from WS, of course) was sprinkled along the spur line.  Then some isopropyl alcohol/water was dribbled from a squeeze bottle onto the ballast.  Finally, a 50/50 mix of white glue and water was dribbled over the ballast.  Not exactly a Grivno job, but close.

In no particular order (because I cannot remember for sure), the following efforts were attempted:

• 50/50 brushed on area toward the far end of the yard with green polyfiber stretched over the glue.  Then some medium green coarse turf followed by a little earth blend blended turf for "highlights".  The highlights were "fixed" with Tresemme Extra Firm hairspray!  Later, some short sprigs of dried caspia were added with WS's accent glue.  Also, a few medium green bushes were dipped in 50/50 and placed on the polyfiber.
• 50/50 was brushed and dribbled over much of the remaining area, especially near the crane; then a little isopropyl/water was sprayed in hopes of breaking some of the surface tension of the 50/50 -- it worked, a little.  Following that, some well chopped floral "moss" was sprinkled to resemble wood debris.  The same was added along the spur, just about covering the ties and ballast over much of the line.
• The caspia seemed to work well for weeds, so some light green field grass from WS was tried in hopes of representing broom straw.  The accent glue was dabbed on the bottom of a "tuft" of field grass, but then the field grass seemed more interested in sticking to fingers than to the ground goop?  We'll see what the final results look like when the glue dries before maybe trying some more.
• I do remember that the last effort was to put a few little weeds growing up inside the track.  This was a little more medium green coarse turf with 50/50 to hold it in place.  I had purchased a set of tweezers at some point and one pair had broadened, flat jaws.  That seemed to work well for small pinches of turf.

Debris and broomstraw

Caspia and other weeds

Better focus on whole yard

View of loading pulpwood rack

We still need a bit more work -- more weeds, more broomstraw (maybe), and a mud puddle or two.  Maybe the granddaughters will come back up and help. . . .,

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!!