Building a foreground scene

As mentioned in a previous post, I had imagined in a scene in the left foreground of the layout.

I wanted:

1. Something that was elevated (to distract from the flat track)

2. Something overgrouwd and neglected.

3. No structure to block the trains, but still something of interest.

Step one was to create the blog using the usual foamboard.

And...

As you can see, the blob was in two parts. The first part is an incline leading to a plateau. The second, smaller piece, is flat. I cut the foam in two to make it easy to cut out some foam to install a little scene.

The scene I envisioned was a formerly abandoned lot that someone was constructing a small building on (this will make sense when you see the foundation). There would be an overgrown gravel road/path, long grass and some weeds. The road wasn't perpendicular to the edge, to prevent the right angle effect.

The scenery was applied in layers - starting with dirt, then the gravel and ground foam - eventually creating a solid underlayer prior to applying the grass.

The gravel road was the hard part - I wanted a narrow road, even on both sides, with a slight shoulder before the grass took over.

I then added the grass in a variety of colours. The grass (well stretched into a thin lair) was glued using watery white glue. 

It was slow and steady. Add a layer, let it dry, fill the gaps and add another layer...

Still not done...but close enough to place on the layout for a test fitting.

At this point, I cut out a square for the eventual addition on a concrete foundation for an unbuilt building.

And added texture to the trackside hill to blend it in.

Separately, I began to put together into a "hero tree". A hero tree is a highly detailed tree (particularly the trunk) intended to be placed in the foreground of a scene as a focal.

I took a stock Wood Scenics tree trunk, painted the trunk greyish-brown and, here comes the hard part, took Super Tree branches and laboriously glued them to the trunk, using tweezers and glue, accompanied with swearing.

Was it worth it? Stay tuned for part II...