Nowhere Road...

The last major accomplishment I detailed was the addition of a lighting valence.

Which left the layout looking like this:

Layout circa November 2021

To fill the foreground space, I planned a poorly maintained dirt road leading to the (under construction) clubhouse at the top of Outhouse Hill.

I had no idea how to make a good looking dirt road. You'd think it is simple - glue real dirt onto scenery. But like everything else, dirt comes in various shades and well, you know, I want a certain mise en scene.

So like everyone else, I watched YouTube videos and came up with my plan.

First, road bed cork - the kind used for track (I'll explain the new gully later).

...and glued it down while pinning it in place.

Then, real-mise en scene like, I used an exacto knife to cut divots in the cork to simulate ruts and low points.

Then I added some Flex Paste (sort of pre-mixed plaster) to give additional texture to the road and the surrounding scenery.

And painted, eliminating the last of the bare pink on the layout (excluding the new gully).

The road, at this point, is hardly anything to write home about...but wait!