Starting to add some character....

Nothing brings a model railroad layout alive like people. And if I want my layout to be interesting, I am planning to add a lot of people everywhere. It will be fun once it is a beehive of activity and there are little fun things to see all over the place. People are what add a story to layouts. So, I've started with these people. There will be many more to come and stories will come with them.

Making the protal look better.....

It doesn't look that great yeat, but it's getting there. First of all, I paint it a light gray, almost cement color. Then I'll touch it up later.

My first building.....

I had to dig out a hole, into my street, to allow the store to sit right on the table, then fill in the cracks with dry wall mud. Hopefully, after a little sanding and some paint, it will be level with the ground of the store.

Also, you can see that I added my little Railroad Crossing painted on the street. I did that with a satalite photo of a street in American Fork with a Railroad Crossing on it. Then I traced the symbol in Illustrator and then scaled it down to size. Not bad for a first attempt 'eh?

Don't like the name of the store, gonna have to come up with one of my own. :)

What we have so far.

Here's what our new house looks like so far. Kind of bland, I know, but we'll have to add some green, a yard, tree's, kids playing, etc.
I picked up a couple little cars from the hobby store to get an idea of scale before moving onto the next step with the roads. Want to make the lanes the right size.

My wife and I, building our first home together.

For a Saturday evening project, my wife, Malinda, helped me build our first home together. It's a little small, but we like it. :)

The portal...

Now it's time to add our entry tunnel portal. Had to build around it a little bit, and right now it's kind of ugly, as a lot of a train layouts look before including the finishing touches. But it will look awesome, hopefully, when it's done.
As you can see, the track, that my dad and I repaired, still needs a little work.

Repairing some damaged track.

My dad brought his solder gun and helped me repair some damaged track and add the two ends together. It was a risky chore, but it turned out well. After adding the solder between the two tracks and where the connectors were, we had to sand them down smooth so that the train cars can glide across easily.

Putting down some asphault.

I used just regular dry wall mud that my dad gave me to lay down the road. Of course, I drew out exactly where I wanted the streets to go before hand. I'm not sure if this will work or not, but we'll find out. When it's dried I will sand it smooth and then paint it.

Some hikers enjoying the view....

Still got a ways to go, but it's starting to get the look that I am striving for. Still kind of bare plane trees, but I'll find something to do with them. Here's a shot of a couple hikers at the top of the mountain enjoying the wonderful view.

How does it look with little people?

So, I'm still making more trees and putting down bushes and ground cover. But my mountain is starting to look impressive. Again, here is a shot with my hiker mom and her son. (Note the baseball diamond in the background that my wife drew to HO scale that I will be putting in later.)

Just a close up of the trees on the hillside.

Additonal color to the surface....

Made a different color of ground cover, blending up foam rubber the same way only this time using brown and red paint. Gave it a nice autumn feel. I also bought some moss cover at a craft store, that made nice little green pastures. Then, after drilling some holes, started putting my trees on the mountains. They are still kind of bare, because I haven't found a way to add texture to them the way that I like. I'll need to make many many more tree's anyway.

Also you can see that I sketched out a layout of the town and where I plan to put things.

Train Play!

Oh, in case you are wondering, here is a documentary that I filmed about the Golden State Model Railroad Museum. It's a really fun film, if you like model trains. My very first commissioned film.

Here is some links with more information on the film, trailer, and where you can order a copy.

http://www.filmbaby.com/films/648/find_legacy_film?a=b&cat=23&products_id=648

http://www.gsmrm.org/train_play/

http://www.melcrow.com/index_files/video/TrainPlay.mp4

Lit'l shrubs here and there....

The ground cover, however, makes fairly nice shrubs and bushes, which I have added to several spots on my mountain side.

Touchup on the trees.....

Okay, so I sprayed the trees with brown spray paint (the same paint I used for the texture on my mountain) and then coverd them in the ground cover that I made giving them this look. I must say, I'm not too terribly impressed. I think the ground cover is too thick and doesn't give the tree the fine look that I was hoping for. So, before I ruin any of my other trees, I think I'm going to have to try something else.