Basement post - which scenery option looks less bad?

I like the factory version a little better, especially if you can morph the column into part of the factory; at least the lower foot or two.

I like option 2.

Ignor the post. Fact of life with most basement layouts.  Paint it blue and move on.

Bob

@chessiechick posted:

I have a basement support post that must go within the layout. It is enclosed in a 9" square column that I plan to paint sky blue in hopes of blending it into the walls.

I have come up with 2 scenery options for the area around the post, for which I have created crude images  using SCARM, see below.

Option A: warehouse/factory building with a small bumpout that encloses the post. This gives me longer industry spurs.

Option B: Hill with trees. This gives me more room to model the hill sloping down to the creek and the covered bridge.

Personally i think the building will actually draw attention to the post if you cant bring it up a number of stories. Its more detailed oriented vs a hill of trees .  To further "erase" the post, you can paint the bottom (at the hill) green while the upper portion blue as you mentioned. 

@chessiechick posted:

I have a basement support post that must go within the layout. It is enclosed in a 9" square column that I plan to paint sky blue in hopes of blending it into the walls.

I have come up with 2 scenery options for the area around the post, for which I have created crude images  using SCARM, see below.

Option A: warehouse/factory building with a small bumpout that encloses the post. This gives me longer industry spurs.

Option B: Hill with trees. This gives me more room to model the hill sloping down to the creek and the covered bridge.

I've read about skyscrapers and while they can look great, they don't suit the rural region that I'm modeling. I've also see grain elevators but not interested in doing that. Moving the post is not going to happen.

Please comment - which option looks less bad and why? Also open to other ideas...

I like Farmall Joes response

I’d paint it blue and add the hill with trees. Get a few cloud templates and add some fluffy clouds to the blue post.

I like the hill.  Since your layout is rural, trying to make it part of a building will make both the building and the post look strange and IMHO nobody will think it's clever.  It's like playing hide and seek and trying to hide behind a really skinny tree - it makes it even more blatantly obvious you're there.  Just paint the post blue and put a few trees/shrubs around the post where it goes into the hill to break up the post/hill interface - just like in your second picture.

Matt

Paint it cement grey and add some antennas and flashing red led's and you've got a cell phone tower ??

After a few minutes contemplation, I'm with the rural folks, for pretty much the reasons already expressed. The only suggestion I'd add would be to be sure the post emerges from the back/hidden side of the hill, rather than out of the side facing he viewers. IOW, the blue-painted (and perhaps cloud-decorated -- I like that!) pole disappears behind a scenery-decorated natural-looking hill, rather than in plain sight.

Also, although sometimes you just to have to hang a lantern on a problem, rather than trying too hard to obscure it, I don't think you can plausibly pretend the post is really part of the prototype you're modeling, unless you're able to explain why an Empire State Building-clone is somehow popping out of a cow pasture!

Decorate it. It would fit right in with those buildings shown on "Tall Buildings Tuesday" Make a cloud out of cotton balls, attach the huge cloud to the ceiling so that the building disappears into the cloud...like Jack and the Beanstalk. You could certainly find pictures of windows to print out and wrap around the sides.

I like the forest/hill idea, but neither is bad

Thanks to everyone who replied. I think I'm going to go with the majority vote for the hill/forest plan.