Landscape work on North Loop

Here is a progression of pictures I have taken working on Landscaping the North Loop of my Layout. 

Here is the basic flat table top with track, no accessories, or topography. Just a layer of Celotex painted earth brown.

Track comes out of cabinet that holds my LP Records, DVDs and CDs

See the addition of the start of the tunnel portal and the landform against the wall.

The landform here is celotex stacked up layer cake,  with a base coat of white paint.

Here is the landform on my kitchen floor.  I have given it a coat of earth color paint, and carve it up with a knife blade and various dremel cutting attachments.

Here is the Tunnel Portal. Two layers of Celotex carved up to look like Sedimentary Rock.  The Portal painted Charcoal grey to look like dirty weathered concrete.

Here is the backside of the Portal.  The wood tab pivots to hold it in place against the wood cabinet.

Here is the backside of the portal from inside the cabinet..

Landform in place.  Adding weeds and brush.

I carved into the Celotex with the Dremel tool and added smaller pieces of Celotex to make rock outcrops.  Then brush on a mix of white glue and water, spread fine sand over the glue mix.  Later add Woodland Scenic ground foam and weeds.  The weeds are the bristles from those cheap throw-away paintbrushes.  Take apart the brush, soak the bristles in cheap watered down green tempera paint.  Then break up the bristles into smaller pieces, drill a hole, insert weed into hole with a few drops of white glue.   Add some small rocks to add some detail.

Additional topography to be added to the vertical wall by the tunnel portal,  more stacked scraps of Celotex, painted and carved up, with some sand added.

Also note my progression on adding Ties and Ballast to the Trackwork.

Work in progress.    Adding more weeds and ground cover.   I built up some topography for the 394 Beacon.

And here is what it looks like today with the accessories in place.

Well, that is where it is now,  might add some more ground cover around the 97 Elevator and the 455 Oil Derrick.

Steve