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Subject says it all. First attempt at a hillside / mountain / tunnel / scenery.  I did not make the trees.  I found someone who was selling them at the scale meet in Timonium last weekend.   I wish I purchased all of them he had. They were less than $1 each.  I got about 10 and left 30 or so. Hill is removable to get access to the curve through the wall. Had to add about 1” to the middle of a MTH double portal so the articulated engines and longer cars didn’t scrape the edge. Even with 090 curves. DF06C25D-494D-47C0-95AE-ACAE4546BA1851542861-477C-46CE-AA6F-8E61B95C667F

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I used 1" pink foam, glued together, then added some details carved with a hot wire.  Covered in plaster cloth rolls, then brushed/added lightweight hydrocal thin layers for added strength/stiffness.  Painted with some water based paint.  Covered (brushed) glue/water mixture, sprinkled with various woodland scenics coverings, while layering some additional glue/water spray.   Used various searches here to find myriads of suggestions, along with some online tutorials.

Great base! My only suggestions would be to consider adding some more diversity and density to the landscaping.

Rock outcroppings would be a logical addition -- generally, if the hill/mountain was just soil rather than solid stone, the railroad would have just done a cut, rather than blast a tunnel! There's a whole lot of easy (and fun!) methods for creating and coloring rock walls or outcroppings, ranging from commercial molds, to homemade molds, to using real rocks, even to using crumpled aluminum foil and partially-hardened plaster of paris to conform to the base. I only had room for one tunnel on my layout (and had to squeeze it in later after already laying track!), but I've used all of the above techniques (and more!) to tweak it further:

backdrop2

If you'd prefer to stick with the current surface for now, adding more trees, and more types of trees, as well as various sizes and types of bushes, underbrush and overgrowth, would make the scene appear a bit less manicured. Or, you could go in the other direction, adding a hiking trail (with or without hikers!) or other sign of human use to provide some additional visual interest to the scene.

BTW, none of the above is intended in any way as criticism of your progress so far -- in fact, IME most projects tend to evolve after you've had a chance to sit back after completing "phase one" and contemplate what might make the result even better! In any event, congrat's and good luck!

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Ste 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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