Homeward Bound

This Paul Strain painting shows the 20th Maine
marching to battle from Stoneman's Station

The Potomac Creek station scene will feature a long line of soldiers marching on a road to the railhead.  The road leads from the back drop to the railhead at Potomac Creek.

My intent is to display a regiment with each figure shown one-to-one. A full strength regiment has over 1,000 men. At two years into the war, most regiments were at partial strength. I have about 400 figures planned in this scene, representing a regiment that is about one third full strength.

The figures I am using look quite energetic and excited, so I decided this is a two year regiment whose enlistments have expired and they are going home.  There will be other soldiers and people watching them and cheering along.

This drawing showing two-year men taking a train is part of my inspiration. 

I built the road with pieces of foam hot glued to the hard shell. In retrospect, I think the road is too well built for a country dirt road of the 1860s. So I will add a ridge as shown in the photo below and have part of the road cut through ridge top, creating a sunken section. That will remove some of the fill and make the road look more rustic.

 The red lines show the planned terrain addition.

Looking down the benchwork to the road behind Potomac Creek Station. It's appropriate that the
word "pink" shows through, as that is the last pink scenery in the north room.

Over by the tunnel,
I added some ballast and base scenery.

I continued the base scenery around the curve at Brooke as the panorama photo shows below.

I will probably add the base scenery to the ridge behind Brook and then paint the back drop.

In surveying the new work, AW's said, "Wow, do you think you'll actually finish this one?"

A two shot panorama showing the big curve at Brooke.