Hmmm, Chocolate.

Typical terrain along the right of way. Note the exposed rock topped by soil in the railroad cut.

 

Work started early today as Amby arrived promptly at 930 to solder feeders to the main bus.  He brought some shower curtain hooks to hang the electrical bus and a heavy duty stapler to secure the hooks to the benchwork.  

While Amby was soldering away, I painted the scenery with a base coat.  Alicia came downstairs to say hello and remarked that the layout looked like a big milk chocolate cake. 

Chocolate hills - the ballon is down to avoid paint stains

Later in the afternoon, after the paint had dried I begin adding rock outcroppings to the scenery.  

Revising the creek banks north side

First, I made a modification to the stream bed. I thought it was too regular. So I added a small meander to the creek by the southern abutment.

Revising the creek banks south  side

Then I added the first of the urethane rock castings I purchased from Scenic Express. I used my Rotex 90 sander to remove the excess thickness on the back of the casting so that the rocks would fit in desired area behind the abutment.  The Rotex in direct mode made quick work of the urethane.

I places another big urethane rock casting in the middle of the bend in the creek. I cracked it into 3 pieces to better fit.

To continue the rock wall to the south, I used my rock molds and some hand carving. There are lot of near vertical walls in this section, but I am trying to minimize the amount of rock outcroppings. I will try to show plain soil as much as possible. But the really vertical sections need to have rock faces.  Yes, they look cool, but I don't want this to end up looking like Colorado.  The terrain in this area is marked by numerous steep ridges of about 200-300 vertical feet with many cuts and fills.  See the lead photo.

Carving rocks - messy but fun work.