A road out of Burgessville

 Editor's note ( yes Norwich was moved and Curries Station and Burgessville, were added to the layout, mostly for visual effect.)

I started with a picture I cut out of Model Railroader, in a article called "Continue your roads into the backdrop" by Tom Johnson. He went into great detail showing various ways to make them look real. In this picture, Tom had already added a building on either side to frame in the road. This left a cutoff building on either side of the picture which I covered with a cutout picture of a store on one side and a house on the other. 

But first I had to paint in some clouds to blend the sky in the picture to my backdrop. Then, after temporarily taking away the house and the store I painted lots of trees, not only around but also over some of Tom's trees, hiding most of the fall colours. I also had to hide the bottom, right side of the store, which unrealistically slanted up, so a small garage (from Full Steam Ahead) did the trick. In fact this whole project is designed to trick the viewer's eyes into seeing more there than there really is. 

A few more added touches, like bringing the lines on the road onto the layout and grass areas will finish it up.

Hills add interest.

 

Added hills, circled in green, around Woodstock. They were made by carving down 1/2 inch thick ceiling tiles. I used a band saw and a rotary rasp, in a drill, to shape them. (Too bad they do not show up in the picture.) One spot, in front of the white station, has a small area of two thicknesses. These hills, or drumlins as I call them, surround the real Woodstock area. They will be covered with trees. These, forested hills, with roads snaking over them, will add needed visual interest and also separate Norwich, on the right from Woodstock on the left. A good use of an open area.

I also previously made 10 wooden crossings, that's 60 planks, with 120 scribe marks and 600 nail holes. This were stained dark grey and hot melt glued into place. Some roads were painted a dark grey, visible along the curve by the silos. I experimented with covering the crossings with masking tape after I stained them. Then adding plaster to bring the road level up to them, which I let dry. Then I painted the road up to the crossings on some. When I pulled off the tape it also took off some of the painted plaster, so I had to repaint back up to them any way. By taking the tape off before painting you can sand the plaster where needed and then paint.

York Knitting Mill

 

The red brick building was a old single stall engine house that I cut down to a half an inch wide. The 2 sides were were stacked one on top of the other and the 2 side buildings were added to one end. A flat roof was added to the 2 story building to take away the engine house look. Some weathering and other details are still to be added to this new York Knitting factory. Of course the background will be painted before final installation. Finished factory in the picture below.