4.15. Terrain
As I'd mentioned elsewhere, I'm not all that fond of the kind of scenery John Allen was modeling. I find it entirely too barren—even the real-life scenery didn't appear believable.
Other portions of the same part of the country are more verdant, which is what I chose to simulate. My scenery always began with the rockwork in order to create the effect that the rock is emerging from the terrain, rather than stuck onto it. I created platforms for structures and bases for roads from thin Masonite mounted on layers of Foamcore. Finally, I piled on tinted Sculptamold, my favorite terrain material, and teased it into shape with small spatulas and other tools. The layout was so small that I did large swaths of it at a time.
Talus and gravel were bonded in place like ballast.
When this had set, I applied a layer of earth texture, which was finely-ground sawdust bonded in place by sprinkling it over thinned white glue brushed onto the terrain. (You can see that it wasn't all done at once across the layout; some areas were already finished.)
Then came the earth—various shades of fine ground foam applied progressively in layers the same way as the earth texture.
Finally I added weeds, shrubs and trees. The trees were all JJT prefabs.
