Micro-Scene: Quarry Swamp
See that milky patch a the bottom right? That is glossy plastic glued to the layout base. It's the water in a little swamp—another one of those "always wanted to make" scenic features.
Once the glue was dry, I filled the area with plants, starting with various shades of green Silflor grass tufts. Then came 32 cattails (2 X Noch 14608), several water lilies (actually Butterbur plants, Noch 14610), and 12 water lily flowers (tiny silver beads painted bright yellow), plus a few bits of Woodland Scenics bushes (FC145). It was completed on 10 March 2021.
Version 2
After living with the scene for a couple of weeks, I grew dissatisfied with its appearance: the laser-cut paper plants just looked too ragged and ill-defined. Plus, there simply weren't enough cattails—I wanted enough of them for twenty acres of wetland. And so, on 24 March 2021, I tore out all of the Noch vegetation and replaced it with fine etched brass plants from Scale Link (SN-F032), which I've had sitting around unused for two or three decades. As a bonus, I got some lovely fern and a bunch of lupines (or something akin to them).
These etchings are really something—the leaves have veins and textures, which regrettably will go unnoticed without the help of magnification. Cutting, bending and shaping the plants was the definition of tedium; I spent the better part of a day on the make-over. But I also went from a measly 32 cattails (looking like all of six) to somewhere around 200.
