Mosslanda: Denton Road - Scenic texture…
Small scenic touches take no time but transform a scene. We last visited Denton Road as I had begun to add some vegetation to break up the grey…
Since then I’ve been enjoying the scene but it was my journey to South Wales last week that pushed me to add some richer greens and lush growth. I had been a little reticent because I’d tried some green texture but it had been too blobby - studying the grown alongside the lines across old sidings and growing out of bridges and old trackbed I noticed smaller leaves yet more structure. Some brambles have softer longer branches and a tangled mess - some bushes have much taller straighter growth - I looked at my materials and wondered how to replicate it?
I’m running out of small jobs to do now, a few signs, a litter bin or something under the carpark, some detritus and rubbish along the tracks and in the bushes - and perhaps a touch of oil staining around the place the locomotives are stopped in the platforms?
The brambles are a Noch micro fibre teased out and sprayed with Matt lacquer until it slightly beads on the strands and then sprinkled with Woodland Scenics green fine turf. The bushes are a twist if postiche, with the same treatment but using some larger Green Scenes turf. Once set they’re chopped and distressed to fit the scene.
I think the results work, it feels restrained, yes, but a tempered reality. It has broken up the expanse of grey ballast and given some vertical interest. The colours work. The textures work. It feels right and I continue to enjoy the scene. What do you think?
Beyond the greenery I’ve filled in two blank spaces at the front of the board, at the foot of the viaduct. Minor support acts, crafted in styrene off cuts but important to use a muted palette, deliberate detail and curated choreography to ensure they support the story telling without becoming distractions.
Then it will be finished.
I love it.
Until next time, more soon…
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That really does look superb. Observation and restraint! Very fine work. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jonathan, glad others see the same…
DeleteLovely. Just enough suggestion.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteThis is so evocative of the late BR Sectorisation period!
ReplyDeleteAlthough my experience of travelling around the Greater Manchester area on trains was a few years earlier, I remember seeing my first Class 150.
I like the way you've suggested disused trackbed; I think the truncated end of one line adds a lot more to the scene than just modelling both lines in use would have, and the end of the Overhead Line Equipment is a masterstroke.
Odd bits of litter, and perhaps the odd bit of flyposting are something I remember back then, not so much in the way of graffiti (what there was tended to be political or football related and one colour) and railway tracks hadn't become the weed-choked dumping grounds they often are now.
Thank you Simon, I’m glad others see the period in the scenery too, litter and bits are probably the next - I’ve a,so found some fiddly etched bench seats so I can add one to the back under the carpark to balance that part visually… the OHLE is perhaps a little contrived, but I like it. The lifted line at he back used to run to Inkerman Street, I believe…
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