I've found that it often takes a lot of time to think about what you're going to do and how you're going to do it. Track, wiring, placement of buildings, etc. Then once you start, and it works, then it's just a matter of doing that thing over and over. Once I figured out a blend of ground cover that seemed to look like what would be around a steel mill property, I could do a little every day. So I've got a lot done back around those buildings.
I got some trees to place around the suburban scene. Some mid-range ones from Woodland Scenics that are a puff of material with ground cover foam on it, and some top-range ones in back that have nice trunks with clumps of material stuck on there. A lot of the clumps fall off and I can't figure out how to get it back on, but there's more than enough already on there. I installed these by drilling a small hole in the homasote base and sticking the little knob at the bottom of the trunk in. I would like to get some SuperTrees as well, but these look nice. Trees in a suburban Boston neighborhood are old and big and I wanted them to tower over the houses a bit.
I also built a little station sign for the commuter rail platform. There's no "Norwood" station, there's Norwood Depot and Norwood Central, but this is supposed to be somewhat fictional. I feel like the posts are a little too thick...but it needed to be able to stand and not get easily broken. I built it with styrene and glued it to the platform.
Lessons learned:
1. I tried that brush-on plastic solvent but I needed to use the glue again. I still don't get how that works.
2. Get plenty of different colors before you start putting down ground cover. A mix of colors looks more realistic.
Next up:
The billboard along the highway. I got the Walthers kit, I just need to build it and make it taller.
More ground cover around the steel mill.
More details around the suburbs, and more trees.
