Dirt and Rock at Steinle

I'm making progress at Steinle adding dirt (actually a mix of powdered tempera and plaster), as well as coloring the rockwalls. 

The rockwalls are hand-carved, painted with flat grey, and then got treated to a wash of dirty grey and brown to bring out the structure. I also dry-brushed some highlights on the rockwalls to emphasize raised areas of the rock, vs. the niches and crevices.

The dirt on the right is a mix of powered Tempera paint and plaster. In the photo it's still somewhat damp, so I'll know only tomorrow morning whether the color comes out the way I planned. Either way it's an improvement over the brown latex paint I used at Hochwald in the corner.

The backdrop will consist of painted and real trees. I hope to evoke the feeling of a dark forest stradling the edges of the layout, particularly around Hochwald. The painted trees on the left are my very first attempt at painting a forest. I'm quite happy with how they came out, though I will likely end up redoing them, since I'm still missing some distant painted mountains on the backdrop.

I'm using several photos I took on a trip to the Schwarzwaldbahn last year as guidance for scenery, and the backdrop.

Once the dirt is down I can finally rip off the masking take from the track and run trains across the whole layout again. Hopefully some time next week.

The next projects on the horizon are finishing the basic scenery around Steinle, particularly the area on the left side in the picture. Next up is building Hochwaldtunnel to close up the hole barely visible on the right hand side of the picture. In parallel I'll build the access road to Talheim station and close the hole at the bottom of the picture. Then I move on to planting grass, bushes, and trees. 

Other work includes fixing up the trackwork in Emsingen, installing switch machines, and the engine service area including turntable. That'll keep me busy well into next year.