Admiring Chris N&W's efforts on the 2 Rail Forum gave me the motivation to do my old mountain scenery over. Still in progress, but here's what I got so far:



More mess here:

http://normstrains.blogspot.co...makeover-mayhem.html

You're off to a great restart! Joe

looks really nice!

Jeez Norm, every time I think your layout couldn't get more real without being scary, it gets a little more real

Keep up the good work!

I like your clerestory lighting. It must provide some nice daytime illumination for your layout.

The layout off course is always great to see.

Wow, Norm, I can't believe your layout could actually be improved upon. I was drooling over your website before I even found OGR Forums, and I actually aspired to make a door sized version of it for my first O gauge layout. I thought it was perfect, but I guess it's getting even perfecter. (Yeah, find THAT word in the dictionary.) Keep up the fantastic work.

Rick

Well Norm, it looks great to me (but what do I know) Joe

Great stuff Norm. When are you back in Pittsburgh?
Mike CT

Looking good Norm, what does a big box of those super trees cost?

As always, a pleasure to see your work, Norm. Mess? My layout should be such a mess!

Nice job Norm, your work is truly inspiring.

Paul

Thanks guys - the old mountains were a real mess and redoing them gives me a chance to fix some mistakes. I should have taken more photos during the demolition. Undoing your own work leads to a lot of 'now why the heck did I do it like this?' kind of questions.

quote:

Originally posted by Norm Charbonneau:
Thanks guys - the old mountains were a real mess and redoing them gives me a chance to fix some mistakes. I should have taken more photos during the demolition. Undoing your own work leads to a lot of 'now why the heck did I do it like this?' kind of questions.

Norm, I agree. We are all learning new things as we work on various parts of our layouts... and sometimes going back to something we did early in the layout construction and seeing what we did makes us scratch our heads and wonder "what were we thinking?"

Live and learn. Or in the case of you, Norm, "make realistic and then make even more realistic!"

Incredible!

What are you using for grass? Scenic Express grass?

Stephen (and Stevin), just about all the ground cover and trees were from Scenic Express. Stevin, the big box of Super Trees info is here:

http://www.sceneryexpress.com/...fo.asp?number=EX0215

I placed my order online this time using the above forum link and it worked out nicely!

Well, I had enough of an inferiority complex before you started your latest round of improvements, Norm.

Seriously, it's always a pleasure to see the work you do on your layout.

You make me jealous. Fantastic work!

I clicked on the link, not taking note of the Author, when the picture resolved I thought hmm looks like Norm's work..

Looks great!

Some seemingly slow progress still being made --



http://normstrains.blogspot.co...keover-progress.html

So Norm do you have a operating session / club?

Nothing formal - but sometimes I'll call up to Wild Bill's and tell Bert to bring some people on over, usually on a Saturday night. I plan on doing it again soon, once all this mess is cleaned up.

Norm,

Please be sure to give us a BEFORE and AFTER when you're all done.

Thanks for posting.

Fred

Looking nice as usual, Norm!

What colors are you using to paint the rocks/stonework. Looks very convincing!

Some progress shots - done for the most part but I may do another tree session or two. I'll let the glue dry a bit. I cruised my Decapod through real quick --



I really need to unplug those markers!



Here's an overview from the other side of Greenbrook...



I was asked for some before and after shots. I found these two laying around to give an idea of what they looked like before I tore them out.



You can see that 90 degree corner that was driving me nuts...

Beautiful, Norm.

Norm, very nice!

Gee, Norm, come on over to my house - you could be busy and creative for months, maybe years!
Seriously, great stuff as usual.

Stunning!

How about a shot of the stonework where the line runs behind the mountain?

Where'd you get your telegraph poles -- those green insulators are fantastic! (Second pic.)

Norm,
I have a question. How can you improve on something as fantastic?

Thanks again guys. I stuck another couple batches of Super Trees in some of the bare spots last night and might do another round or two tonight. Some minor touchup here and there and a few more vines on the retaining walls ought to finish this off - until something doesn't catch my eye quite right again and then I can start obsessing all over again.

Slugger - to answer your earlier question, my rocks and stone retaining walls are painted with a stone gray latex, followed by black and brown washes of varying intensity, then finished off with a bit of drybrushing using white or light gray. The poles are the Weavers that Neal Schorr helped bring about. I'm using his method of painting the insulators. I thought he was supposed to do an article on how to paint them so maybe I'll let him divulge his secret. His poles are the best and I've been using them (with 1/4" dowels for taller versions) to replace my older scratchbuilt ones because the insulators are so spot-on.

I can snap a photo of the section you're asking about tonight. Are you asking about the line that comes out from behind the front mountain? I redid that section a while back when I took out the stone trestle that ran across the front of Greenbrook.

5&10, I would hardly describe my earlier mountains as fantastic! They had been bugging me for a while and I thought I could improve them with some effort. I learned a bit about using 2" pink foam from doing my roundhouse extension and thought I could apply what I learned to making this part of the layout a little easier on the eyes. Looking at Christopher N&W's efforts on the 2 rail forum gave me the push to demolish my earlier efforts.