Now that all the trackwork is operational, I thought you might like to see how one scene develops using foamboard as the foundation. Take a look at the area just to the left (west) of the large grain elevator and you'll be able to flip through the photos rather quickly to see the changes. Once the foam was in place and spackle was applied to fill the cracks, I painted all of the "earth" areas with my favorite wall latex, Union Station Gold. Beyond that point, Bill Leider entered the scene and painted all of the green texture that you see. It was the addition of the green that allows the access road to show up for the first time, connecting the K&BH maintenance facility with the Yard Office. Remember: all of the Woodland Scenics texture material has yet to be added — that is when the scenes will really come to life!

The scene is full of pink here with a bit of the elevator silo showing on the right edge. You are looking at Elevator Tracks 1 and 2 with one portion of the car scale resting in position in this view. As you recall, Bill Leider painted the backdrop.

The first piece of transition foam (from the flat to the backdrop) has been sculpted but not yet glued in place. The location of the scale house is located just in front of this piece.

The transition foam has been sculpted and glued now — and...

...here is the spackle used to fill the cracks and smooth the edge where the scene blends into the backdrop.

The scene begins to take shape once the ground color ties it all together here. The wide area in the foreground will be the next to be covered with foam sometime soon. This scene is ready for Bill Leider now. The scale house and two parts of the scale itself can now be seen in the proper location. The cars on the left are coming off the Tail Track which leads into the K&BH interior staging.

You now get a hint of how the transition foam blends into the background. I can hardly wait to see what the weeds, earth, tall grass, trees, and other details will add to the overall effect! You also see the access road curving into the picture at the bottom of this shot.

You are looking east in this view; the elevator is just to the left behind you. The access road makes its way between Elevator Tracks 1 and 2 down to the Yard Office in the distance. You'll note that the rails and ties have now been painted a base color. Lots of weathering and rusting (on the yard tracks) remains to be done. This view also gives a clear indication of the odd spacing of the ties on the yard tracks (caused by a lack of maintenance) in contrast with the precise positioning of ties on the main lines.

In this last photo, the view is to the west (now the Yard Office is off camera on your right) showing a bit more of the transition to the backdrop in this area. It also shows a ton of track in need of ballast sometime soon.

That's it for this time. Work is proceeding on building kits and signals and weathering cars and all sorts of good things like that. Thank you for joining us for this report. We invite you to watch for a new progress report coming out before long. I hope you'll have a chance to take a look at the K&BH construction article in the May 2005 issue of Model Railroader.