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Galloping Goose #5 runs in July and September of this year! 

June progress - static grass, scenery, backdrops

June has seen a little more activity outside the house, but some work on the layout as well. I've finally gotten over my fear of properly using static grass, and have tackled basic ground cover for a significant portion of the layout.  My method turned out pretty simple, once I had tried a bunch of things.  It's all about layers - of course:
A sequence of this (from the Burns Canyon area near Rico) - sand first: Then ground foam: Then grass: Here's some photos from the Hesperus and Ophir areas: The road through the town of Ophir is very finely sifted 'pavers sand' (from Home Depot); I like the color.  It's just sprinkled into the wet water and diluted glue as described above. A lot of areas on the RGS along the Ophir high line had large rock talus slopes.  I tried to copy that here by using the 'traction sand' again, but a larger size from my sifting activities.  Here, I started with a really thick coat of tan paint, and sprinkled the rock into that.  I followed it with the finer sifted sand, then finally 'wet' water, diluted glue, and static grass on the flatter bits. The RGS was not known for a finely crafted roadbed; most of this layout will have pretty ill-maintained track.  But even for the RGS, I've got some cleaning on the railheads to do here before trains run again! So, as I went along 'grassing' the layout, I finally came to Durango and Rico, and decided these really needed photo backdrops.  Working again with LARC Products, here's the beginning result in those areas.

This first one is a shot of Sunshine Mountain, peeking behind a gap on the Enterprise Branch scenery And here's what things look like in Durango.  I kept the backdrops here pretty shallow (only 9" tall), mostly to keep the cost down.  Hopefully they'll work as distant scenery behind the yard.