Soyokaze: Landscape work

I've managed to jump start my hobby time again. For a while there, I was caught up in feeling like I didn't want to work on the hobby items I had going due to a general lack of space. I wasn't going to be able to put everything together, so why bother working on it?

Then the Mission Statement for these projects popped back into my head: This is all practice for the future when I have the space for everything to be put together. The items I build out may even be placed directly in the layout space once I have it. So, stop bitching and moaning and get some fun in! :)

And...that I did! I'm having fun in the hobby again and that's nice. It's something I enjoy and something that keeps me off the computer. Well, when I'm not updating my blog space. :::grin:::

On deck recently was some landscape work on the Soyokaze section. For those playing at home, I completed some work on the Temple side last time - working out the bridge, lake and work station areas along with the addition of some simple lighting in several of the buildings.  So, I jumped over to the Station side to blend in the station area with the main base a bit. I dig how it's turning out.




I started by slapping down a healthy layer of glue. I used full strength instead of my 50/50 water glue mix because I wanted it thicker so I could deal with some gravel issues I had last time.









I smoothed the glue out with my cheap "glue brush" and started laying the gravel down. Once I had the gravel in on several layers, I went back in with my 50/50 mix to lock it down a bit. Once the paths were in place, I did the same process on the hillside areas.

I like keeping things a bit free-form when I'm working on the landscaping side of things. It takes on a more natural appearance and I like the look of it. One thing I'd like to address on the Future Layout® ::grin:: is the foliage types so i can try to make them more like what you'd really see in Japan. As it stands now, it's OK, but not 100%. Japanese style plants, bushes and trees can be had for a price, of course.


I used the same action plan on my truck shed area. This little scene is a personal favorite of mine and I had the idea for the green around the driveway and behind the shed in  my head for a long time. Every time I'd see the favorite shed scene, I'd grind my teeth thinking, "I really need to lay down the grass around that area. It'd look SO much better!" And, go figure - I like it a lot more now that the green is down. Heh



The basic deal was to fill in the spaces between the drive and the sidewalk areas. I set the glue in and put in the green and let myself get a little sloppy figuring that I'd just brush in the slop later. Worked out well because I kept the glue stage clean and tidy.

I let the grass and gravel get a little messy when I dropped it in, then I went in and cleaned it up afterwards.

Before the final round of cleaning up. WAY better.

I love the final look of this area. I can't wait to create more little interaction scenes like this. I love 'em!

The completed hillside path and station area blend. Not bad. The gravel wraps around the the buildings in the background.

So, it looks like I'll have another month of hobby time before the arrival of my new little one sends me off the rails again. I'm sure things will go back to a crawl at that point, but it will be worth it! :) I'll see if I can get some basic coverage down between now and then so that, if time allows (yeah, right! ::giggle::) I'll be able to work on smaller scene areas. We'll see how that goes.