The new Soyokaze Hill

I started in on some of the additional features I've been thinking about for the layout. I did the left side lift out area recently and this hillside is going in on the right. I had built a small hill section ages ago to pop into the corner of my Kiwamura layout v1.0, so I took that and used it as the topper for the new hillside section.

A little plaster gauze later and I had a reasonable hill. I like to work ths way - building up the hillside sections and then going in with paint and foliage afterwards to complete things. It works well for me.

The painting was just a simple slathering of brown to act as the dirt. The section is going to be a good three to four feet away, so it didn't really have to be super detailed.

Then came the fun part - building up the foliage and little scenery elements. I had built a small utility type building a while back, so I thought I'd use it here along with running some pipes through the scene as well seeing as the factor is right below it.

Some of the top most details were items that were on the Kiwamura Hill original - I just left them there because I liked how they turned out before.

New elements like this little viewing area were added for this new project. Again, most of this will not be seen due to how far back it is. But...

The new hill height works well with the layout space. I like how it turned out overall.

I do need to address the bottom area. I believe I'll raise the entire height of the back section of the layout area in that section, but I'll leave the track at the current height. I think it will create some visual interest.

I'm glad I took some photos of this section outside- I love the natural light. It's also grand to have images of these little scenes. I like how they turned out.

IN OTHER NEWS...
The old guy needs glasses. I purchased a magnifier visor and was blown away by the results. It's making a HUGE possitive impact on my modeling. You know...because my vision is going. heheheh  It also made me see that I need to get myself some reading glasses. It was a night and day difference when I put this thing on. I told my wife, "Man...I need to go get myself some glasses, ASAP - this is amazing."

Modeling is MUCH easier with this thing as well. It's opened up a whole new world for me. Love 'em. If you don't have these already, I suggest you snag a pair. Especially if you're modeling in N like me.

Happy Modeling!

<><>