The ugliest backdrops ever created...

After much procrastination, I've decided to complete the white foamboard backdrop around the layout. As you can see, the prefab scenery panel in the middle of the top level was removed so that the backdrop could be painted behind it.

This was painted a sky-blue-ish shade... and despite me using some putty to smooth minor imperfections in the joins, I'm a bit bummed that you can see them more clearly now that the blue has been installed. This may be because of the directional lighting coming in from the right...

I also used a pretty crappy brush while applying the blue which has left some horizontal strata that also picks up bright light sources from above. Drat. Definite blue-fail.

On my last layout I experimented with super realistic photo-backdrops but here I've moved to the opposite extreme and really dumbed things down. I didn't even graduate the blue with white towards the horizon or pop any clouds in... Because Switzerland's weather is always perfect blue skies... Not.

After the blue had set, some green paint was mixed with the sky blue colour (distant things almost always inherit a bit of sky colour) and this was used to paint some rudimentary 'hill forms' behind where the scenery will be. I then used the green (which is a reasonable approximation of my pine tree colours) to vertically daub on some distant 'trees'. These are not intended to be representations of anything specific, but break up the solid colour of the 'hills' in the distance.

As you can see below, this is pretty ugly when viewed au natural...

However with the prefab scenery installed in front of it in the picture below, you can see how the ugly duckling is transformed an appropriately vague backdrop rendered in appropriate shades of nothingness that doesn't scream at you. For once, I completed painted the backdrop all around the layout, even to the ends which don't have much scenery on them yet.

Other than the messy blue I think I've gotten away with it.

With the backdrop not even dry, the prefab scenery was finally glued into place so that some overhead wiring poles could be installed on the top level of track..

The insidious onslaught of green

The first layers of scenery continue to slowly spread across the layout.

Up on the top level, I needed to put something under my section of prefab scenery before gluing it in place permanently. As you can see below, some brown has been glued down beside the ballast. 

Those little squares where the catenary poles will go were painted as well.

A little green grass has been laid around the middle tunnel on the top level (next to the prefab scenery gap) and in the flat area on the right of the middle level, as well as a few other touchups.

Prefab scenery - 2

After my portable hill's paint had dried, grassy material was attached to the steep sides with it laid out flat and a box underneath to catch glue dribbles.

After that, it was stood up and grass added to the tops of the hill. As always I'm dribbling on isopropyl alcohol (the cleaning/medical kind, not the drinking kind) as the wetting agent and following up with diluted PVA white glue.

The hill was then laid down on its side again for some forestry work:

Trees and scrubby bushes were planted. In the above shot, the trees are being encouraged to set 'straight' with some props.

Ideally, I'd have liked more pines/spruces/whatever-they-are here, but elected to spend seven pines of my collection here, and filled in the rest of the space with various ground foam, fine leaf foliage and even old rubberised clusters collected over many years.

As I always say: variety in size, colour and texture really helps while scenicing.

The prominent bank of grass on the real thing is visible to the right here, and other misc items large and small have been planted along the track and in the boring bits to make things look interesting. The hill was propped up at 45 degrees to make this easier to see without bushes rolling down the slopes.

Again, it's all rather easy when you are focusing on a small section right in front of your face that can be flipped to any angle that suits you.

Then it was time to plug the hill into place for a look. Could be worse.

Prefab scenery is a winner, with being able to comfortably focus on a small section being only one of its advantages.

In hindsight, it would have been best to do all my 'prominent' scenery that's hard to get at in this way (if it wasn't needed to be in place as a structural/stiffening element as my bigger hills are) and it's going to be hard to go back to working on those big hills, the village, and the tight Meienreuss valley with its bridges.

If (when!) I ever have serious issues with my hidden trackage (spirals, or yard), it certainly would have been far easier to detach one of these lightly-glued-in prefab sections rather than hacking into the permanent scenery with a saw. Even small hatches that could be cut out...