LooVille Big Märklin mini-club Layout

[LooVille]

Ripples was added and I decided to do the ballasting of the track befor I started with the Bushes and the Trees.

[LooVille]

I started to look at the Pine trees I use for the layout....... Mmmmmmm......
A while back a friend gave me a awesome tip, so I decided to try it out.......

He miss spray his trees with yellow, so I decided I'm going to sake it a step further.
The bottom of the trees I sprayed Brown.
then I miss pray a light Green as well as Yellow.

I like the effect I get and every tree will be unique.

Last Picture, left tree is the original, right tree is the one I sprayed.

[LooVille]

Last update for the moment...... I have to go and buy some more trees 

Started to add the trees and bushes.
Added a custom tree on the edge at the castle and added roots and some ekstra details to the scene...... Like the way it came out....... Still lots to add 

Started to look really nice now.......
I also ordered my control pannel, hopefull I'll get it this week still, then I can run trains again.....

[capeklr]

Good morning,
nice update.
Yes those castle are designed to be smaller than scale as background models to give
the illusion of distance.
The other reason is size, can you imagine how huge a scale model of a castle would be!
So using a N scale castle for Z scale may just work as a foreground model.

[LooVille]

Good Evening All.......

Yea, It's been a very loooong time since I posted anything. Especially on this layout.
Think it is close to a year since I worked on the layout.

So, I decided to extend the scenery behind the station with about 60mm. So now I have a nice area to do trees, bushes, grass and just nice scenery work.

I have also removed all the buildings as well as the last of all the old scenery work.
Picture 03 is the original and 04 is after I cleared everything off.

Lot's of pictures but here is my progress step by step......
Enjoy and please let me know what you think.

Cheers, Evert

[LooVille]

Once everything was cleaned and vacuumed I had to fix all the damage and fill in all the holes.
Then I re-painted all the rocks to a grey colour.

Now the scenery work can start again.
Painted brown for the base and WoodlandScenics fine turf..... I used 3 different colours.

[LooVille]

Time for Static Grass.......

[LooVille]

And yes, I ballast my z scale track 
I also stained the ballast in the station darker, think it came out quite well.

I fitted the last 7 trees I had, so now I first have to make trees.....

[capeklr]

Hi Evert,

I like that extension, doesn't look so cut off now right next to the tracks.

[ColWer]

Very nice Evert. As Jörg said, nicely extended. 

[LooVille]

Good Morning All,

Yea...... I finally did some work on my big z layout again 

I bought the Marklin Neuschwanstein Castle from Chris Heart.
Absolutely stunning and we all know his skill in building kits is phenomenal.

Here is a few pictures of his building.

Cheers, Evert 

[LooVille]

So if you look at the real life castle there is some colour differences in the stone work.
The model I have is very one colour, so I decided to make a few changes to make if more "mine".

first two is the real life castle and the last two is my attempt, I'm quite happy, so I'll carry on and finish all the sections.
I downloaded a ton of pictures, so I have lots of reference material.

[capeklr]

Very nice.

[LooVille]

Good Morning All......

Next was to decide where to put the Castle on my layout as it was not planned for and there is not really space.
So, above the town there is a hill where the trains go around the back of the town.
I decided that if I make a few changes it might work, so here goes.....

I cut a piece of blue extruded foam and placed it on top of the hill, leveled it out and made sure it is sturdy.
I did not want to damage the model or the paint work, so I wrapped the model in thin plastic and added the rocks.

[LooVille]

Once the plaster was 100% dry, I very carefully removed the castle and then peeled the plastic away from the plastic.
I have to say it worked quite well. I test fitted the castle back and it fits perfectly 

Time to paint and add scenery.....

I think this will work very well and the overhang I can hide with trees and more scenery.
This also make the layout look much bigger than it actually is.