 |
|||||||||||||||
|
Wildlife and Trees The set of tree stumps were painted and then placed here and there on the landscape, held in place with Scenic Glue. Five hobos were placed into the region where the slice of cake had been "removed." One of the hobos is roasting a hotdog over a campfire, chatting with a buddy on a box. Another sits on a stump playing a harmonica. When the cake is put in place, they will be hidden unless you look in from the top, which is probably appropriate for a hobo camp. Six deer (including two fawns), six black bear (including three cubs), and a raccoon were placed on the layout. |
|||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||
| The tree stumps, hobos, deer, bear and raccoon were all from Woodland Scenics. Unfortunately, there are few if any wild animals made in Z scale, and no hobos that I've found yet. Woodland Scenics does make these things, but not for Z scale, so these are N scale "cheats", like the clowns and animals in my Circus Layout. | |||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||
|
I finished the layout itself by placing an assortment of pines and other trees to fill up most of the empty spaces of the layout. Some of these were held in with scenic glue, others just had their trunks inserted into the foam. Various sized chunks of Woodland Scenics Medium Green Bushes were also "planted" with Scenic Glue to fill in around the trees and along the slice and cake where the grass seemed a little thin. The slice and cake were glued in with Scenic Glue. A Caution: Watch out for trees close to the track, especially on the inside of tight curves. A real train would would just brush a branch that grows out too far out of its way, but Z scale trains are very light and the trees are very stiff. If there is a bit of tree in the way, you're apt to find your train derailing every time it tries to come by, or it may actually be stopped by the tree! The only thing left now is the locomotive. You can see the train in the foreground of the picture to the right. Micro-Trains made four Happy Birthday boxcars and a caboose. The purple boxcar was no longer available when I created this layout, but I found one on eBay later. A GP-35 locomotive was scheduled to come out to finish off the train, but there weren't enough orders to make it worthwhile, so Micro-Trains canceled the run. Kind of makes you wonder if they aren't sending the wrong message to Z Scale collectors - "Buy our neat stuff to start your collection, just don't expect us to follow through for you!" So I'm decorating my own Happy Birthday locomotive. |
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|