what materials do you use to model the landscape in this area of the country, whether it be color, type or manufacturer? I see a lot of tans and browns and smaller patches of green in general. Any ideas in helping me get started on a Santa Fe Railway themed landscape. Thanks.
I use a lot of earth tone washes which include raw umber, raw sienna, burnt umber, burnt sienna, ochre, white, grimy black and green. You can see the Rock Formations article I wrote for N Scale Magazine in my new website below. The rock formations are on my layout the JJJ&E which is somewhere in the mountains in the western United States.
Lots and lots of color pictures! I think it's really up to matching the colors in pictures with your scenery colors. I assume by west, that you mean desert. There are some good desert modelers if that's what you are trying to do. Such as the Swiss guy who did a desert scene in HO scale in MR a few years back. (Can't remember his name, I think it's Pele something) The thing that is different in desert settings is that there is not the same type of ground cover to keep hillsides from eroding. You end up making scrubbier looking plants and dry washes as opposed to rivers. Rocks are dry not mossy. steep slopes are bare rock slides with lots of debris at the bottom. Seriously, just look at pictures and see what you come up with. You may get better results than anyone else has so far. Another thing worth checking out is geology books as reference. Whereas eastern modelers obsess over tree types, western modelers obsess over geology and rock types since the dryer it gets the less trees and grasses you have. Another interesting feature of south west modeling is that you'll find a desert in one place and then a track will dip into a river valley and you find lots of vegetation near the water source. So it is not unrealistic to end up with different places with many different climates. Then you climb into mountains and go through a tunnel and it's greener because you've gone under the divide. Once again, look at pictures!
I don't model that area, but here are some websites showing what you are looking for. These layouts are from members that post on here regularly and will be able to answer your questions: SP Coast Line http://www.sp-coastline.com/ BNSF Oakville Sub http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=99466&highlight=oakville Jamie
Modeling the Southwest I model just that AZ. And I use a lot of newspaper and plaster cloth for my mountains. Then I paint them light tan mix with just different shades of tan/Beige with some grey's miced in there for depth. Kinda form shadows. Then cover in spots with sand, desert dirt if lucky enough. Decomposed Granite works good also; lots of it in the desert. Of course pre paint your surface the desert colors your trying to replicate. Then the holes in ground cover won't show as much. I found N Scale Cactus at a place on the net called "Period Miniatures" if 'm not mistaken. I will verify that part and post back. Also Scenic Express has some other Desert foilage. That's my two bits for now. I hope that helped add to the pool of knowledge
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcM9kQTy2Pk"]YouTube - Model Railroad Scenery using Extruded Foam: Part 8[/ame]
