A photographic progression with a brief explanation of the techniques used follows. Elk Creek was modeled to be a small urban tributary in the mid-summer time period. Therefore this waterway can have a fairly large volume of water during the spring runoffs, but would have slowed considerably in the summer months.

Here you can see the abutments for both the railroad and highway bridges under construction. The railroad bridge is a Micro Engineering kit and the abutments are being built from pieces of an old A.I.M. Products random stone bridge abutments set. The highway bridge abutments are being fabricated from sheet styrene. The bridge itself started out as a Walthers double track truss bridge kit. The creek banks have been constructed with cardboard webbing covered with blue painters masking tape. Then it was given a quick blast of brown spray paint to give me a better idea of what the contours would look like.

Here the banks and creek bottom have been constructed with a mixture of plaster, powdered tempra paint and fine vermiculite. I got the vermiculite idea from a online scenery forum on Joe Fugate's Siskyou Lines website. This adds texture to the plaster mixture and gives it an almost rubbery type of finished surface. The brown pigment prevents any future damage to the scenery from showing up as white plaster spots.

The photo of rocks and river that can be seen just behind the railroad bridge is intended to have the creek in the finished scene look as if it bends rather sharply to the right just past the bridge and run between the track and the large abandoned brick factory building on the backdrop. A row of trees and foliage will help conceal the transition from layout to backdrop and enforce the illusion of the water's course.

Here is the same scene after ground cover, brush, trees, dead fall, the creek bed and Envirotex water have been installed. Overall I'm pleased with how this scene is turning out. The bridge and it's abutments still need to be properly weathered. Right now it really lacks depth and void of detail. There is a truss bridge like this almost within a stones throw of my home that I am going to use as a reference for weathering. The creek was given a stippling of acrylic gloss gel for texture in this picture, but it's going to get a second coat as It doesn't have quite the reflective quality of the fast moving shallow creek I'm striving for. The brick building on the far right is a stand-in as I'm still playing with the type of structure that will be installed there. The structure will be "Tara's Treats" and candy manufacturer named after my daughter.