Scenery between Ruston and Winnfield

A quick footnote. A friend and I was talking the other day about using AI to help refine our writing skills. She said it's been fun to mess around with and to have it write using an accent. So since I'm modeling in the south, I figured to have it write with a southern dialect. We'll see how this goes?

It’s been a hot minute since I done any real work on the scenery around here. I done dragged out most of the stuff I needed and dumped it right on the layout so I could get to it quick. Means the whole setup is out of commission till I get this job wrapped up.

Now that the yard backdrop is finally sorted out, I figured it was high time to get back to the stretch between Ruston and Winnfield. A while back, I tossed down some plain old ground foam over that brown paint. Worked fine for a bit, but I’m fixin’ to spruce it up proper with some static grass and thicker brush.

First thing I tackled was laying down some Kudzu and wild brush between Ruston and the farm. Put static grass on them flat hilltops, but down those slopes headin’ to the tracks, I knew some thick Kudzu would look slicker than a whistle.

To make that Kudzu, I grabbed me a tiny pinch of Woodland Scenics Poly Fiber and pulled it real thin, then laid it across them hillside banks. Didn’t even need glue to start—that base of foam grabs hold of them fibers like Velcro, so you just stretch and press it right down.

Once I had the spot covered, I doused it good with hairspray till it turned all frosty-looking. Then I sprinkled a light dustin’ of dark green foam over it. Hit it with another shot of hairspray to lock that down and give the medium green foam something to stick to. Kept stackin’ thin layers, goin’ lighter and lighter on the green till that brush was thick enough to hide the fibers underneath.

When I had it lookin’ just right, I gave it one last heavy soak of hairspray to seal the deal. Once it dries up, that hairspray holds like iron on a layout that ain’t movin’ nowhere.

With the Kudzu all set, I moved on to layerin’ static grass up on the hilltops. Even though I’m fixin’ to cover most of them hills with trees later on, I wanted the grass underneath to look wild and natural, not like some fancy manicured lawn. I also went ahead and put static grass between the tracks too, usin’ the same trick along with some heavier brush.

Then I headed over to the section runnin’ from the farm to Winnfield, and managed to glue down a large amount of that static grass before I plum ran out of time.

I also gave it a go scrapin' out a few low-lying spots between them tracks so they'd look like muddy puddles after a heavy downpour. That pond settin' right in the middle of the shot is somethin' else I gotta mess around with. Plan on puttin' static grass all around the edges and far enough into that pond so when I pour the water, them blades will be risin right up out of the water. I reckon that’s all for now.

The finished yard backdrop

 It's finished and back in place.

Creating a Backdrop Tree Line with Gemini AI

Over the past year or so, I have seen model railroaders add snow effects to photos of their layouts using AI. Modeling a Southern local, I preferred rain and a stormy atmosphere over snow. I decided to experiment with Gemini AI to generate custom imagery for my layout like others have done.

Crafting effective prompts is key. Even with detailed phrasing, the initial output may not match your exact expectations. For example, when attempting to show locomotive headlight beams shooting forward, several generations produced beams pointing skyward from the cab windows. With persistent adjustments to the prompts, I achieved the desired result.

Designing Backdrop Buildings

When planning the backdrop for the yard, I wanted a continuous line of trees spanning its full length. Satellite imagery of Biddle Yard in Little Rock, Arkansas, confirmed a dense tree line on the north side of the yard, separating it from the city.

Rather than hand-painting the scenery, I used Gemini to generate backdrop structures and foliage, intending to show select building tops peeking over the tree line.

I prompted Gemini to generate a large, three-story metal-skinned industrial building featuring a two-tone tan exterior with lighter tan on top.

Initial attempts produced three-quarter angled views from an elevated perspective. To make the image suitable for a flat backdrop, I refined the prompt to request an elevation view showing only the front face of the building without perspective, roof lines, or side walls.

Then to visualize the final composition before painting, I instructed Gemini to add a row of foliage in front of the structure.

Not quite what I wanted.

I then requested the removal of overhanging branches above the roofline, leaving only a low tree line covering the lower portion of the building. Interestingly, Gemini added rooftop HVAC units during this pass without explicit prompting.  Now we’re getting somewhere!  It was about that time that it occurred to me, why not just have Gemini create a tree line to print and paste to the backdrop instead of trying to play Bob Ross?

Generating the Tree Line

At this stage, I realized I could generate printable tree line images directly rather than painting them by hand.  After experimenting with various prompts requesting photorealistic tree lines, Gemini produced this usable image.

Planning and Printing Considerations

Several technical challenges required consideration during the planning phase:

Sky gaps: Gaps within the foliage needed to display a blue sky tone matching the painted backdrop rather than a stark white background.

Foliage trimming: Cutting out intricate treetops across long sections can be labor-intensive.

Pattern variation: To avoid repetitive patterns across a 20-foot backdrop, multiple distinct image segments were necessary.

Production method: I evaluated printing custom banners at a commercial print shop versus printing multiple smaller sheets at home on standard 11.5-inch paper. Printing locally provided greater flexibility for variation and adjustments at a comparable cost.

Image Editing and Color Matching

To streamline preparation and installation, I used the following workflow:

Sky Background Alignment: I re-imported the tree line into Gemini and requested a solid blue background. After lightening the tone by 10%, the color matched the painted blue backdrop on the layout pretty close.

Resolution Upscaling: Downloaded PNG files were upscaled to approximately 1600 pixels wide, which provided sufficient resolution for N scale modeling.  I think 1600 was the maximum size with the free version?

Background Ink Reduction: I converted the PNG files to JPG format and used the eraser tool in MS Paint to clear out large areas of blue sky, reducing ink consumption during printing.

Trimming and Blending: I roughly cut along the treetop perimeter. Any remaining blue paper margins were later blended into the painted sky using a stippling technique with backdrop paint.

Color Correction: Because printed outputs ran darker than displayed on screen, I adjusted exposure, sharpness, and green hues using Luminar4 and it's photo editing capabilities prior to final printing.

Media Selection and Layout Setup

Using standard paper can cause ink absorption, producing dull images. I opted for Matte photo paper, which maintains crisp edges. To optimize print speed and ink usage, I configured the printer to standard quality on plain paper settings while feeding Matte photo paper, yielding sharp results without excess ink laydown.

Others weren’t kidding, using the photo paper rather than plain copy paper looked much better.

I arranged the images in CorelDraw, scaling them in landscape orientation to a height of no more than 4.5" in height. This setup allowed two tree line prints per sheet.

Assembly and Installation

I followed these steps to prepare and mount the printed tree line sections:

1. Trimming and Mating Edges: Square the side and bottom edges using a paper trimmer to ensure clean splices. Trim the tops along the foliage outline.

2. Edge Coloring: Run black, green, or brown markers along cut paper edges to eliminate visible white paper borders.

3. Clear Coating: Apply two light coats of Krylon Acrylic Matte finish to protect the printed ink from moisture during subsequent scenery work.

4. Adhesive Application: Brush full-strength Matte Medium onto the back of each print. Matte Medium provides sufficient working time for position adjustments and dries clear. I thought about using a spray adhesive, but I read where that stuff will break down over time. allowing the images to curl.

Boomer suggested using Matte Medium as the adhesive. It dries completely clear and easy to clean up and paint over if needed.

5. Mounting: Press the print onto the backdrop. Use a 4-inch foam roller and a glass jar to burnish the surface, smooth out imperfections, and press out excess glue. Clean up the squeeze-out immediately with a damp sponge. The Matte Medium doesn't dry on contact. It takes a little bit of time to set up, but that also allows you a short window where you can make slight adjustments if needed.

6. Final Blending: Allow the adhesive to dry thoroughly. Stipple matching sky paint over remaining paper margins and white paint for cloud highlights to blend the prints seamlessly into the backdrop.

Layering Trees Over Structures

For sections featuring buildings situated behind foliage, generate the tree line as a transparent PNG file instead of a JPG file. Removing the background color allows underlying structures to show naturally through gaps in the branches.

Now I know there are probably better ways to do this, but if so, I’m unfamiliar with how that works.  I’m using methods that I know.

Tree line created by Gemini AI

I think I'm going to like doing this?  They actually came out better than I would have thought, the actual printing that is.

In a way, they kind of look a little overpowering, but I think it's because I'm so use to seeing just a blue backdrop for several years?

I'll try to explain the process of how I created the trees, from conception and design to the actual gluing onto the backdrop in the next post.

In the meantime here a few shots of how they turned out.  The first shot is the left end of the yard where it joins the main layout.

There are seven unique 11-1/4" wide sections that make up the long backdrop.  I used 2 more 11-1/4" sections for the angled backdrop (with the water tower), of which one of them I trimmed to fit.

The left end.

The right end.

The angled section on the right end.

To clarify, the building and water tower were both embedded into each print with the tree line that they reside behind as a single image.  

I couldn't see the forest due to the trees

How does that old saying go? "One step forward, two steps back."

That is exactly how I'm feeling right now, but I think it will be worth the trouble in the end. After painting the trees at the entrance of the yard, I let them sit for a few days to see if I liked the look. While I was happy with what I had created, something was still bothering me. A few nights later, that "something" finally revealed itself: I wasn't thinking far enough ahead.

When I painted trees on the backdrop around the main layout, I did it so that when I eventually "planted" 3D trees, you wouldn't be able to see a solid blue background through the branches.  

In the following images, you can see that after painting the background trees, I finished the basic ground cover. The actual scenery base comes next (I haven't finished it yet).

 

I did manage to get some trees made and planted behind the Ruston depot scene. As you can see, looking through the 3D trees doesn't reveal a solid blue sky all the way to the ground. In my opinion, this gives the scene much more depth.

So, I decided to continue painting trees across most of the yard’s backdrop, just as I had elsewhere. My plan was to stop the painted trees, add an AI-rendered building at the end, and then start a line of AI-rendered and printed trees. These were meant to extend all the way around the yard's backdrop, with a few breaks here and there.

My thought was to place a printed building partially over the painted trees and partially behind the printed trees, which hopefully would create a forced perspective and add some depth. However, after looking at the building flanked by painted trees on the left and printed trees on the right for several nights, I realized that was exactly what was bothering me. I removed the building before taking this photo, but you can still get the idea.  There was just too much of a difference.

The main issue here was space. Unlike the other parts of the layout where I could plant 3D trees in front of the painted ones, the yard has no room between the rearmost track and the backdrop for physical trees.

This is why I was looking into printing photos of trees and buildings in the first place—I just simply got ahead of myself. I realized I needed to remove the painted trees at the yard entrance. I tried painting over just the trees, but since some of the clouds were behind them, I decided to bite the bullet and entirely repaint that section of the backdrop.

A couple of nights and two coats of blue paint later, the deed was done. Of course, I then spent another night repainting the clouds, but they turned out better—a bit more transparent and fluffier than before.

With that settled and behind me, I focused on the AI tree line. I've played around with 2D drawings and photos before, but I'd never attempted to use them for a backdrop. The idea for the tree line actually came to me while I was experimenting with AI to create backdrop buildings. At one point, I wanted trees in front of the buildings, and I really liked what Gemini produced, even if it was just a visual experiment at the time.  Mind you, this is 100% AI

So I fired up Gemini again and started playing with the command prompts, which really are the key to AI. I asked it to render a tree line for a model train layout and had it add a solid blue sky with no gradient, adjusting the shade several times until it looked right. After tweaking a few specific keywords, it gave me this:

Once I converted it to a JPG, I used an eraser editing tool to remove almost all the blue sky so I wouldn't waste ink during printing.

Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures in the proper sequence because I was so focused on the task at hand. But if you look closely, you can see the printed blue sky is slightly darker than the painted backdrop.

While pondering how to remedy this, I continued to search YouTube videos and found a modeler who had already solved the problem.  Basically, after the glued images were dry, he went back with the same backdrop paint and carefully blended it onto the edges of the images. Voila! Simple and effective.  If you look closely you can see the printed sky in the first image, in the second image the transition is barely noticeable.

  

Trees at the entrance of the yard

With the clouds finished I decided to get on with the trees.

On the left end of the yard where it connects to the layout, there is a 6' section of backdrop that I want to try and transition into the yard.  I started out painting the trees the same way and the same height as they are on the backdrop behind Winnfield.  I painted them about 2/3rds across.  At this point I think I'm going to add my first building then start painting larger trees.  I'm hoping this is going to help show some forced perspective.

This time before painting them, I had the forethought to record the progress unlike last time.

I started the tree line using the dark green that I used when I painted the previous trees, it's basically a Hunter Green and serves only to give me a base to build off of.

The next step was to stipple black paint, which is used to give depth to the trees and act like shadows.

Once this is done and dry, I used two shades of green craft paint.  A Dark Forest Green and a Medium Green.  I mixed a small amount of the Medium green just to lighten the Forest Green up a touch.

This also helps to mute the black so it isn't so stark.  At this point, the shape of the trees are starting to show up.

Next I used straight Medium Green and stippled it over most of the tree shapes, but since I want the sunlight coming from the upper left, I tried to keep most of this color from the middle to left side of each tree.

Now comes the fun part and where the trees start looking like trees.  Using the Medium Green I mixed a small amount of yellow in for a lighter green.  This I tried to keep to the left most side of each tree clump.  This is where the sunlight is starting to hit the leaves, making them a bit more bright.

Finally, I continued to add the Yellow to the green from the previous color.  I didn't want the leaves to look too Yellow, so the previous green gave me a subdued greenish yellow and just enough to highlight the leaves and show a pronounced shape of individual trees.

Too much yellow and the effect will look ruined.  It's hard to tell, but the colors do darken a bit as they dry.  Sometimes it's good to stop and give the colors a chance to dry which tells you if you need more or less color.

With this stage done, I sat the backdrop back into place.  As in the yard, there is no space between the track and backdrop to plant full 3D trees, so I think I'm going to use a small amount of poly fiber covered with some darker ground foam and place it along the backdrop to hopefully hide the line where the backdrop meets the surface. 

Truth be told, the entire painting process only required about an hour of my time.

Clouds over Biddle yard

Clouds were the first thing on the agenda for the backdrop behind Biddle yard.

These were made with an airbrush and stencils, pretty much as I had done on the rest of the layout. Except this time, I used my new Paasche double-action brush. Instead of using the cheap craft paint as I've done previously, I tried something different. After using Tamiya paint on the new tracks at DuBach and liking how it sprayed, I decided to try Tamiya for the clouds. I have to say, it was easy to use, easy to clean up, and had hardly any smell.

Here is what I've been looking for the past several years.

Here are the backdrops sat back into place with the clouds.

I have not painted any clouds on the small angled portion of the backdrop for now as I plan to hang a diagram of the yard on that one.  However, I suppose I could just keep the clouds a bit lower?

The next stage will be printing the buildings and applying them to the backdrop. But first, I'm going to play around with resizing them so they look proportional to the scene.  If I recall correctly, they should be printed around 20% to 30% smaller to give a slight appearance of distance?