Once an adequate base of foam is in place, plaster cloth surfaces and a basis ground cover can be put in place.
In this view, some plaster cloth has already been stained with some Woodland Scenics earth coloring diluted with some water. Other pieces of plaster cloth are being applied by cutting fairly large rectangular pieces, placing them where needed and dabbing on water using a foam brush. Once wet, I use a wet finger to smooth out the plaster ... the piece in the upper right has been only partially wetted and smoothed ... I usually start with wetting and working the portions of the cloth that I want lined up with either a hard edge or another already installed piece, then come back to the rest of the section of cloth to complete the process.
The following view show further progress with the plaster cloth and initial staining ... staining usually involves a number of passes, starting with the earth coloring and progressing to a blend of green and slate grey. I'm not all that careful about diluting and blending so sometimes I find that I need to go back and make another pass to adjust. Also, to fill in or build up some of the surfaces, I use Woodland Scenics Mold-A-Scene material and following the addition of that, I have to go back to recolor the sections that are covered up by this additional material.
As can be seen below, I've used some of the Mold-A-Scene material to build up and smooth some of the surfaces. Also, I've done a very quick initial pass at the foreground area with some ground cover, layering earth, olive green and a bit of a brighter green blend held in place using a 50% diluted scenic cement dribbled over the surface. The branch line roadbed and track is yet to be installed but with the basic surface now covered with plaster cloth, I can move forward with adding that next.
If you looked closely, you might have noticed that I have painted the portion of the track that is permanently installed with a rust coloring ... I'll follow up shortly with a brown coloring for the ties before working on the ballasting.
