Modeling Series Spaces To Places Spaces to Places III | Making a highway, part 4

Spaces to Places III | Making a highway, part 4

By Gerry Leone | February 9, 2023

Finishing the scenery, backdrop, details, and all!

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Work on the highway underpass settings concludes. Watch as host Gerry Leone shares techniques for blending his realistic photo backdrop into the scenery. Starting from the back and working to the front, Gerry builds out the countryside setting with a variety of ground cover, strategically placed trees, and signature roadside details that turn this model railroad space into a plausible place!

For more information about the unique backdrop blending technique Gerry employs, read Gregg Condon’s February 2021 Model Railroader article, “Blending Roads into Backdrops”.

8 thoughts on “Spaces to Places III | Making a highway, part 4

  1. Hey, thanks to everyone for their overly generous but much appreciated comments!

    Michael — as far as the Gordy Howe idea, keep your eyes peeled for the next episodes. It’s not a full-blown “high rise and trains in the street” urban area, but I’ll be building a good size town that’s appropriate for my layout.

  2. Fantastic stuff! The way you blended the road to the backdrop was perfect. I noticed at one point that the trees on the new bit of backdrop were out of alignment with the old backdrop. That really worried me. Then of course you disguised that with a couple of trees. I apologise for ever doubting you.

    One bugbear I have (and this happens in a lot of videos, and in movies and on TV too) is that the “background” music is too loud compared to the dialog. This makes it harder to hear clearly what you’re saying. I’m an older guy (and I suspect a lot of your viewers are) and my hearing’s not what it used to be. So could we tone down the background music, to maybe half the volume it currently gets set to, or get rid of it altogether. I certainly wouldn’t miss it. (Rant over)

    Thanks for another great video.

    Ron Ventura
    (Melbourne, Australia)

  3. Sheer genius sir! You make it look so easy. Just a refill on my barrel of patience and who knows what can be accomplished.

    After 65 year I now know about “fog lines” on the road. Thanks for that tidbit too!

  4. Gerry, Superb as always. Glad you’ve done a mix of “Spaces to Places.” Small towns, open country, dare I recommend a more urban area for the next project? A model railroading Gordy Howe Hat trick of sorts… Thanks again Gerry!

  5. Wow, that turned out great Gerry! Thanks for the inspiration. I plan on adapting some of your techniques to my small N scale coffee table layout.

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