Leafing Through It

 I was running trains last night and I noticed some areas of the layout are starting to show their age a nd look a bit dusty, dull, and lifeless. One such area is around Gallitzin. I solution I learned from Bob Hayden is to simply apply more turf over the existing turf. However, the area I wanted to rejuvinate is a forest.

If you've ever been in a forest, you've no doubt noticed the floor is rarely green grass. I'd experimented in the past with using ground up leaves to mimic the look of fallen leaves, but I wasn't fully sold on it. But I decided to give it another try.

I must say the results are quite convincing, at least to my eye. The trick I find is to late some of the green turf bleed through. 

To make this stuff, I gathered fallen leaves from my maple tree, put them in the blender (please don't tell my wife) and let her rip. Once the leaves were chopped up fine enough, I put them through a strainer to ensure I used only the finest material. As of yet I haven't glues it to the layout but, I may do so in the future.

Another part of the project was cleaning up all the clump foliage my Woodland Scenics trees had shed over the years. Other trees were leaning quite badly and needed a few drops of CA to help them stand up straight.