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……………....--- Clouds Over Valley of the Gods ---=======================================

This is the last backdrop that needs clouds. It has Valley of the Gods (Utah) on one end and the coal mine on the other end.

I had to darken the image above so that the image on the tablet was more visible. In order to mix up the shape and size of the clouds I use clouds from pictures I’ve taken or found on the internet. If I don’t do this I find that I start making the clouds to similar. I don’t try and recreate the cloud but I’m more interested in the shape. The rest of the cloud kind of forms once I have the outline I want and start filling it in.

A start but lots more clouds to go as this backdrop is about 15 feet long.  I wanted these two clouds over Valley of The Gods and will work off to the left and right from here.

Day 2 of cloud painting, working from the clouds above off to the left and right of them.

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Most all of the clouds to this point have been painted from pictures I’ve taken of local clouds. I really like how dramatic the cloud that I’m trying to paint looks in the book PAINTING BACKDROPS FOR YOUR MODEL RAILROAD. I think I can get it a little better than this but doubt I can make it look like the one in the book. Might get painted over at some point.

The large thundercloud sill needs quite a bit of work....not real happy with it as is. Not far to go now, a couple feet around the bend will do it.

Worked on the thunderhead some and finished the clouds to the end of the backdrop. Like the thunderhead better and it is a lot closer to the picture but the verdict is still out on if I should change it to a more conventional looking thunderhead off behind the mesa. I did find that there are pictures of thunderheads shaped like this ( HERE ). We see a lot of thunder clouds here in the 4-corners often too far away to produce any rain for us though.

UPDATE: After seeing and photographing the cloud above just west of town I think I'll leave the thunderhead I painted alone, at least for a while.

Time to decide on what is next, no shortage of things it could be.

Probably move on to getting the unfinished foam scenery to about the same stage as what is shown here. Then get all the track in on the upper level before moving to the lower level.

Need a lot of trees, mainly Juniper but some Aspen for the sawmill scene. Ed and I, mostly he made a test run and completed the ones above in about an hour. They still need to be cut to height but will do that when I know for sure where they are going. He might be back in a couple days so need to come up with a plan for the Juniper trees.

A link to this whole build ( HERE ).

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