[5/4/07] I'm working on a 2' x 8' diorama of the Snow River Bridge (adjusted to fit) and thought you might like to see step 3 of about a 30 step process. Step one is to design the diorama, or in popular modelers terms the "layout design element", LDE) Step two is to build the Walthers Single track truss bridges. Step 3 (photos enclosed) is to create the land forms, gravel bar and water course.

[5/4/07] I've painted the land forms and water course and created the gravel bar in the center. The colors are not quite right, but I will fix those as I go along. It's really tough to find a color that matches the silt filled glacier rivers in Alaska. I think I need to add more gray (silver?). As you can see I could only fit in three spans, while the real bridge has four! The three spans are about 60" (5'-0") long and barely leave enough for reasonable approaches to each end of the bridge on an 8' section of foam.

[5/15/07] Steps 9-12 are basic scenery.
After the land forms were made with 1" foam and plaster, I painted them a generic green. I used a flat latex that I got from the local hardware
store's reject shelf, a quart only cost me a dollar.

Immediately after painting, while the paint was still wet, I added Woodland scenic's ground foam in various sizes and colors. Not done, but a good start.

I added Woodland Scenic's deadfall to the gravel bar in the river and added gravel and talus rocks to the slopes. I tired to follow the photos as close as I could to get the woods, rocks and brush in the correct place. For the larger rocks I used Woodland Scenic's Natural color extra coarse talus (part #785-1285). I'm not sure what it is made of, it's very lightweight and feels like rocks, but I'm not sure they are.

I made two boxes of Scenic Express trees and bought some evergreens for the woods. I still need to add more tress, but I am all out until I make and buy more.

I used Enviro-Tex for the water, it was my first attempt and I am not pleased. So I will re-do that later. I found out it's best to do all the scenery first and do the water last, not the other way around.

Still a lot to do, but I am pleased with the progress.