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Obtaining all your supplies is just the start when it comes to model railroading. The next step is to do the landscaping with the help of foam spacers. They can be shaped to the design you’d like and then sealed with a fiberglass or hardener to protect them. A wire frame can be used to reinforce a larger landscape and some modelers will even bring in sand, dirt or stone for a more realistic look. One note of warning when using real-life materials however: graininess and texture of common elements can detract from the real-life aspects of a landscape. Most dirt is not fine enough to give a true impression of ‘earth’ in a miniature unless coated with an even finder coating of dust or powder. Keep your scales in mind at all times and work up your tallest points first (mountains, hills etc.) to help you form your valleys and streams or lakes in a natural manner. After doing the base, you can start to have a little fun. By painting all the surfaces, you will cover any extra glue and then you can begin to start to place items like stones and coverings. You can stipple on some grass with a fine brush to make it seem a little more realistic being careful to plan as you go. For instance if you are going to have a lake or pond place a narrow lake bed of earth around it and have a ragged edge encroaching onto this rather then taking the grass all the way to the waters’ edge. In real-life ebbs and erosion will cause the bank to be washed away and tree roots to be exposed etc. ” planning to emulate this will add a realistic touch that even the most demanding of viewers will comment on. Laying track can be done in several ways, the simplest is to glue the track to the bottom directly ” the most realistic is to form a true bed of crushed or powdered stone, with actual wooden ‘beams’ upon which your track is ’spiked’ but this is very uncommon and time consuming. Software to help with design and layout can help with more ambitious projects as well ” but thought to maintenance and accessibility should be given during this phase since cleaning and repairing track sections is the most likely maintenance to need to occur over time. The last step is to create the “vignettes” or small scenes. This is when the imagination of the model railroaders really can really make the layout come to life by creating the tiny scenes. Having the right theme for your city or train station is as crucial as keeping the right scale. You have the option of erecting the houses and buildings yourself or buying them already done and just placing them correctly. The human eye is capable of detecting even minute differences so staying true to scale is important in keeping the layout realistic. Landscaping involves so much more but you’re probably anxious to put on your engineer cap and start planning your project. Start by turning on the light and enjoying yourself!