If the flow of the stream is from the bottom of the image to the top, it will continually cut into the ground under the bridge. And then the bridge will fail. It looks nice but there should be a retaining wall to protect the bridge pillars. Richard
OK, when the glue dries, I'll go back down and start removing the upper portion of the finger. My first thoughts were to keep it the way it is and then apply some sculptamold around that small ledge on outer upper finger for the looks of erosion. Then the upper layer would be covered in trees and brush. I guess either way, it should OK?
Nice work already. This is gonna be awesome when you are done. Well you know we are never done, but when it gets all the treatment I'm looking forward to this projects progress.
Good point. A layer or two of large rocks/boulders on the slopes around the bridge/trestle abutments is often used in lieu of masonry walls for this purpose. Also remember that a lazy, slow moving, meandering creek turns into a raging torrent as it rises during a flood.
The pictures are on Page 28 of the thread. There’s a map, too. That bottom floods by backing up from the marshy ground to the east.
It can, depending upon changes in elevation for that terrain. In flatter lands, such as I can recall from living in NW Louisiana, the water just seems to rise in place. No rushing torrents to speak of, at all. More like a puddle expanding as it accumulates water.
You're right; I'm more familiar with the rivers in the Ozarks, which drop more elevation per mile on average. When those creeks/rivers get up, they run, even when they flood into adjacent bottoms and pastures. My parent's built their house on a 40' bluff beside the War Eagle river when they retired. It overlooked wide, bottomland pastures across the river, that would become a tumultuous flow when the river flooded. You could even see an old river channel through the bottoms that the river would jump into before flooding the whole bottoms. We watched helplessly one Thanksgiving as the new owner across the creek had to rescue his cows/calves from the resulting island before it went under. The previous owner had learned to move his cattle early, a lesson this new owner learned the hard way. The pastures were enriched by the nutrients dumped by the risen river, and supported a high load of cattle, making it worth the risk and effort. My grandparents lived downstream on the same side of the river as my parents, but they were on the inside of a broad bend, so they faced a 90' bluff on the far side of the river (it was a gorgeous view!) They were farther away, and uphill from the river, so while their house was never flooded, the pasture between them and the river was a flooded once or twice a year on average. My uncle harvested a lot of hay out of that pasture (major floods were usually in the spring or fall.)
After getting all the foam in place and shaped, I gave everything a good coat of latex earth. Then I mixed up some Ground Goop (tried to color it brown, but it turned pink ) and worked into the edges along the creek to form undercuts. Then another coat of latex earth. I applied some acrylic paint for the creek, it was still wet when I snapped this. @Tad I decided to leave the upper portion of the peninsula as is. If I don't like the way it turns out, I can always come back in and shave it down like you suggested.
The ground goop (Sculptamold?) looks good! The amount of weeds, wetland and terrain here makes me think there'll be a ton of skeeters, and ticks... *itches* *heebs*
Thanks. Yeah, I should have noted, it's Sculptamold with some plaster powder mixed in. It's an old recipe that I heard about years ago. Yeah, it won't be a place for a picnic. Won't be a fun place for railfanning either....
Made some progress. I wasn't happy how the paint for the creek turned out, it was too thick and it left some heavy brush marks. Applying a gloss medium only enhanced the brush marks. So I decided to pour the creek and while I was at it, I added some brown craft paint to give it a muddy, silted look like the image from Google Maps. The water dried with a very glossy look, so I added some very fine ripples with some acrylic liquid mediums and padded them with a foam paint brush for a look of a gentle breeze. Once the creek and ripples were dry I installed the bridge and track. I'm finally on the downhill side of this scene.
Wow, that water came out great! Hmm... meanwhile, Kisatchie's layout remains hidden away somewhere in his brain...
