Scenic upgrade on Sweethome Chicago

[Jon Grant 4472]

With less than a week to Manchester (UK) exhibition, I finally got round to working on some much-needed scenic aspects on Sweethome Chicago (SWC).

Having spent several weeks building trees for Sweethome Alabama (SWA), I decided that the existing trees on SWC were not up to scratch any more.

With time an issue, I de-forested SWA and quickly replaced the ageing trees on SWC. It was a relatively simple task of pulling up the old tree and replacing it with one or more of the newer trees.

I also had time to replace some figures and vehicles that had fallen off when the layout was out at Easter, and add some new scenic details.

Here's the progress so far-

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More to follow....


Jon

[Selector]

Wow!!! Looking better than ever, Jon.

-Crandell

[Jon Grant 4472]

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I only noticed the bent tree after uploading the photo.




Jon

[Jon Grant 4472]

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Jon

[Jon Grant 4472]

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Jon

[Gary S]

Beautiful work! Love the scene with the house and the children playing down by the creek. Also, your autos are first rate!

Everything is absolutely superb. The trees, the grass and bushes, the weathering, the colors, the details! I'll say this is some of the best I've ever seen.

Now, how about some "overall" shots of this layout?

[Chuck]

WOW! Absolutely amazing scenery! I love the urban grittiness of it. One of these days I hope my layout looks something like that....

Chuck

[Ralph]

Jon you are a master of both urban and natural scenery. It it a great pleasure to admire your photos. The "after" shots of the trees really demonstrate how realistic they seem.
Thanks!
Ralph

[P5se Camelback]

On this viewing I finally got beyond all of the foreground wonderfulness and noticed the "background background." You've gotta say it twice to convey the layered aspects of it! Bloody awesome!

It was in the photo of Brian' s Bakery where I saw it first ... peeking out from the distance ... an image that reminded me not of Chicago, but of my old big city home town of Philadelphia! If you've ever seen the movie, "Rocky," there it is ... the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with its classic Greek Revival architecture. I've only been to Chicago once (to the National Housewares trade show) and didn't really get to see much of the city. But the Big American City of the Thirties feel is right there for all to see ... in spades!

The "atmosphere" that exists between the viewer, the foreground modeling in all of its astounding realistic glory, the backgrounds and then the background ... it's brilliant!

[doctorwayne]

Looks better than ever, Jon, and it's nice to see that you've embraced our "give us some pictures" philosophy, too.

Wayne

[iis612]

Being an unfortunate resident of the Chicago area, I will say that you captured the flavor of the the area brilliantly!! There is clearly alot that can be learned from you and your modeling.

[faraway]

Sweet home Chicago was one of the very first layouts I discovered on the web after I moved from German to US railroad modeling. It had and has a huge influence on me. Sweet home Chicago is my reference for any urban layout in the transition period and earlier.
I am sure Jon created a layout that will still be referred to in 20 years.

[tetters]

Those new trees really add some depth to those scenes. Fantastic work! Eventually, I'll be modeling urban scenes on my layout, your pictures have given me some fresh ideas to use in the future.

Thanks for sharing!

[Jon Grant 4472]

The "atmosphere" that exists between the viewer, the foreground modeling in all of its astounding realistic glory, the backgrounds and then the background ... it's brilliant!

Thanks mate.

The backscenes are Railroad Graphics and available from here.

http://larcproducts.com/

One of my better modelling investments. All 3 discs are under $40.00 and there's a fourth on the way.

Jon

[ocalicreek]

Jon - I love the little bits of color you've added through the flowers. Nice upgrades all around!

And I'm glad you got rid of the 'Wicked Wanda's' sign, IMO. Just looks printed, as in MS Word. Will you replace it with a different one (or were you happy with that one)?

Galen