The Surveyors have Found Quicksand!

Well, thought this section was all figured out but leave it to the women folk to SNAFU that plan! The original plan was for the track to exit the tunnel and go straight across the front of the cabinets but my wife and her mother thought it would be more "interesting" to swing back into the wall but the problem was a stress bearing strut that couldn't be removed nor cut into. So the widest shelf would need to be placed here. But the biggest problem was that this wide shelf would be a lot of dead space that needed filling.

I had the problem of the tunnel that was coming out of the wall. I had to somehow transition this scenery that was seamless and made sense. So just sticking a building here was not going to work and my typical rock cliff was going to look funny making a sudden 90 degree turn. I decided that I would just have to make a large mountain but how do I make it interesting? Time to whip out the pen and paper! Hey where's my pen?

As I was whipping out a quick sketch to figure out what I wanted to do, it quickly became apparent that not only would I need to make the mountain but I would need to place and carve the tunnel exit/entrance that would incorporate my scratch built rock shed. I finally finished my sketches and got a very tentative OK from the CFO. So armed with a armload of Styrofoam blocks a hot glue gun and my handy dandy foam cutter I ascended the ladder, OK I ascended a couple of times; I may be crazy but I'm not stupid! Safety First after all.

This is how to build the mountain... measure, cut, glue then repeat. Its pretty simple really if you ever stacked anything like wood blocks, cardboard boxes, rocks, or a cheer leading squad you can build a big white (or pink if your going that route) basic mountain. The real trick is the carving. I shall now reveal to you my semi loyal readers the trick to foam cutting that was given to me by this nut case at a train convention in Ontario California.
Number one, plug in the foam carver
Number two, turn on the foam cutter
Number three, start carving small pieces of foam off the mountain, don't go big at first. This is where the old carpenters mantra kicks in, it's easier to cut out more than put it back on.
Number four, take a step back every now and again and check your progress, if you have drawings and photos check them at this time to see how well it's looking
Number five, this is the most important part... DO NOT TOUCH THE HOT END!

Now as you carve your masterpiece of foam you will (notice I don't say probably) find places that the foam just did not come together and has left small and large voids. To get rid of these voids we employ woodland scenic foam putty, just filling the voids, the separations between foam sheets or those pesky little acne scars you've had since high school.

After the holes are filled now you have to let the putty dry THOURGHLY before we paint. So let's take a break and play a little Red Dead Redemption!