With one section of my benchwork in place I have started on scenery. One of the reasons for my use of a fantasy location was the opportunity to have old ruins and castles which are very limited quantity in the US southwest. Once again one thing as lead to another. I have found that I really enjoy the Dwarf King's Hold game and have been creating tiles to extend the game. To make a play area for a six player game I started casting and building tiles using Hirstarts molds and the large expanse on my new benchwork was the logical place to do this. Half of my new benchwork is now covered with a section of a ruined city.

I am liking the ruined city so much I am working into my model railroad construction plans. The ruined city is constructed on 1/8 inch Masonite sections that can be fitted together to make many configurations of walls, doorways and walkways. My model railroad plan is to have several switching areas connected with a helix so I did not plan any rural scenery before my new idea. My current plan is to put up a backdrop and cover the whole top of the benchwork in ruins before any track is laid. Before the track is laid I can use the ruins for Dwarf King's Hold games and sections that are in the way can be removed as the track is laid. As structures are added to support railroad activity I will continue to remove ruins that are in the way. The ruins that are removed can be used in new areas of benchwork as the model railroad construction continues. This way I will be having “operating” sessions by using my model railroad for war gaming before any track is laid and will have completed scenery before, during and after track is laid. The end result will be modular scenery on the layout making repairs and updates easy in the future.