It's been five months since I posted. There's a good reason - I've had very little time or energy to work on the layout.

I've managed to put in fifteen or twenty hours since the last post, though, so I thought I'd go ahead and tell you what's been done.

I've continued the backdrop installation and painting. Here's a photo of the painted backdrop before I installed any scenery:

I also did some cheap-and-dirty scenery for some shots for my helix presentation, which I gave at the Mid-Eastern Region convention in Reston in late October. Here's an overall shot:

While the landforms are the final ones (except for cutouts for access to tracks behind the hill), the yellowish scenery and trees aren't - they were just for the presentation. There will be no trees in this area and the ground will be a somewhat darker tan/brown with sparse prarie grass and sagebrush sprinkled around.

I've continued adding to the backdrop, and the skyboard now continues uninterrupted past Thermopolis. The hill profiles only extend to the curve in the backdrop at the corner right now. I'm going to try to continue on with them during the Christmas break.