Ztrains | Z Scale Diorama Fascia And Background Design

Following up on our recent diorama design, we wanted to add a little more fascia flair to this piece. We previously had just the foam edges of the diorama cut on our Proxxon Hot Wire Cutter and painted black, and though this looked fine... it needed a little something.
I went with strip wood of various sizes to represent a crate / cargo feel for the fascia. As I'm thinking freight for this design, mini wood crates seemed a natural fit for a background. I like this fascia and crate tandem as it gives this diorama a rough, out in the wild feel.
This diorama is now for sale on our own US Z Scale website: uszscale.com/DIO-10

[@TheModelRocketeer]

Subbed just because of this video... 🚀

[@Raildig]

Thank you!

[@rogerpeck5263]

awesome job on your train diorama , would you build me one like that lol . keep up the great job

[@Raildig]

Thank you!

[@franksilva3566]

I knew I’ve seen it before, it’s on the ZTrack Center main page. I certainly hope you create more instructional videos.
I would like to make Z scale cactus (different types); can you lead in the right direction?
Thanks - Frank

[@Raildig]

Frank, I played with cactus years ago but found them just too small for me to build with good detail. Honestly for Z cactus, I'd try out some of the Shapeways offerings, as found (at least partially) here:
www.shapeways.com/marketplace/miniatures/scenery?tag=cactus
No idea how good they are in person but this 3D printed stuff is getting a lot better. Will try and get more video up! Thanks.

[@jimmccorison]

I really like the overall effect. But the box car on the abandoned spur into the tunnel is visually jarring to me. You wouldn't likely leave a piece of rolling stock out there in the middle of nowhere, especially with no buffer stop to keep it from getting backed into the active lines. How about a serious weathering job? Like what you'd expect from a car that failed 25 years ago (dropped truck?) and they just left it there because they were abandoning the spur. Yeah, I know, it's a diorama. I just get too logically minded sometimes.

[@Raildig]

" I just get too logically minded sometimes", I think that's a huge part of the fun in this! I like the idea of a weathered body truckless very much. Actually this piece just sold this past week so it'll be up to the new owner but I'll keep your idea in mind on the next one as I really like abandoned elements, thanks!