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Mountain Scenery

THE MOUNTAINS' STORY:

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Having put off doing scenery (especially the mountains) for over ten years, the time finally arrived where I was forced to address the lengthy, tedious and messy process of completing the mountain scenery. Because of the size of this project the trains were not operational for two years. The messy part of mountain construction is now complete and the trains are once again running.

Special thanks to Sheila and Nancy for their patience with the color blind guy and their advice, direction and experimentation with coloring (staining) the mountains. Although there is still foliage to be done the hard and permanent work of coloring plaster is over.

I wanted to have snowcapped mountain tops that were removable so I could get to hard to reach sections. The tops are just white plaster to simulate snow.

Sheila thought that the top removable sections looked like witches' hats. So this inspired me to name them after famous witches. The mountain range is a takeoff of the French “Grand Tetons”. Hence the name “Le Grand Chapeau De Sorciere” Mountains or in English “The Great Witches' Hat” Mountains.

Going from East to West:

AKA Morgan le Fay, Morgan, etc. was a powerful female figure in the Arthur legends, represents control, sorcery, and manipulation. She uses underhanded, often manipulative methods to create her power. During King Arthur's reign, and in various romances and folk tales, Morgana shows up as a shape-shifter. She is a fairy, a queen, a mermaid, a beautiful young woman, a crone, a hag, an enchantress or a witch. In some accounts, Morgana has a bad reputation, is evil, sexual and a temptress. Elsewhere, Morgana is a heroine.

The witch was portrayed by Agnes Moorehead on the TV sitcom Bewitched. She was the mother to nose wiggling witch Samantha Stephens and mother-in-law and nemesis to mortal Dirrin.

Hermione Jean Granger is the young witch in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. She first appears in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, as a new student on her way to Hogwarts. Hermione was portrayed by Emma Watson in all eight Harry Potter films.

Maleficent is the evil fairy and the self-proclaimed "Mistress of All Evil" and is based on the evil fairy godmother character in Charles Perrault's fairy tale Sleeping Beauty, as well as the villainess who appears in the Brothers Grimm's retelling of the story, Little Briar Rose. She was also, played by Angelina Jolie in 2014.