Ground covering

I am using a 1" blue foam base for my layout, and I want to start covering it up. I have green and brown paint, and I have a couple of woodland scenic's products.

Should I cover the whole board with green paint and brown paint where I want rocks/mountains to be, then cover it with the woodland scenic products?

Then I assume I will lay the cork roadbed down, then the track, then apply the ballast to the track (using the same stuff from woodland scenics to hold it down)?

Oh and on the track laying, I am supposed to have ballast inbetween the track too, so I am curious how that works, as I don't want to get the glue on the track, but at the same time if I cover it with masking tape I wont be able to get ballast in the middle of the track. Any help?

Thanks,

Steve

 

I'm not an expert, but what I did was:
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• Glue down the cork</font>
• tack down the rails (I have heard of others using glue to secure the track too) </font>
  • </font>
  • When the rails are secured is a good time to weather the rails and ties. I used Roof Brown from both sides, which looked quite good I think.</font>
• then arrange the dry ballast until it looks right, in the track and on both sides</font>
• Mist wet water over the ballast until it is pretty well soaked- when water starts to run out from under the ballast you've put too much on. </font>
  • "wet water" is water+either a few drops of dish soap or some alchol, so that it flows into the ballast instead of just beading up on top.</font>
  • I found that an old windex bottle worked well to mist the ballast- spray the wet water up so that it drifts straight down on the ballast. The ballast won't be blown around, this way.</font>
  </font>
• use an eyedropper or something similar to put a mixture of 50% water-50% Elmers' glue on the wet ballast. It should flow right in. If you get bubbles, your ballast isn't wet enough with wet water yet.</font>
• The glue shouldn't bother the rails at all- but just to be sure, please clean the rail tops while the glue is still wet. An old rag, folded so that it doesn't touch the ballast at all, will do a good just of cleaning the rails right now.</font>

Hope that this helps!

 

As far as laying down your base color, usually I get my track in position first, then paint the ground. This way I can see any marks I need for laying the cork and track. Make sure your track is down and trains run well over it before you move on to the next step - it's a pain to have to change faulty track long after the scenery is done.

If you are going to have any hills, mountains or rivers or creeks, get those in place before you start painting. Why waste paint? Then you can start slinging paint! If you work carefully, you can lay down your base coat without dripping any on your track.

Pat

 

Thanks a ton guys, I really appreciate the help.

Pray59 - excellent site!

Steve

[ 15. November 2002, 20:29: Message edited by: Mindwarp ]

 

Which kind of switches are you guys using? All the ones I buy have a big motor thing attached that looks visible.

 

Do you have any pictures on how to mount them on foam?

 

any pictures of the underside of the table so I can see how they are mounted?