i'm sure many of you older trainboard members have seen posts like these til your blue-in-the-face! But us newbie's rely on your expertise and past experience (called wisdom):tb-biggrin: Anyway, please curtique my method for building scenery. I want to start with cardboard strips, making a pattern and giving me form. Then i want to add tissue paper dipped in plaster-of-paris (cheap) to infill my cardboard strips and give me my rough terrain. Thenwhen that has dried, I want to add rocks from molds I have already producted. What is the best way to attach rocks to a dry terrain? Then (this where I'm not sure) I want to add a final thin paste layer, plaster-of-paris, and connect my rock formations and also create other land formations by scrathing, slicing, brushing, dabbing, punching, etc. Then do track ballast. And finally paint, turf & trees. Does this seem logical?
Well Bill I really don't think that there is a right way and, or a wrong way to do what your doing. Just different ways by different people. I use a method slightly different than you by using Newspaper for the foundation instead of the Cardboard strips. It' called being cheap, or spending the money on other things that I can't duplicate otherwise and or cheaper; like Locomotives & turnouts. But the rest of my process is the same as yours. With the news paper I just wad it up to the basic shape that I';m looking for and then follow your same process. That's my two bits. Just food for thought. Mainly it's Hobby so most important is having FUN.:thumbs_up::tb-smile:
I agree, many have their unique ways and most of them work well. I use either cardboard strips or wadded up news paper covered with fine screen door mesh, either nylon or aluminum. Then I use several layers of newspaper soaked in a 50/50 mix of titebond glue and water. Once that is done/dry I smear a thin layer of plaster over everything and dab at it with a wet paper towel to give it some texture. You can buy 25lb boxes of plaster of paris as home depot, it's cheap and dries fast. Don't spend a fortune on hydrocal or little hobby shop bags of plaster. I use it for everything, I have even been mixing RIT dye with the plaster to make pre-colored rocks. I found it's harder to do, but looks better if you place the rocks first and build the scenery up to them, they look like they are more "in there", then just pasted on top of the scenery.
Don't worry, we live for this. May be just a slip of the finger, but you don't want to use tissue paper. It's too delicate and will come apart when wet. You need paper towels (or newspaper). In fact, if you can find some of those cheap industrial grade brown hand paper towels they work great, and are strong. Take a look at this thread. http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=87641 It's long, but OC Engineer JD shows how he created a great section on his layout, going from the framework up, including placing precast rocks, and through final scenicking. Meanwhile maybe someone else will chime in with a quicker, more specific answer. Regards Ed
I like the method utilizing the cardboard strips, plaster cloth or plaster dipped paper towels, then a layer of GOOP. There are other recipies for goop but mine is thinset, house paint ( color of your choosing ), Celuclay, and a little white glue. Mix to a cake frosting consistancy and just spread it and carve your own unique rocks. It takes for ever to dry so there is plenty of time to carve and re-carve. My original coat included vermeculite that creates more texture. Here is my bare coat after the goop with vermeculite then a pic with some fresh goop( no vermeculite) with self carved rocks and limitted scenery.
billroth, unfortunately I shoot from the hip on the exact mixture ratios. Depending on the size of the project I would start off with the thinset, usually a few cups. I would add enough water to get it to start mixing into a difficult to mix thick batter, then add the water based paint that will thin out the mixture even more. I like to vary the amount of color a little to add variations in the results. I then add Celuclay, about 1/3rd the amount of thinset and mix in a little white glue, maybe a couple ounces per cup of thinset used. I mix and add ingredients until I get the frosting like mixture then wet down the area before adding the layer of fresh mix. I add grout to the mixture if I want more texture like that on a dirt road or open field. Hope this gives you a starting point. The above image has the first layer of goop with vermiculite and no Celuclay. The foreground is bare where behind the tracks I experimented with adding grass and shrubs, but no soil texture. I am not sure if I like the results here but it is in the background.
Take a look at the Ground Cover Tutorial in my RailImages. My substrate was styrofoam, but the same method can be applied to your hardshell. For what it's worth, all my scenery is styrofoam, as is my trackbed. It all sits atop hollow core door panels.
I used two underlays, aluminum window screen and J-cloths. I used hot glue to weld their edges, with each piece being custom cut to fit in a given configuration, with enough slack to get a bulge or a dip for varied terrain, and fixed those edges to my spline roadbed. Over that, I used a goop that was 4 parts fine-ground vermiculite, 2 parts Plaster of Paris (20 lb bags are cheap at your local hardware) and one part Portland cement. The results were most gratifying, although I would finish the look differently next time around by not leaving the scalloped edges I have in many parts. The finished product is rather soft and can easily be drilled out for tree armatures. BTW, in order to get lofting for hills and such, you need to place slats across frame members below it, and then stuff plastic grocery bags filled with crumpled newspaper below the section before you slop on the soupy goop. Use floor covering, too, although there was virtually no dripping or anything because the goop wanted all the water it could get for the first several minutes. It sets up quite quickly, but you can add more water and stir it and then continue scooping it out of the bucket. I only made small batches so that I didn't have to scour out buckets. -Crandell
Don't dismiss the use of fiberglass screening material instead of the aluminum. I believe it is cheaper.
If you go with your original method which is almost what I am doing, be sure to spray some water on between the layers of plaster. If you don't the old dry plaster will suck all the water out of the new wet plaster making it dry almost instantly.
