My 12 year old and I were just given the day to start our scenery. I have trains. I have some track. I have a 3x5 homasote 400 trainboard over plywood base. I have nothing for ideas on where to begin except we'd like. A tunnel Some inclines A place to park 2 short frieght trains and a complete Kato SP Daylight. The list goes on to be much longer, (roundhouse, some switching, more loco's)but the space doesn't grow until I move to the garage for the 4x8 or slightly larger layout. I've seen the $250ish, starter kits, but they seem to be for 2x3. We have a few pretty good shops in the area, so I can buy a book with the supplies, but what do I want to spend money on today. I don't want to go overspend on everything that looks cool (Given the money I've spent on trains this year, fat chance....) Up til now, we've been clearing the space and playing with trains, atlas track and wiring. An answer realtime, is a lot to ask, but we're leaving at about 10:30 EST. Wish us luck.
For quick and easy scenery with elevation changes, hills etc...... Stop by Home Depot or similar and pick up a sheet of high density insulation foam (Pink or Blue, not the white or yellow stuff). A 4x8 sheet of 1" should be plenty for the layout size you have to work with. Next walk down to the oops paint shelf and find a nice tan or brown paint. When in the paint section pick up some Light Weight Spackle Compound and while you are at it, get some latex contact cement or foam safe liquid nails to glue the foam together. Some cheapy paint brushes and spachula's will round out the tools. Then head to the shop and pick up a couple of the Woodland Scenics learning kits. I suggest the Landscaping, Rock and Scenic Details learning kits would get you a good start an assortment of ground coverings. This is assuming you have all the track and roadbed you need to layout the track. If not, track work comes first. One Landscaping Learning kit with plenty left over was used for all the ground cover on the layout below. It is 17" x 42"
Originally Posted by kmcsjr I have a 3x5 homasote ...and a complete Kato SP Daylight. That is going to be tough... I'm seeing that, but if I can just run the Daylight in a loop around the edge and work with the frieght in the middle, all might be happy.... On flat track that looks doable, add a tunnel and some grade and I can't see how anyone can run a long train in an are smaller than... really big.
I would look at the kato site under Unitrak they have some easy quick layout ideas. The elevation you'll have to use imagination . But put you off into a fast quality start. Stater sets I wouldn't recommend. You can purchase the components better and sometimes cheaper individually than in a set. Kato puts out Unitrak easy reliable. Atlas everyone knows. There coming out with a code65 track with roadbed like Kato. But not out as yet. Late Summer maybe. Micro Engineering if you want ProtoTypical track. Lots of great ideas around here in threads already. Enjoy the browse and the responses.
Thanks all We bought a 1/2 inch sheet of foam insulation, a 2% WS riser set, a double bridge, a Kato double crossover and some farm building models. After looking around today, we're doing an outer double loop that rises to a bridge. The bridge will be over water that ends in a pond. We're going to work out a farm and some fieght space into the middle. We'll see what happens.
I second everything Tony said. Extruded foam (pink or blue) with spackle is how I've been doing scenery for several years. I don't like working with plaster as it is messy and cures too fast. Plaster cloth over crumpled paper is still good for rugged terrain. The nice thing about scenery is that anything is better than nothing. I'm an engineer, not an artist, so I don't expect much from my efforts (and that's usually what I wind up with...). :tb-biggrin:
Well... I've already resized! My wife agreed to 4x6, so I'm canning the Homososte and going back out in the AM for a sheet of thin plywood and another 1/2 of foam. Interestingly I reread the foam notes and you all called for pink or blue, not yellow or white. My first 1/2" has a blue facing, but is actually white. I'll pick up solid pink for the next layer, but whats the drawback on the blue faced white? Jerry Wow, what a layout. 135 pages in the thread... Made me wonder if I'm over my head, nice details though. We're still gonna start with a fun for the 3 of us imaginary scene that allows for some building and lots of train play with the kids.
The white expanded poly foam is a mess to work with and it doesn't have the same texture. The pink high density foam is stronger, carves better and is also nice because it melts away from fire instead of burns should something go wrong. See here for more help using it: Model Railroad Scenery using Extruded Foam - Tutorial - TrainBoard.com
Let's see, burning my house down, because I want to play and I had a short..... But I already spent $10.88 on a sheet of this stuff! Thats gotta be 1% of what I've spent in the last 2 months. Thanks for thre link. My 14 year old is gonna have a laugh when I spend a ton of fathers day on you tube, considering my aversion based on some content I've seen.
To add to what others have said, the pink and blue extruded foam are also superior for both strength and sound deadening. Running a train on the white foam has a similar effect as running one around the top of a snare drum. Others may argue, but I feel that extruded foam (for sub-roadbed) and Woodland Scenics foam "trackbed" (for the actual roadbed) have surpased the old standbys of homasote and cork roadbed (not looking to start that debate, just one man's opinion). If you do choose to go the route of extruded foam for scenery, I would suggest picking up a small Stanley "rasp" at Home Depot, etc. These have a curved cutting head about 2" square and work great for shaping extruded foam. You can also use course sandpaper to achieve a final smooth surface. Have fun and experiment. The stuff is pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things. Here's the link to the Stanley tool I described: http://www.stanleytools.com/default.asp?CATEGORY=SURFORM+TOOLS+AND+BLADES&TYPE=PRODUCT&PARTNUMBER=21-115&SDesc=7%2D1%2F4%26%2334%3B+Surform%26%23174%3B+Shaver
New question. Plaster paper between WS risers and WS trackbed or no? It's been suggested that I start the plaster paper on the outer edge of the trackbed, but 'm going to have a small gap between parallel lines, so was wondering if paper would make ballasting easier... I built the 2% risers on 1' Pink foam today. I did cheat and use some of the flammable 1/2 inch stuff, but I found that when I lit a small piece, it burned and put it self out, in a way I couldn't relight. It blackened and hardened, but wouldn't relight.I didn't attatch foam to plywood yet, so I decided I'm going to lift the layout and slide another inch in. This will allow for a farm on the left bank and a small frieght set up on the right bank. I'm gonna try and design a way for the frieght to get up to the passenger loop as well. My outer loop is about a 22" radius. in 6' this leaves about 2' straight in the front and I want to include a double crossover there and a rerailer, so that leaves only 1 small spot to turn down into the frieght area. Wish me luck.
WS recommends a single layer, not overlapped, gently sanded to smooth it out. I am not sure its necessary. Perhaps joint compound in the gaps, as I have seen that done as well.
Pics included opinions sought Here it is. I'm going to dig out some of the white and replace it with either WS, or other. I'm thinking of running a river through and having farm on one side and frieght on other. The question is, do I go up another inch on the base? (lift and slide another pink layer) This will allow for bigger contrast between lower farm and higher frieght/mining pit? Or will that look really goofy in the end?
I think if you want a river, it would look better to add the next layer, so it can sit in a little bit of a valley.
