Hi folks to provide additional information about the construction of my layout I wll (try) to explain how I built my landscape. As described in my previous post all the different layout levels have a plywood base. There's some styrofoam glued on the plywood. After the glue dried I used a very sharp knife to roughly cut the hillsides out. Then I used the same knife and scraped the surface of the foam. This creates an uneven and rough surface. Now the terrain is formed and ready to be covered. Lot's of you use chicken wire, plaster and stuff like that. I did a different approach. I use a mixture of white glue, water and sawdust. Mix these tree things until it has the consistency of marmelade. Maybe a bit thinner. Now simply cover your hills with this glue-water-sawdust dough. I recommend to cover the foam with 3-6mm of this puty. While it's still wet you can already add a first layer of Woodlands fine turf. It takes 2-5 days to completely dry depending on how much water you used and how fast the glue dries. Once dry you see that the glue-water-sawdust has an erath like color. Now it's time to add more of the Woodlands stuff. Let it dry another 2-3 days. After that the surface will be rock-hard. To add trees I simply used a screwdriver to punch holes into the hills. Adding some glue to the tree's roots and stick it into the hole. That's it ! A very useful investment is a de-humidifier. It helps to reduce the drying time. Again, if there's any questions please ask. And again sorry for my english. It's not my mothers tongue
Another technique I have heard is water and white glue with white cotton sheats ripped up, spread over latice card board strips. The one negative I have heard is that water can loosen the white glue so paint the area after it dries with a cheap enamel paint which seals everything. How have you found the whitel glue and sawdust? Has it been affected by water? Have you added plaster rock faaces to it? If you did, how did you attach them, with more plaster or hot glue?
Rick One of the big advantages of water-glue-sawdust over styrofoam is that you always have little problems in changing your landscape. Take a knife and reform your hills. Indeed this kind of puty is affected by water but only if you really pour some over your layout. A few drops don't do any damage at all. Also you don't have to do a whole area at once. If you add to an existing part simply use a little water-glue mixture to re-wet the areas where the new and old parts come together and they will easily stick together. So if you accidentally pour some water on the layout then let it dry for some days. Styrofoam is not affected by water and the surface will simply dry. My landscape is massive not hollow so there's nothing that can become weak or break if wet. That's the biggest advantage over the cardboard technique. More advantages of this technique : - no need to be painted, dries naturally brown - becomes very hard and stiff - easy to change and reform terrain - cheap - almost no mess Disadvantage - some mess in shaping the styrofoam - needs lots of glue Now to your other question. I use some Woodland rubber molds to create my rocks. They're glued directly to the styrofoam not to the sawdust-glue-water puty. I use a simple styrofoam glue. Guess you can't use hot glue on the styrofoam. Take a piece of styrofoam and give it a try. You'd be astonished with the results.
