Does anyone besides myself, change their terrain periodically?
I use 1 ft thick Industrial styrofoam that makes changing terrain a breeze.
Why change terrain? Change course of a river or add an elevated terrain feature or lay new track or abandon a stretch of track and then erode the fill supporting it.
I’m like you, I’ve been using the extruded foam as a base and it makes it VERY easy to change terrain. I’m one of those “Dang, a river WOULD look good there, right in the middle of the peach-orchard” kind of guys–in fact I just extended a hidden reverse loop and I’m going to have to do some tunneling into a mountain that I thought was nice and finished (to say nothing of cutting in another river). So out comes the hobby knife and the shears, plaster-cloth flying. I don’t think that hardly anyone hasn’t adjusted terrain on their layout at one time or another. it used to bother me, all that work for nothing, but it seems every time I decide to change something, it looks a little more satisfying (to me, at least), once it’s done. I’m not one of those sacrosanct guys that figure once it’s up it’s there for Eternity. If change will improve it (at least for me) then I’ll change it, full speed ahead and Dang the torpedoes. Now I’ve go to go out to the garage and charge up the excavator!
Tom
[}:)][}:)][}:)]
Tom,
Glad to see there’s someone else. For little jobs I use a drywall saw. For the big jobbies, I pull out the sawzall. Man, you oughtta see those beads fly!
Good I got a 6.5 HP shopvac!
A bit like building sandcastles, if I may use the analogy.
I know the feeling–I’ve changed terrain a couple of times while expanding the layout. Next project is putting in a lift-out bridge to a projected yard on the other side of the garage. My Yuba River Sub is mainly Sierra Nevada mountains, but the yard is going to be in the Central Valley, near where I live, so it’s going to be gently rolling country. Good thing for me my garage space is limited, or else I’d probably extend east into Nevada desert, LOL!
Tom
Gotta love those big shop vac’s. I always told my family that when I replaced my 30 year old shop vac, it would be with one big enough to ride! Sure enough, that’s what I did. The family was out in the yard so I hopped on that baby and just rode her down the driveway. It took them 10 minutes to stop laughing! [8D]
Tom