Ok, I’ve been majorly sidetracked with a move, but today I got tired of looking at my risers sitting on pink foam and thought it was time to cover them. One thing I’m trying, too early to tell how it worked, is to use thin foam packing / wrapping material, cut to size and held down with dilluted white glue. This looks almost like paper towel but it’s thin foam material. Anyone else ever tried this ?
I have plaster impregnated cloth to try also. The stuff I have is from a craft shop and only 4" wide, Is it better to use the Woodland Scenics which is 8" wide ? How do you get it to lie flat around the curved sections ? Any advice on using either of these would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Dave
I haven’t used the thin foam you mentioned, but I don’t see why it couldn’t work for you. Use it as a base to apply plaster cloth and it will harden and be strong enough to support your scenery AND be very easy to change as needed.
You will use more pieces of 4" material as opposed to 8", but the end result will be the same. As for laying flat around curved sections, dry fit the material in place and you will see where you need to make slits so pieces can overlap and lie flat. When the plaster cloth dries, it will frequently leave holes in your scenery so you will probably have to add a thin coating of plaster to fill the holes. Mix your plaster to a thin but not runny consistancy and paint it over the cloth with a cheap bristle paint brush. If the plaster falls through the holes, it’s too thin. You may want to leave the surface a little rough and avoid that smooth plaster fini***hat is desirable on walls, but looks artificial on a layout.
Hope this helps. Post your results here so we can all learn (from YOUR mistakes! Ha Ha!)
Woodland scenics makes a great video on using their products and shows building a complete layout. I am sure it covers all your questions. I am a firm believer in a picture is worth a thousand words, so I am not going into a long discussion. They also have manuals that explain how to do everything. I highly recommend that you get both, you will not be disappointed.
I have both Woodland scenics books, and it doesn’t show covering it on a curve. It shows it on a straight which is no problem. But I got some 15" radius combo curves / grades. Dave
dave2dave::::
What type of scenery are you shaping the edge for?
BUild up layers adjacent to the lift area with layers or shaped (vertical) corrugated cardboard box
vertically it is strong and can be cut to the contour you want to form
attach with hot glue, cover with egg=carton/ apple tray pulp for rocky contours;
-horizontally you can glue layers of corrugated box, polystyrene or pink sheet to create the side contours of valleys/ streams/ and land folds as required;
and cover with a light plaster/ house filla layer, use a tooth brush gently stroking to add ‘strata’ layers and depth/ interest to remove unnatural roundness (which doesnt commonly occur in nature as we model it);
-finally paint dark (black, then brown or umber wash) when dry and highlight with lighter colours for your region before adding a light layer of scenic flock. *Too much flock is a common mistake)…
regds,
dave