I’m currently planning an HO mat and want to use a grass mat (I don’t want to deal with the trouble of glue, and other stuff). Are there any good ways to make a mountain that would look good on the mat? I can also buy a pre-made one but I want to give it a try myself. Thanks!
-JackMiller341
It will be an exercise in frustration, and it will look horrible…probably. The reason is that you will have to cut it to look like a Mercator projection in order to fit half decently on a dome-like framework. You are attempting to take an essentially two-dimensional object and mold it to fit a three dimensional object. Then you would have to hide a bunch of seams.
Ground goop, or strips of cardboard in a coarse weave, and covering the weave with paper or plaster cloth would be the way to go.
Crandell
There is no way you can make a mat conform to a mountain realistically. Buy a scenery book or two, It’s not that hard to do.
In my biased, humble opinion grass mat is only good where you have a flat surface that you want to look artificial and unnatural. Take the other advice and try some experimenting with ground foam and other products. It is a lot easier and more fun than it looks.
Joe
Agreed, stay away from the grass mat. I was pleasantly surprised to find out how easily plain pink or blue foam could be made to look quite respectable.
I did mine by shaping stacked 2" foam sheets. In some places I added I used a little Sculptamold to fill gaps and add a little texture to the smooth foam surface. Then I paint a square foot or two at a time with my basic earth tone paint (something like tan or light brown). While the paint was still wet, I sprinkled on some various colors and textures of gound foam. First coat was on, simple, the paint was the adhesive. When you are ready you can add more layers of color and texture using an adhesive, it really is quite easy.
Good luck,
Richard