I am planning on constructing a tunnel this weekend and was planning to make the tunnel with reinforced cardboard. My question deals with how to cover it. After I make the base of the tunnel and the two openings what materials do I need and what are the steps to make the tunnel look real.
For instance do I used foam to make it look mountainous and what do I put over the foam so that I can start adding grass and trees. Thanks
Will
You should at least get a book from Woodland Scenics on this subject. They also have a lot of useful products. Model Railroader also has books on scenic modeling. A local library might have these books.
Rich
There are a multitude of answers for your question, what have you been or what to you plan on using for your scenery, Foam, hard shell etc. Even if you decide you want hard shell there are variations of it, screen wire and hydrocal or plaster, cardboard strips and paper towels soaked in plaster of paris, pink or blue foam carved up into scenery and on and on it goes.
If you decide on using foam a lot of guys use the foam it self to make tunnels. stack up pieces of foam on either side of the tracks with a layer of foam over the top, your best bet is if you haven’t decided on a method find your self a couple of scenery books and practice a few methods before you make a decision.
As far as constructing tunnels my thoughts are that they are an illusion as well with much otf the other scenery on my layout. I always make the inside of the tunnels accessible from either behind or under the bench work. So if a train derails inside the tunnel which of course it will, you reach up under neath or go behind the scenery and put it back on the tracks. I make the first couple of inches look believable by adding tunnel liners cast out of hydrocal and then paint and weather them. I had never tried this method before but ever since I have I like it a lot. On some tunnels I have only done the liner on one side as there is no way possible to view the other side so why do it.
I owuld suggest you do a little mock up work first and perhaps invest in some of the books that Kalmbach has to offer they are invaluable sources of information.
Here is a link you can look through if you cannot get a book right away. Store the link in your Favorites folder for future use.
Rich
On the home layout the mountains/tunnels are made from insulating foam. There are liners made from black matboard glued to hte foam mountain as it was being built. Latex Liquid Nails was used to glue the layers of insulfoam. Packing foam was then torn up with my hands and glued to the insulfoam block.
Plaster Hydrocal was applied over the packing foam chunks using a 2 inch paint brush. After the plaster cured the mountain was coloured using washes of Acrylic Artist paint. Grass and trees soon followed.
Once the tunnel portals are in place, you can use any type of scenery technique to construct the mountain that you choose. The options include, but are not limited to, foam, screen, chicken wire, cardboard webbing, etc. All are proven techniques that have been used successfully over the years. I have tried them all and my own preference is cardboard strips weaved to create the land form. It’s economical and the cardboard is easy to shape into the desired form. Once the shape of the mountain is created, there are a number of ways to create the surface of the mountain. I use red resin paper, available at the big box stores in the flooring section, and then cover that with joint compound or plaster. Plaster is stronger and prefereable near the front of the layout. In the rear where it is less likely to get knocked around, I use joint compound.