i’m just looking for some cheap ways to build moutains… does anyone have any ideas?
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=39527
Follow the above link to the exact same question that has been running for a couple of days on the main forum. There are several ideas listed that might be of help to you.
thanks
Use the classic cardbord strips net / web method. Courogated cardboard is easy to find for free in recycling bins, beer stores, or any store in general that just unpacked a shippment. You can cut the cardboard into strips and build up an open cardboard frame for the landform. Y ou can then cover the the cardboard web with plaster soaked paper towels. This can become messy so make sure you cover your track where you are working.
Also, try using insulation foam. This can be found in large sheets at places like home depot. You can cut and stack this foam to form a rectangle or square of the desired hieght. Once youve done that, you can carve away. Using foam makes it easier to plant trees once you have completed the landform.
Newspaper balls wrapped in masking tape are good. Pile them up until you get the height you want. Then cover them with hydrocal cloth. Works great and is cheap.
RMax1
Bigger sheets of cardboard can be cut into profile boards, so you can have some more variety of slopes and angles in your cardboard strip and plaster towel mountains.
Jim
I use screen wire and joint compound. Just shape the wire to how you want and cover in joint compound.
I used foam board to create my mountains, and then used paper mache (news paper strips dipped in a flower/water mix.) It worked really well, and is very light, and cheap. all it cost me was 2 bucks for the flour. The foam board was free broken boards from the home improvement store, and the newspapers were old editions.
Another method is one that many real world railroads and cities use: turn your old high-side gondolas and wood chip cars into garbage haulers. Unload the refuse at the destination, compact it, and cover it with soil and grass when finished! There you have it: a railroad that scenics itself. Even though this response is a joke, there really are several landfill mountains supplied by rail in the US and Canada. Literally hundreds of carloads of garbage move through Buffalo, NY every week. Some even end up at the old Union Carbide dump in Niagara Falls, which is now “Mount Trashmore.” What the heck, it pays the bills.
What I used for my mountain was paper mache (Not sureon the spelling). What I did was crumble a few newspapers in a ball, I boiled some water mixed with flour. Put it in a huge salad bowl, (Warning: Ask wife or girlfriend first) I waited it to cool down a bit after boiling. I got Newspaper and tore strips off and dipped in the water/flour mix, and put it on the crumbled newspaper until I got my shapre I desired. It takes about 2 days to dry but talk about cheap.
I tried that once it got all moldy a week after i did it.[xx(] Thats why I like the screen wire and joint compound