I read one of the Lionel books about making layouts and it said that you can use a “Plaster and Industrial Paper towels method” to make moutains. I was wondering if the same effect could be maid by draping newpapers over the chicken wire and painting dilluted white glue over it would make the same effect. Any suggestion or warnings?
Thanks, Grayson
Chicken wire can be problematic for TMCC as it can interfere with the radio signal. There is an easy fix but you may want to just avoid it.
If you want to use newspaper and some type of form, you might want to skip the white glue and just use fabric starch (like Sta Flo). Just soak the newspaper strips and drape over your forms. If you do this in light layers, the drying time will not be so prolonged and the material will be closer to true hardshell. Our kids had to use this technique to make Pinata’s in middle school. The strips were layered over balloons. I was very suprised at the strenght/rigidity of the starched paper.
I made a lake shore with linen varnished over wire mesh. When dried, I covered it with a mixture of green paint and saw dust. Then I molded it to the desired shape. It looks surprisingly realistic. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for a mountain side.
When I was a kid, I made mountains for my layout by putting flour-water paste between two newspaper sheets, then draping them over random objects temporarily piled up on the layout. When it dried, it wrinkled and stiffened in a satisfying way that obscured the shapes that had been underneath. A few slender sticks here and there supported the thing. If I ever get that far with scenery again, I’ll try the same method.
I have some large mountains that have stood the test of time. Forms were made from cardboard strips. Stapled to wood risers woven and glued together to form a web. Over this I draped wet industrial cloths. The kind you see in a washroom. Stand back and make sure it’s the shape you envisioned. Keep the towels moist for the next step. I always got brown grocery bags in the store and cut them into squares with varying sizes and stockpiled them. Mix up some ordinary house plaster and dip one at a time in and placer them over the damp towels. Overlapping as you go along. If you happen to stop and start up again make sure you wet the previous portion. It’s best to have a helper mixing plaster while you lay the plaster strips. Over this you can lay a final finish coat as well as adding rocks and such.
You want a good solid mountain that if leaned on will hold up as well as when it comes time to plant trees you can punch a hole with an awl or drill through it. The whole job basically costs the price of the plaster. Everything else such as old cardboard boxes and grocery bags can be gathered at no cost.
Chuck - I like the starch idea. I’ll definately give that a try next time I do scenery.
It all sounds too messy for me.
What I usually do is to call in a Scenic Designer, explain just what I would like to have done, review his plans, turn them over to a set director who has a crew standing by, inspect the finished product and have it installed. [;)]
P.S. I almost forgot…Have someone else pay for it. [(-D]
Seriously: I’ve tried most of the popular methods over the years. One I have not tried is the “plaster cloth over newspaper method” and, from what I’ve read, works well. I might try it next. Whatever you decide, all the best.
I use the “plaster cloth over newspaper wads” method. The LHS normally carries the Woodland Scenics brand but for the Christmas layout I used a different brand that they had. It was significantly cheaper and worked just as well, it seemed like the only difference, at least to me, was that the Woodland brand cheese cloth was a little heavier. To finish the surface I thin out some joint compound, pretty soupy, and hand apply it to smooth out the surfaces. Afterwards it can also be worked with a water spritz and paint brush, if need be.
My latest creation can be seen on Sunday Photo Fun.
Bring your Tarp with you! This was very messy situation for me… could not get the newspaper to absorb enough of the plaster. Had to reapply lots of plaster to cover up the newspaper as well.
I moved on to cut supported foam, and/ or drapped paper towels soaked in plaster, don’t have to use both with the use of sculptimold I found the benifits were:
lighter construction
less mess
fewer applications for finished results
not having to worry about being cut or poked using the chicken wire or screen.
you can mix latex paint into the paper towel plaster mix or scultimold to achieve a base coat of color. then if there is a chip or oops you can cover it up w/o repainting
White glue does not absorb latex paint well after it dries. And provides a glossy non stick finish… not really what you want when you need to apply the next layer of paint and scenery (not even sure if plaster will stick to dried white glue).
White glue is so strong its almost impossible to plant trees, signs, spikes, route wires, etc, through it.
Best to spend a little coin to avoid frustrations later…
Just my experience…
Whatever you do don’t make your mountains out of paper mache if you have a dog. I have DOGZILLA, a black lab and made my mountain out of paper mache when my layout was on the floor. At nite DOGZILLA came out and ate most of it. Just a warning.
laz57
I’ve just covered cut out cardboard boxes with LifeLike’s ‘mountain paper’ - you were supposed to wet it, crumble it and then spread it out to lay it over the boxes but it was just like wet butchers-block paper - didn’t work very well. I wanted the more ‘pre-war’ effect though. And now years later, it still looks OK - I’ve added ‘greenish’ cut-up towels too.
To your original query, Grayson, I’d say that would work as well. When I was in N scale, I painted fabric with diluted white glue - over slight forms to create rises and cuts - not large mountains. I sprinkled ground foam on it while still wet. It dried well, kept its shape and was light.
I have used the chicken-wire-paper-soaked in plaster mountains, but the HO guys really have a much simpler and easier technique that is even quicker for O-gauge.
I glue together (with GreatStuff or Polyurathane Hot Glue) run of the mill cheap PINK and white Styrofoam pieces and then trowel on lightweight joint compound.
I then paint with H2O color spray paint ( greys, browns and almond) and as the paint is still wet throw on the grass, earth color materials.
Poke in the trees and I’m done. Its light-weight easy to make changes to and add or subtract material for platforms for accessories, track etc.
Alan
Alan makes a good point - also I was just reading in an old MR about making cliffs / mountains out of ‘broken’ ceiling tiles. It looked great. Just glue 'em together.
Frank53 has developed this technique to an artform. [tup]
I take it yard “clean-up” was interesting that particular week…?[(-D][(-D][(-D]
GREATSTUFF is an ideal bonding material to anything. I spray it onto a paper towel and then trowel that on the back of the styrofoam and after it sets up the mountains are locked together. At the same time it is still cutable with a dremel and cutting wheel, small rasor saw or wire cutter; It is best to hot cut in a well ventalated area though.
The polyurathane Hot Glue can be set up quickly by spraying with an “air” areosol can turned upsidedown to freeze the glue. Dont touch until the frost melts.
The chicken wire cannot be set to maintain any intricate mountain pattern because once you slap on the paper-soaked in texture paint, the detail is lost. No so with the styrofoam and joint compound where you create the detail as you apply the compound.
There is no problem with TMCC signals because the wire is gone. But that may not be a problem with TMCC-2.