This is probly really obvious but what the fudge is “ground goop”?
ground goop is a phrase I read in a book by Lou Sassi. There was a nice formula for it. People say it works well. I use my own formula:
Premixed lightweight drywall seam compound. I get mine in a bucket at Menards. I keeps in a sealed container for months.
latex paint to get proper color. I use black for Minnesota farmland and light tan for Arizona
Saw dust. I use everything but from the plainer.
drop of Lysal for mold control in the sawdust.
Water for consistancy. For some mounding and gap filling I use no water.
I paint it on with an old paint brush
I add ground foam while it is still wet. It takes about a day to dry and can be cleaned up in the sink. DO NOT clean plaster in a sink. ( Plaster cures and gets warm. Drywall mud dries and get cool to the touch)
I used it because I had the sawdust and I liked the slow drying time and cleanup. I also liked that I could make up a batch and have it on hand. With plaster to have to mix it when you need it.
Interesting stuff, might try that on the indoor when I start scenery on it.
A tad more progress
I added highlight colors to the bluffs on the layout above. Going to go with 3 facades at the top with the watertank as shown, and the “house of relief” next to the water tank (eeewww!) [:O]
Got a bag of standard indoor large scale “Ballast”, in the pet aisle of the local Theftway… dam stuff has pink “scent control crystals” in it, another had blue ones, geez well at least pink looks more southwesterny than blue, but the white kitty litter looks like hell on the layout [|(]
So spent the evening “staining” my kitty litter, dark brown paint mixed with water in a small container dipping the kitty sand in a strainer into it, looks alot better now got to wait and see if it dries out by tomorrow evening, nice warm day tomorrow, otherwise its going to get baked a little in the stove to dry it out.
Well a hard push this weekend squeezing time in between yardwork and chores, yields results, I give you
Tincan Junction
Overall view
Station looking up the hill
Looking up the hill from the crossing
View of Brien’s Pinnacle
Tincan itself, a one horse town and they had to borrow the horse.
Still lots of little detail stuff to add, I thought this would take another month to do but it went surprisingly fast, BTW this is a full dress rehersal for my bigger indoor layout.
That is great stuff. You prove my point, “Don’t worry so much, get some foam and don’t be so careful. Have fun, make a mess and it will look great.” Yours looks great. I love Brien’s Pinnicle.
I Have tried both of those methods and I think the best is a combination of the two.
I have an idea of what I hope to accomplish in my head and usually cut a full size base piece that I begin with (no larger than 4X4). I then cut other pieces of styrofoam into narrow strips 3-4" wide and about 8-18" long. I use liquid nails (for projects works well) and begin to build up the terrain in sandwich style and when they reach the height equal to the proposed size I cap them off. This style uses far less of the mateiral and is easy to shape with a shaping tool. give it a try. Ace - choo-choo
Sort of…[:D]
Took the finished layout to the Big Train Show, a local train show for large scalers.
It was a big hit, gots tons of questions and inquiries. The pizza layout in our group booth:
and a friend took a video, came out a tad dark but ya get the idea.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=yxrimi_8bNo&feature=user
Overall it was very worth the effort. According to one of our group, people would go by the house sized Del Oro layout and say, “I can’t do that” walk by the garage sized Sundance Central and say “I can’t do that, then they’d walk by our booth and say, Hey, I can do that!”
Next will be adding some custom built buildings with full interiors on the roadway up and a mine complex at the top, which was the masterplan all along…and as I found that even at 3x3 it’s still a bit of a PITA to move, I’m thinking of really pushing the envelope…so to speak, with an even more portable G scale layout, say… 24" x 24" ???[:O]
I have been following this since you first started… That came out really, really nice. Looks great man. The final scenery and painting you did really sets it up on the next level.
That is really nice work, vsmith. What scale is it?
Also, could you post some pictures of the unfinished layout we can partly see in the background of one of your photos? It looks interesting.
Time to resurrect this thread, going to rework this puppy and may have some questions, as I’m going to add a second track to this monsterously oversized layout[:-,]
How the devil you ask? …stay tuned[swg]
Hi Harry, sorry I missed this post 1st time around, its my main indoor layout, both are G scale, can do with new pics if still interested. [;)]
Wonder who can figure out how I’m going to add a second track to this thingamajig.
[:D]
My guess is, you are going to wipe the town, and run the second loop up there, but then what? all trestle? or have it extend further? Surely not smaller! I just discovered this thread (thanks for reviving it), and can’t wait to see what you’re going to do. 
-Jon
Would you believe I’m also planning a tunnel on the new line [%-)][:-,][:-^]
Hmm… very interesting…
Looking forward to seeing what will happen! This from a fellow G / Gn15/ micro fan/ modeler!
[:P]
Started carving the blue foam support, having some real serious clearence issues as you can well imagine, so progress right now is slow, no pic yet till I get can part of it rebuilt.
Started setting up the foam peices
Cold weather makes glueing the pieces together a day long experience! Glue one piece, come back tomorrow, glue one peice, come back tomorrow[sigh]
But progress is occuring, once I get these pieces carved and shaped a little better I’ll glue the whole shibang together. I originally planned to place a small tunnel on top but looking at it now I’m not going to do that but will add more pinnacles and a small mesa along side the track to it instead.
Vic:
Leave it to you to try to pack 8 pounds of 
into a 4 pound bag! Well done my friend!
OK here ya go
(edit) OOPS! forgot I already posted those pics[:I]
Been a really busy weekend, but i’m just beginning to detail carve some foam, will try to get some new pics but progress is kinda slow as I’m not able to devote any real time to it, just a few minutes here and there[;)]