This is for an HO multilevel track, open grid frame bench type layout, (5 X 10 feet), not a flat sheet of plywood.
What would be a good and fast temporary scenery material, that does NOT have to be stripped away and removed later when you decide to construct high quality scenery at a later date? In other words, the later & better scenery would be applied directly over the cheaper-quick scenery, without loosing detail or effect or corrupting the newer better quality scenery. This would be greenery and hills, mountains etc., Or is this impossible and you really have to take the time and do it right the first time? Time is always the issue, unless you are comfortably retired or setup and don’t have to hustle to make a living.
Mike Holmes of HGTV’s Holmes on Homes would say “do it right the first time”
Why not take the time to do it right the first time?
“quick and easy” anything in MRRing always leads to a re-do and make over, or disasterous consequences.
A quick wad of newspaper cover with a plastered paper towel painted brown or green will later look like a quick wad of newspaper cover by a plastered towel painted brown or green.
I would take the time to move along slowly and do it right the first time.
Actually, the scenario you described is what Linn Westcott had in mind when he developed hard shell and zip texturing techniques. After reading some articles on various project layout in Model Railroader in the 1960s, I realized I didn’t want to wait to get all my track (even on a 4x6) done before trying out some scenery.
Another MR article from the '60s suggested just putting in some land forms with wadded up newspaper overlaid with ripped up paper bags. Not glued, just set in place to analyze the effect while running trains and see what worked and didn’t work.
With these ideas in hand, I got some window screen and played with it until I got the basic landform I wanted. I applied plaster-soaked paper towels over the window screen. The Plaster of Paris was colored in the mixing bucket with some food coloring - worked pretty well for a cheapskate like me. This gave me some earth-colored terrain as a starting point for later scenic endeavors. Anytime I wanted I could add layers of carving plaster or drill holes and plant trees or add ground cover and foliage or zip texturing or so on. If I didn’t like my initial shot at the terrain - I would leave the screen bare for a week or two to check myself - a jig saw would take it out with ease. If you use window screen as I did, use the fiberglass stuff instead of aluminum - it’s easier on the saw blades and drill bits.
Almost any scenery shell system lends itself to application of later detailed scenery if the shell is strong enough - and most are.
Note that I never ended up going back to re-detail the initial scenery beyond trees and ground cover - the layout reach its end before I got that far. The initial cut with some added trees and ground cover was good enough while I spent time on other aspects of the hobby.
Staple an old bedsheet to the layout and spray with browns and greens to suggest scenery. I’ve seen this done before and it will fool you until you get right up on it. Nothing fancy, no effort, no materials, no plaster, no thinking, and it should take you less than 30 minutes to do the entire layout. You can remove it in a matter of seconds. Try it!
You might want to consider the method Joe Fugate describes in his Vol. 4: Scenery and Bridges Part 1 video. He uses interwoven corrugated cardboard strips to form basic land forms. He covers these with tan masking tape which he then paints with an earth-tone paint. Normally be goes on to cover the painted tape with a mixture of plaster, fine Vermiculite and Portland cement which he paints and scenics, however in his video he says that in a pinch you could temporarily stop at the painted masking tape stage to get a quick terrain.
Check out both of his scenery and bridge videos Vol.4 Part 1 and Vol. 5 Part 2. They’re worth every cent. He is a master of scenery techniques. You can buy copies at www.model-trains-video.com.
What your asking goes against every premise of good or correct model railroading.Not to say what your proposing is bad but more of putting the cart before the horse so to speak. As a general rule and I find myself fighting the temptation every day I look at the amber waves of plywood, you should have “ALL” your track work down and done for a while before you consider doing scenery. The reason being lets say you decide to make a change or as I found out today a section of track was just not perfect. I had run trains over it for the better part of last year without and issue but when I got up on a step ladder I couldn’t see why I didn’t have a problem so I spent about an hour and fixed it the right way. If there was any kind of scenery there it most definitely would have take a beating not to mention having to deal with ballasted track. Which should be done before and scenery work is started. All that being said I would say an acceptable way of satisfying your urge to rid yourself of the lone prairie of plywood would be first to paint your plywood surface if thats what your using some earth tomes using latex paint.next would be to create some landforms from extruded foam at the work bench using the standard method of gluing pieces to each other and carving etc. until you get a desired shape, then paint and cover it with ground foam or what ever your ground cover of choice may be. add a few trees perhaps or maybe some rock castings. Similar to what Woodland Scenics sells shown in the pictures below or just buy a few of them and cal it done. I wouldn’t look to permanently secure them but maybe use a daub or tow of non hardening latex caulk so you can easily remove them when you want to your better scenery.
if you use building foam to top your benchwork, coat it with plaster cloth and color it. I jsut tore a 8x8 up in a couple of hours. The plaster cloth holds firm but rips up easy.
My emphasis added. I didn’t know there was “correct” and “incorrect” model railroading. I certainly don’t know what the premises of “good” or “correct” are. Perhaps you didn’t mean to be so strong on only one correct progression in building a layout.
All the MR project layouts of the 1960s that laid some track, did some scenery, laid some more track, did more extensive scenery, made more track revisions, finishing scenery, etc., did it to show that you didn’t have to do all the track and wiring first. That you could enjoy your layout through multiple, simple, non-overwhelming steps. I use the same progression to better enjoy my layout construction. There’s something very satisfying about laying new track or changing the track configuration in an area where there’s already some scenery.
And if a little scenery gets battered while adding, modifying, or fixing track, so what? Take a look at pictures of what happened when track was added to the Ma & Pa or PH&C project railroads.
Once I build out of the netherworld and get to the point where there should be scenery adjacent to the rails, I will put scenery adjacent to the rails ASAP - for no better reason than to prevent my rolling stock from sky-diving if it turns out that some part of my ‘built to be bulletproof’ trackwork - isn’t.
That initial scenery, probably quite impermanent, will be plaster-soaked paper toweling over balls of newspaper in plastic bags. A quick coat of latex paint, a sprinkle or two of ground foam and I’ll proceed with the next step - which, as likely as not, will involve extending the benchwork.
Once I’m satisfied that the trackwork in some area really is bulletproof, then I’ll go to work on the adjacent scenery in greater detail. Whether that will involve removing the preliminary landforms or adding layers to them will be determined at that time.
I rather expect that the corner where a five-tiered pagoda will sit atop a layer cake of trackwork on four levels (including a 500 degree helix of 350mm radius) will be detailed to near completion before the turntable is installed at the far end of the same town. I also expect that corner to be the first to be fully sceniced.
“What your asking goes against every premise of good or correct model railroading.Not to say what your proposing is bad but more of putting the cart before the horse so to speak.”
Obviously, I was speaking about AFTER all the plywood is finished, and all the bugs are worked out of the tracks and operation is smooth.
Everyone offered some good ideas, but for a super fast “mock-up”, I like the bed sheet stapleddown and spray painted. You could get a quick look at scenery possibilites and even problem areas with your more permanent scenery later, using that method.
I can easily see the need for some inexpensive, quick to do scenery. When building a large layout, you don´t want see that benchwork for years, until you have progressed with your permanent scenery. The idea of using bed sheets seems to be a good and cheap way. Should you have also installed your fascia, you can even give a certain contour to your “scenery”. If you soak the sheets with a mix of white glue and water, they´d even form a shell which could be the basis for a permanent scenery!