I am building scenery for the first time ever. I am trying to build roads and some simple scenery on inclines. I have used the plaster cloths for a hil and used Smoothit for the first road successfully. But I have a few questions:
-
I have seen many articles where a type of heavy paperboard is used for rail crossing or for streets-what works best to transition from paperboard or styrene to Smoothit on a street? I worried about paperboard being wet or adhesion to styrene.
-
From what I have read Hydrocal is for casting, Sculptamold for covering and blending casted things or over plaster cloth and Smoothit for streets. Are there any other uses for each that I am not thinking? is there another option for streets?
Any insights would be appreciated. Thank you very much in advance
Captwilb
The three plasters you mention are quite different in consistency and that’s what drives their usage. Sculptamold is very lumpy and thick so it won’t run and you can slap it onto a hillside and spread it out. In contrast, Hydrocal is much thinner so you pour into a mold but if you tried covering a surface with Hydrocal it would just spread out in all directions. Smoothit is a bit in between though closer to Hydrocal.
On street alternatives, I’ve seen people black styrene that they then paint (easier to paint than white styrene). Busch I think also makes a product that is a thin, elastic foam street with adhesive backing and that has pre-printed lines on it. It looks good and is very easy to do but it won’t match your homemade streets so it can be a bit limiting.
Scuoulptamold is fine for covering the plaster cloth on hills that do not get touched. For river bottoms and roughly handled areas I like to use Hydrocal Plaster. It cures quite swiftly, so you have to work rapidly. Hydrocal may need a primer before painting it. For a forested area, I suggest that you drill the holes for the trees first, vacuum the area, and then spray or brush on the forest floor color. Use Elmers glue or Goo to affix the the trees. I like to use Scenic Express Super Trees. A $25 box will produce about 60 trees. For large forests, one can buy a crate of Super Trees for $125 It will produce over 350 trees. Another way to make trees is to get some old window screening and cut rough circles. 4-5 of the circles are pushed onto stained wooden skewers, and adhesive is sprayed on. Then sprinkle on WS green, medium turf. Respray with adhesive. I hold three Super trees together and dunk them into Matte Medium (4:1 diluted) I then, spray on spray adhesive (or cheap hair spray), and sprinkle on WS Medium varied green colored turf. Note how the green colr varies on different parts of a tree.For close-up trees, I use WS Sage for the trunks and then glue on Super tree twigs for foliage. Another trick for making a canopy of conifers is to cut black loco packing sponge into sheets, and the cut a zig-zag pattern for layering varied green spray painted sections onto narrow ledges. One can make what appears to be a full forest in only 1 inch depth. Do you know how to Post a digital photo? We will explain, if you need help. Bob Hahn 
[URL=http://s173.beta.photobucket.com/user/ROBTAHahn/media/evergreencut-out003.jpg.html][IMG]http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w78/ROBTAHahn/t
Product choice depends on personal experience and preference. Hydrocal, casting plaster, plaster of Paris and various other setting type plasters are useful for building a scenery shell and modeling rock faces. For most of what we modelers are attempting to do with scenery, the ability of finely textured plaster like Hydrocal to capture detail isn’t really necessary. I build most of my scenery from 20-minute casting plaster, which is usually far less expensive than Hydrocal. I use the same plaster for any blending, and never use Sculptamold. All of it gets covered with dirt, real rocks and/or other ground cover anyway, so however you arrive at a final shape is fine.
I’ve also never used Smoothit for paved roads. Again, I use casting plaster in some cases, sometimes smoothing it with plain drywall mud, but I’ve also used styrene. Check out Lance Mindheim’s Miami Downtown Spur layout for ideas on using styrene for roads http://www.lancemindheim.com/progress_photos.htm .
that is very, very helpful input from all of you for someone trying to figure things out. thanks for taking the time to respond. time for me to experiment now. thanks again.
I’ve used smooth it the stuff was hard for me to use because I wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing but on the second layout I was planning on borrowing a trick from MRR which was to use cork for the road.
