Need help on building a mountain

Howdy boys, anyone know of a website with step by step instructions on building a mountain, or even a book title would be helpful, I'd like to go the plaster route for my HO layout, it will have to be a liftout. Any suggestions would again be appreciated. AT&SF Duey :rolleyes: :confused: :)
 

Vic

Active Member
Mountains

Hi Dewey, Building a mountain is sorta like eating porkchops and turnip greens:D :D :D You don't think about it you just do it:D :D

But I know what you are asking:) There are a lot of methods, plaster, foam, chicken wire, paper bags ( thats what I use) and etc.

My favorite book on scenery is kind of an "oddball" its called....
Scenery For Model Railroads, Dioramas & Miniatures by Robert Schlecher. It was published by Chilton Book Co. Radnor, PA. The ISBN # is 0-8019-8503-x. I have never seen this book in a hobby shop and in fact I got mine at Walden Books a long time ago. This book is a step-by-step how-to-do-it publication. Its got stuff in it that I have never seen in the Kalmbach books. What I really like about it is that the author doesn't "toot his own horn" saying "look what I did" ...its just simple, consise, illustrated instructions. Bet you can still find it from on-line booksellers.
 

marty w.

Member
Ther are many scenery books that deal with building mountains.
"A Realistic HO Layout For Beginners" and "The Pennsy Middle Division in HO Scale" published by Kalmbach Publishing Co. deals with cardboard webbing to produce your basic form and then adding plaster cloth. I think Woodland Scenics also has a book on building mountains and how to use their products.
I have always used the plaster and wire screen method in the past, but I am using 2" foam board now on my present layout.
I like it, it's faster, and you can really see what your final form or shape will look like.
Hope this helps.
Marty
 
.... and then there's Dave Frary's old standby, How To Build Realistic Model Railroad Scenery from Kalmbach.

If you can't find any of these in book stores or hobby shops, you might try your local library. My public library system has all of these titles (plus about 200 other model rr - related titles) in its holdings. That's how I first found the Robert Schlecher book Vic mentioned.
 

Tyson Rayles

Active Member
planeshavings you might want to consider going the foam route instead of plaster if you are going to have a lift out as the foam, while quite strong will be light as a feather.
 
Once again my hat's off to all of you

Thanx boys for the great advise once again, Dang, I wouldn't have even attempted this layout hadn't I found the gauge first.
I sure hope that when I have a clue of what this hobby is all about, that I'll be able to be helpful to someone else out there on the gauge someday. :cool: :cool: At&SF Duey
 

Woodie

Active Member
Planeshavings,

Check out my webapge (if you haven't already). I've put up some pics etc of how I did it. :) Click the link below.
 
W O W

What a great web site, and again I'm impressed with your layout. It shows great artistic ability Woody, However I'm going with a plaster mountain (Tunnel) because of where it will be placed, I will not have access to the track, only by coming up under it, it needs to be hollow. I cannot make it removable. I thouroughly enjoyed your website, and have bookmarked it for return visits. Thank you for your reply Woody, and I will post pictures as soon as I have something worth posting. :)
AT&SF Duey
 

shamus

Registered Member
Originally posted by planeshavings42
Howdy boys, anyone know of a website with step by step instructions on building a mountain, or even a book title would be helpful, I'd like to go the plaster route for my HO layout, it will have to be a liftout. Any suggestions would again be appreciated. AT&SF Duey :rolleyes: :confused: :)

Scenery for Model Railroaders by Bill McClanahan is one of the books I have for sale if you are interested.
It was in this thread along with many other of my books for sale.
http://www.the-gauge.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2472&highlight=Books

Shamus
 

pcentral

Member
Easy mountains

Hi All,
Geodesic foam mountains are the only way to go. Light weight, very strong, versatile and easy to make. I have build several mountains on layouts using this stuff. Anyone can make great looking, realistic mountains in less time than it takes to build the supports for plaster . You get clean detailed castings that plaster doesn't allow. once you try this you won't understand why people still use other methods. Check out their website at www.bragdonent.com
 
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