Starting the scenery

B

Biased turkey

Active Member
Apr 10, 2006
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Montreal, Canada Eh
After several months soldering ,painting track and testing I'm ready to start the scenery on my layout.

Layoutplan.jpg


I installed the hill made out of parerwads but before I laid the plastercloth I hot glued the cardboard templates of the rocks so they'll be glued on a flat surface after the plastercloth is installed.

rock2-1.jpg


plaster2-1.jpg
 
Thanks to the members who took some of their time to reply.
The most boring part of building the layout is over, soldring the track, gluing the roadbed and gluing the track is not exactly what I consider to be fun. But someone has to do it .
I agree with woodone, installing scenery gives the best bang for the buck. It's a lot cheaper to buy a roll of plastercloth than to buy a brand new N scale Kato Mikado :)

Jacques
 
I really need to get going on my layout again.
I've hit a halfway point and just haven't had the ambition to really work on it except to get some track problems corrected.
 
You're doing well. After the plastercloth I used a lot of Joint compound to further shape the hills on my layout. It comes in small buckets and is available at any hardware store. Get your hands into it and make any design or shape you want. Keep the hands wet for best results. Let dry a couple of days and then add more joint compound and let dry again. A hair dryer will speed things up unless you live in a hot climate like I do and in that case just use a fan at low speed. Then paint with latex earthtone paint or add a wall or other features and add trees, shrubs, etc and enjoy.
 
darkcurves, I used a mix of brands.
I started with a brand new roll of PlasterWrap from Scenic Express.
Everything went fine until I still had 1/4 of the hill to cover. The plasterwrap became less uniform and was almost impossible to lay on top of the paperwads, even after a 20 seconds in contact with water.
Fortunately I still had a few square feet of Woodland Scenics Plastercloth ( leftover from one of their diorama kit ) so I was able to finish the job.
Conclusion ( just my opinion based on facts ) : Scenic expres plastercloth is of inferior quality.

rhtastro, after installing the plastercloth I'll be using Sculptamold to give more body to the hill.. My idea is to use jointcompound for making roads,
 
Today I installed the rocks. I prepainted them on my desk. I use dark grey and umber washes. I finished with some white dry-brushing. I find the final result a little too dark, but still realistic. I then glued the rocks using Hydrocal. The cardboard templates I installed before the plastercloth really helped to install the rocks neatly.
Then I applied some Sculptamold around the rocks , in order to make a smooth transition between the plastercloth and the rocks.
Tomorrow I'll apply more Sculptamold to the rest of the hill.
Here is a picture:

paintedrocks.jpg
 
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