First Scenery Project

[luther_stanton]

My first scenery project involved filling in the outside of one of the corners of my layout. Since this was on the back side of the layout – against the wall – I wanted to raise it some so it would be more visible from the center of the layout. I also wanted to include a Lionel blinking light industrial water tower. I decided to place the tower on the top of a small hill on the outside of the curve.

I took pictures along the way and will upload a few each day.

This is the area that I started with. The beck work is all web and girder. This overall benchwork was a lot more effort than I anticipated, but it is strong and offers a lot of options.

 

I am trying to take a modular approach to the scenery. I built up some braces to support the plywood base for this particular area.  The scenery base screws down on the braces.  I cover the screws with some clump foliage so it can be easliy removed if needed.

 

Next I cut a lip to extend the track subroad bed structure to support the plywood base that holds the tower and hill. The cut outs in the photos attached beneath the sub road bed with screw s; the cut outs go around the sub road bed braces.

Top Shot: 

Bottom Shot: 

 

I added 1x3s with a shallow notch cut in the top with a table saw to the plywood sceneru base. This creates a ledge for the water tower to sit in. This holds the tower firmly by its base; there is no need to screw down the water tower.

 

 

There is also an access hole beneath the tower for the wiring. 

 Next step was building up the terrain and plastering.  

- Luther 

[Jumijo]

You're off to a great start, Luthor.

Jim 

[RR Redneck]

Good benchwork is always a key element and grand start to many years of enjoyment from any layout, big or small.

[Jumijo]

Good benchwork is always a key element and grand start to many years of enjoyment from any layout, big or small.

 

I guess I'm screwed!

Jim

 

 

 

 

[RR Redneck]

Of couse there are one or two exemptions to the rule. LOL

[mickey4479]

Looks good.  If you have a lot of area to scenic, you might try the modular approach with cardboard for the base.  You can get all the free cardboard you need from Walmart and other stores.  I used cardboard for the base of the scenery and cut it to size around my plywood subroadbed.  Then, I glued 1 or 2 inch strips of cardboard to the base to make the substructure for mountains or hills or any other ground surface.  Then I glued news paper over that frame work to see if I would like the final design of the scene before I applied the paper towels and plaster.  If I did not like it, then I could easily remove and do something different.  I would build these modular units in a size that could be moved rather easily, with a few exceptions.  I could modify any area later by just removing the particular module.  I have to say that it was a challenge to make the colors for my moutains and hills relatively alike.  One more thing I found is that the plaster and towels would shrink a little and sometimes the ends of the cardboard would curve up while drying, so I used some weights and bricks to keep the base flat.  Anyway, it was fun creating.  Enjoy.  

[luther_stanton]

mickey4479, 

Using cardboard sounds like an interesting idea. I have been using varying thicknesses of plywood with good results, however it seems as the plywood get thinner, the prices increase! On my second scenery area I used a strip of balsa wood - 4" x 14" which worked out well.

Once I had the base pieces done, I set out to build the hill profile. I used the blue foam board used underneath house siding. The builders had left some around the house so I decided to give it a try. I used a standard foam cutter as it has a pretty low melting point. I also noticed that a hot glue gun set on "high" will also melt the foam.

I then added some cardboard webbing to support the plaster shell.

As I would be putting three trees on each side of the hill, I added small cardboard pads to which the trees would eventually be glued. I test fit the trees to see how everything would look.

To build up the shell, I cut paper towels into strips and dipped them in plaster. This was a pretty messy approach! The plaster mixture was somewhat sensitive to the water / plaster ratio and the drying times varied according to the ratios. I went through quite a bit of plaster. I also had problems getting the surface relatively smooth.

I painted the shell with a latex paint which basically formed a thin skin on the plaster. Any type of sanding would simply rip the latex skin. Trying to smooth these areas became a challenging. I finally ended up using spackling to smooth out the rough spots.

One interesting thing I found is that the ground up foam turf that I used from Woodland Scenics would have easily hid the imperfections in the plastered surface. So all the sanding and spackling was not really needed!

In subsequent projects, I have started using more an dmore Woodland Scenics materials. Their products are top notch. The Plaster Cloth and Lightweight Hydrocal products really make short work of developing scenery and dispense with the messy plaster and paper towel method.

- Luther