Mountain chain rises in 5 hours

[FJ and G]

On Saturday, I completed 25 feet of mountain chain in five hours. When I finished, the floor was an absolute mess, and even the dog had turned white because the white styrofoam beads, clung to her with static cling.

I was amazed at how easily the work was accomplished, and I didn't use a hot wire. Instead, I used a drywall saw to carve the mountains, which rise about 2.5 feet high. I also dug the river with the drywall saw and created a styrofoam raised roadbed with the saw.

Reg. the roadbed, I designed it so that it is superelevated. Will use drywall mud to make it smooth then glue ties to it.

So, the scenery is up but not yet painted, and the track will go in last.

Also, about every 3 feet, I am going to use a 2-ft long drill to go thru the styrofoam and under the layout where drop wires will be located.

A lot of folks, btw, only use the pink or blue styrofoam. However, the white beaded kind works for me. The beads do not show up once you put latex on it and sprinkle on dried clay.

You could add a thin coating of plaster if you prefer.

I've used this technique with lots of success in the past on my HO layout at work (see page 1 of http://davidvergun.tripod.com/ the first 2 photos show this technique).

The website will go down if more than 2 people get on it so you may have to wait a while.


Dave Vergun

[Big_Boy_4005]

Dave your mountain building sounds like mother nature with a fast clock. The O gauge version of geologic time.[swg]

[Anonymous]

Dave:

Congratulations! Hope the Beagle appreciated the vacuuming!

How about some pictures?

Tony

[FJ and G]

I'll take some pictures this week and try to put them on my website by next week. I should have taken one of the dog, that was too funny.

I'm tweaking the mountains, adding a piece of styrofoam here, taking some away there, and I'm going to redo the fascia to make it raise to ground level instead of sloping down;

if you think about it, the river needs to be the lowest point and to have the edge slope down to the fascie doesn't really make any geological sense.

BTW, to make uneven ground and to break up the smoothness of the styrofoam, I used the drywall saw as a rasp, dragging it across on the flat of the blade; this primarily is why there were so many flying beads; heck, some of them even flew up 8 feet to the ceiling and stuck there.

Unless you have a powerful shop vac, I wouldn't recommend this technique.

But, OTOH, it isn't as messy as dipping paper in plaster.

dav

[Anonymous]

i second the motion. [^] lets see a few pics!!!

dave, i used white and blue foam for a TV studio set i helped build and we would turn a shop vac on while doing the cutting and shaping and run the hose (we bought 2 extension hoses) into the room we were working (the noise form the vac was greatly quieted for our ears this way)

also, it was nice to read your article in this months CTT with Pete V. i was encouraged by his reported success with his gargraves switches. i have 30+ used gargraves switches and need to use them (some of the anyhow) on my future layout and have been discouraged by the news i usually read in the train forums. my layout wont be as large as Mr. Vollmer's but... it will be BIG to me [swg].

[FJ and G]

I haven't worked on the layout since last Saturday but I managed to take some photos of the layout last night and if anyone wants to see them, I'll email them to you. I'm going to replace the facia and fill the gap with foam. Well, actually, last night, I did do something, I ran a bead of drywall mud over the styrofoam roadbed where the track will go.

Remember, I'm doing scenery first and track last.

Also, I took picture of Closet Maid shelving that I'm using. In the photos are the humongous chunks of foam that resemble icebergs. Thusly, the mountains have all been constructed out of single sheets of styrofoam, not sandwiched like most. If I get some time, I'll try & put one or two on the web site as well

Dave Vergun

[ChiefEagles]

Want to see the pictures. I did them in Hydrocal years ago. This sounds earier and a great job.