here is the hill/cutting i am trying to recreate on my layout:
what would be the best way to recreate this? everything from the actual logistics of using plaster or whatever is the best for material for hills- to the best scenery you all would recommend to get a look that's as close to the picture as possible. all help and feedback is appreciated. a note- i have the windmill pictured in the photo- it will the centerpiece of this corner of my layout.
There isn't a best way.
When my layout was hydrocal plaster (a big bag) I would have hot glued ordinary box cardboard cut into strips, cross hatched together and dipped paper towels into the plaster to cover the plaster. These days there are rolls of plaster. There is also foam which would be easy to carve into the shape in your picture. Remember some of us old guys don't see so good so a a bigger picture would help.
Paint the white plaster or purple foam with latex paint, check out the returned paint shelf at Home Depot or Lowes for a green or brown paint. You don't want to see even a dot of white or purple. From there you need ground foam, static grass, puff ball trees, lichen bushes, real looking trees (whole 'nother thread about using weeds or armatures to create trees.
There are also scale flowers. You can throw a lot of money at this or you can make use of natural weeds and paint.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
A bigger picture would definitely help with the details.
I'd recommend foam for the base, as it can be carved to shape with a knife, hot wire tool or hot knife. I use Surform tools to smooth things up a bit. I keep a can of anti static spray handy when carving and filing, as well as a good shop vac. Nice thing is if you mess up you can cut a chunk out, put another one in and carve again.
Can't see if you have any rock formations or not. I use tin foil, crumpled, then partially smoothed, pour in plaster or Sculptamold. Some, I have added color to the mix, others, used stains. Can stain pre colored ones too. I have a deep cut done this way as well as smaller rock formations.
Good luck,
Richard
here is hopefully a clearer image.
https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/ttte/images/9/9b/TheSpotlessRecord29.png/revision/latest?cb=20150210211240
Sorry man, I've got postage stamps bigger than that. It reminds me that my dad had WW2 pics when he was in India. They were that small; 35 mm contact prints?
Imagine 2 officers sitting at an outside table in front of a temple that looked like a carving of an elephant tusk. Ex-wife threw them away or else they are in a box that my children might find when I kick the bucket.
Here is the pic we need
Agreed there is no "best" method for many things, esp. scenery. The hills I made from cardboard that was hot glued to the foam sub-roadbed. I bent the cardboard a bit to mate it angled similar to hills. Afterward, I painted the hills a shade of brown from the "oops" paint at a hardware store to serve as a "glue." Next came sprinkling down some groundfoam using the mix type to create variety. I then got some bushes to put down and trees. Nothing magical there.
What I learned is imitating nature requires seeing reality. Once done, you'll see that things aren't monochromatic.
It is hard to give advice without seeing the overall situation but a few thoughts come to mind
First, it is easy to think of the track as being the lowest level and everything else being elevated above it, but assuming the layout has a sheet plywood or other solid "tabletop" sort of benchwork, the track and roadbed should not be at "ground zero" -- that is, there should be something underneath, a subroadbed, so that trackside ditches and culverts and other very normal topographical features can be lower than track level. I use plywood or homasote or foam such as the Woodland Scenics product.
A grid type or L girder layout makes it somewhat easier to plan for the topographical features that are below track level.
Second, it should be possible to use scraps of foam to dummy-up what that trackside hill should look like. Pay attention to the fact that in nature, slopes tend to be more gentle than we often make them on our layouts. I have seen some pretty improbable hills and slopes on layouts and they make me wonder "shouldn't that guy really be modeling a mudslide because that is what would likely happen."
Third for cuts and fills that the railroad engineers (as opposed to Mother Nature) have created, remember that their general goal is to be balance the cuts and fills to the extent possible to minimize the amount of material they have to dispose of or import.
Forth, if this scene is important to you (and evidently it is), give it the space it needs rather than just cramming it between other scenes. The phrase "signature scene" is often used in this situation.
Dave Nelson
I use whatever I feel like using on the day. Here I have foam rock cliffs and cardboard strips covered with tea towels stolen from the kitchen drawer (just tell the wife the dog got them, so you threw them out) and dipped in plaster of Paris. Colour and finished as desired.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
My experience with large spaces between cross hatched cardboard and hydorcal, was that the hydrocal soaked towels would sag slightly below the cardboard.
I ended making mine much more closer than those in Batman's pic. In these days of Amazon, cardboard is essentially free, but nylon window screen from the local hardware store is pretty cheap. More hot glue, and it prevents the sagging.