With foam backing, it will take a lot of punishment.
Presuming the plaster cloth is of high quality and has been properly applied, it should easily be able to hold a shape on its own. You might try two layers if you want to be sure.
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
I really recamend the foam. With a foam hot wire you can make all your basic shapes so you get a feel of the final look. This layout I had one mountain that I carved alot of away to get the right look, like it belonged. Guess my original vision was good in thery but not in size, another I had to build up a bit.
I used 1" foam on edge (6 to 8 inch spacing) with wadded up plastic grocery bags taped in between . Followed by a layer of sculptamold to even out the surface. After everything dried the bags could be removed and reused but since they are pretty much free why bother.
I use beaded foam to support the cloth, foam can be had for free.
I use plaster cloth laid over heavy chicken wire. I model North West Illinois/ North East Iowa which is rolling hills. It is strong and for over 5 years I have not had any problems with it.
speedybee: Thanks.
On the latest layout I'm building, instead of using plaster cloth, I'm laying down the thick blue paper towels (aka shop towels) and thoroughly painting them with wood glue diluted with water, approx 3:1 water:glue. Pre-soaking them in a tray of diluted glue would probably work too, but I wanted to avoid dripping glue everywhere.
I like the result. Even just one layer of blue paper towel feels pretty strong when dry. You could definitely remove the supports from underneath, if it's just scenery on top, not tracks. Best part is, it maintains a bit of flexibility, so I'm not worried about it being brittle and cracking.
I tried with ordinary paper towels and it was okay, but the result didn't seem as strong, and the embossed pattern on the paper towel was clearly visible. Blue shop towels worked much better.
Whether it's better than traditional plaster cloth is a matter of opinion and the application. I like it better because this layout is portable, so light weight and resistance to cracking is important.
Track fiddler. Mister Beasley, Doctorwayne, Henry, riogrande: Thanks, so much.
(Logistics - We're working in a new tight area and there is more space in a prep room. Being able to move the completed shell to the layout would make it easier)
BigDaddyI'm not sure what the point of removing it would be.
Right, why remove it?
In my case I used cardboard strips as the basic scenery contour and support. So no way to rip that out!
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I don't use plaster cloth, but all of my layout's major landforms were made using Durabond 90 patching plaster over aluminum screen. I doubt that I could walk on it (much of it is rather steep) but I have no issues when leaning on it with most of my weight.
Wayne
I've used plaster cloth to make scenic covers for Atlas switch machines. It was fairly early in my layout building and I would do them differently now.
Basically, though, I just used some foam scraps to create an open mound over the machine and put on a layer of plaster cloth. I let it dry, removed it, pulled out the pink foam and painted the mound, adding some turf and flocking. When that dried I had a cover that was firm enough to move around and position.
It's not a strong structure. Don't put a locomotive on it.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I made homemade plaster cloth with hydrocal and paper towels. Hydrocal might be harder than plaster cloth but I'll bet they both stick to whatever you are using for the support.
I'm not sure what the point of removing it would be.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I think it depends on what you used for your base structure Traindaddy. Plaster on its own, even with cloth can be brittle if too thin.
Some guys use wrinkled up aluminum screen. I'm sure that shell combination would hold its own just like rebar in bridges or steel mesh in cement slabs.
Save some money for yourself. Have your wife save the used dryer sheets. Those things are tough. Have you ever tried to rip one in half? They work great with plaster.
If you don't want to wait that long for them to accumulate. There's always the dollar store and perfumy plaster mountains After paint, it ain't that bad though
TF
Hello:
Once the Plastercloth dries, is it hard enough to remove the supports/frame underneath?
In other words, is the dried structure a shell hard enough to move?
As always, many thanks.