Layouts and layout building

After some experimentation with using a material called Fibredecor a method has been developed that should be applicable to many scales for making textured scenery in great detail with little or no glue. In addition the technique can be applied to doing ballast so that no glue is necessary.

It is a wall covering material that comes in a variety of colors.  The one on sale is the best bet.  Add water and acrylic paint for color desired as base. The material is applied directly to wood surface at a thickness equal to tie height. The track is pressed into the material and secured (screws until dry). At this point some of the material may be on the ties. Take a paint stick level, trough with the tie and push it off towards side of track. Alternately a small spray of water can remove some of the excess. The ballast material is applied over  and brushed until it is one layer over fibre. Its then pressed lightly into the fibre. Spray the finished area lightly with wet water.   This helps bind the ballast to the modeling fibre. There is no reason to hurry. It takes a couple of days to dry...sometimes longer if humid or if doing it on a non porus surface.  This long drying time means you can make changes as necessary without worry. 

I have used this with O and S. I see no reason why it will not work with HO, N or Z. 

Woodland Scenics and Scenic Express ballast have been used.  Real stone or rubbber ballast may not work as well. 

This certainly sounds like a novel approach, but you'd want to be sure that your track layout was exactly as you wanted it before starting.  Is the track removeable (and salvageable) after the material has dried?  I'd also be concerned about fine-tuning the track and turnouts, as the usual practice is to install the track, and use it for a while:  this is where you find out if it works properly and if it works visually and operationally.  Most track layouts continue to "evolve" after they've left the planning stages, too.  How do you handle turnouts?  It sounds to me as if the Fibredecor would impede the motion of the throwbar.  Personally, I find ballasting track to be an enjoyable pasttime, with big returns for relatively little "work".  Your method sounds like it might be a bit messy, and I'm wondering how much "depth" you can get with scenic materials:  I like to build up the scenery applications in layers, to control both the texture and the colour.  Can traditional scenery methods ("wet" water spray and dilute glue application) be used after the initial application using the Fibredecor?   I give you full marks for an innovative idea, although it'd be nice to see a few photos.

Wayne 

Looks very interesting. Although the official Fiberdecor website is not very useful, I found this page on another site had some good info:

http://www.gemtexdecor.com/frasqu.html

Jamie

wsdimenna,

Could you post some close-up photos of the finished product on your layout?

 Wayne and Dan

Thanks Jamie. They were running a special on that web page on closout colors. $10 bucks off a bag 

"Is the track removeable (and salvageable) after the material has dried?"

Yes, very much so. Even though it dries extrremely hard and has good sound insulating properties, you can simply spray hot water to area you want remove. Assuming track scews are not there it will lift up with spatula. Rinse track under warm water and it will be like new. If you get material near throw bar , it can be wiped off with wet rag.

 "I'd also be concerned about fine-tuning the track and turnouts, as the usual practice is to install the track, and use it for a while: "

Yes, and this brings me to part two. My layout has been an expansion from 2 four by eights to a main line of 252 ft.  I used the traditional method for some of the track. Where there are sections I don't want to lift out I use the firbedecor along the outside edge of track. The ballast in center (between rails) is done in traditional fashion. The excess  is pushed off the side (as normal for ballasting) into the fibredecor as one layer, saving lots of ballast. Ballasting 450 ft of track with an eye dropper was not my idea of fun.

"I like to build up the scenery applications in layers, to control both the texture and the colour.  Can traditional scenery methods ("wet" water spray and dilute glue application) be used after the initial application using the Fibredecor?"

Yes you can use glue after material dries but that defeats the purpose of using fibredecor. 

First you can achieve depth without glue.  The idea with fibredecor is too avoid using glue as it often dimishes the colors. The scenery material is placed on fibredecor while it wet. So for example I may take some dark ground cover over the fibredecor, wet it , then add lighter color and wet it gentlay pressing it into the fibredecor.  You need alot less material then traditional methods. If applied at a railroad tie height you can stick small bushes, tress directly into the material prior to drying. Sometimes its best to wait a day or two for it to setup if the piece is a bit large. 

I like using Cray's custom scenery, woodland scenics, Scenic express, natural materials. 

With respect to photos. I have submitted closeups descibing the procedure to magazine. About 95% of the scenery in the album was done using this method, including the cliffs.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdimenna/collections/72157603222420889/ 

wsdimenna wrote:

With respect to photos. I have submitted closeups descibing the procedure to magazine. About 95% of the scenery in the album was done using this method, including the cliffs. http://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdimenna/collections/72157603222420889/

Thanks for the pics - it was kind of hard to see the details on the ballasting job, but from a distance at least, it looks like a potentially promising method. If you submitted an article to MR, hopefully they'll print it in the near future.

Here is shot of ballast and some of base ground cover that was added. This is still wet on the left side of track.  Bushes and shrubs are added while still wet over the next day or two.

This track was already in place so ballast between the rails was drizzled with  glue/wet water .

 Followup: Here is a rainy afternoon's work.   Mid to late fall

After a few days its stil wet enough to add some bad ends from super trees as ground cover.  Sstill needs trees, which are under construction

 I wonder if this could be substituted for the Perma-Scene in the original ground goop recipe. It looks very similiar and from the website information it has a base similiar to sculptamold.

Drew

 Drew I have never used sculptamold so I can't comment on the "setup time". Here its not unusual to keep adding bushes, etc for over a week and not need glue to do it. 

UPdate: I have received payment for mag. article, so I'll wait till it  appears and before I add comments and clarify any other questions. Thanks for your patience in advance.

 The Permascene just gave ground goop some texture. Most of the times I used ground goop it dried in about 24 to 36 hours.

Drew

 the article has appeared in classic toy trains May issue. My understanding is that  the 3rd rail doesn't bite when read from at least 18 inches.

Bill D

 Checked out the Fiberdecor website

The easy preparation  page is interesting as it emphasizes the need to properly prime the wall surface prior to applying Fiberdecor.  Of course they are worried about color bleed through, and the method here tints the material with acrylic. 

Might be an interesting alternative to other methods for scenary.  wsdimenna do you think it  would work on foam?

Doc

the article describes the method of doing it foam. That photo shows the material applied to foam, that has been covered with plastic drywall mesh. On wood that is not necessary, but on foam it keeps it from sliding around.  With respect to color, it didn't matter. I simply add materiall to warm water to which paint has been added. In this case it was grey.

If you want to purchase the material in US

www,truescene.com.

disclaimer This is our web site. 

 a demonstration of the use of the material as a method of doing textured scenery will be held at the NOME (Niagara Orleans model railroad engineers) meeting on May 21st

This is the finished patch from the CTT article .

Just a quick note about glue.  If you plan to reuse material that already has some ground cover in it , it wouldn't hurt to add some white glue to mix of water when rehydrating the mixture.

I haven't used glue here for any natural material that attaches to the fibre. I have also used some of the synthetics from Scenic Express  medium clump foliage, etc. With silfor the plastic adhesive backing is partially embeded.  Its doesn't stick reall well when the fibre is real wet. Wait to use this.

 yes the car is going on wrong side of road.. the photo dept rejected it.