I found, there is no many tutorial about this method.
I am largely inspired by Howard Zane, I found his method so interesting, I made a try whith this small diorama.
The Howard Zane method work so well, I will use it on my Maclau River in Nscale.
I really thanks him for this idea.
It's an easy method, which everybody can use whithout many difficulties.
It's light, very light, but in the same time an extremely strong hardshell.
Benefits are a very neat construction whithout plaster and lot of water; no more dust which is the killer of our models.
Its a very fast method, which can cover yards of hardshell in a few hours.
It support any scenery materials.
I build this small mine diorama in Nscale for a train show in a half week and a very few hours, to show and explain this method here in Belgium.
First You need to buy a sheet of gator foam, piece of a roll of red rosin paper; however, here in Europe you can find this paper and I use a similar paper product which is white.
The track is put in place as usual. It's ME code 55 glued in place.
You need to cut the profile of the hill in the gator foam sheet and glue it to the base whith a hot glue gun.
For the back of the diorama I have also used a large piece of gator foam. The profile of the hills are glued on the base and the back in gator foam, whith hot glue.
When the pieces of GF are glued to the base, a usual latice of carboard strip is glued to the GF frame whith hot glue. The future shape of the hills is slightly formed whith this lattice. When the lattice is finished and you like it, You glue piece of red rosin paper in place on the carboard strip whith hot glue, following the shape of the lattice. When all the pieces of paper are glued in place, You need to brush generousely the whole surface whith full strong white glue After a day, the hardshell is dry and you are ready to had scenery. My Clemi mine, named of my late lovely girlfrienfd Clementine which had dissappear just a few weeks ago, is set in Virginia, so a few rocks formation are needed to had some relief to the hills. They are cast in plaster; two ways to put them, cast in place or cast at the workbench and glued to the hardshell. If You cast them in place, You need to wet the place where you put them before casting. All the casting are painted as usual, nothing new here. They could be prepainted on the workbench too. In the same time the track is ballasted and the contours of a small road are put in place. The track was prepainted whith some individual ties retouched whith different Brown colors to add variety. When everything will be finished, the track and ballast will be retouched whit a black wash. The hole in the base and between the track is for falling coal; because the mine will really deliver coal. When the casting are finished, I painted the rest of the hardshell area whith a green forest latex paint, to hide the color of the paper. To simulate the forest and some distance, pieces of clump foliage by Woodland scenics are glued on the hardsell. I use here a latex transparent glue used for floor carpeting; I brushed only small area at a time. This glue is extremely tacky and dries fast. This is the only time consuming part of the construction, because You need to glue the foliage piece by piece but I was quite atonished by the result in a couple of hours. To seal all the foliage in place I spray it whith an hair spray when finished. The finished diorama whith the hills and the mine still unfinished and some base scenery put in place. The method is so neat that there was no dust anywhere. Howard Zane had really brings a new way for hardshell construction and I highly recommand it. In Track Planning 2013, the layout in construction inspired by the Duluth and Missabe use the red rosin paper method too. Visit the site of Howard on www.zanetrains.com Marc from Belgium.
When the pieces of GF are glued to the base, a usual latice of carboard strip is glued to the GF frame whith hot glue.
The future shape of the hills is slightly formed whith this lattice.
When the lattice is finished and you like it, You glue piece of red rosin paper in place on the carboard strip whith hot glue, following the shape of the lattice. When all the pieces of paper are glued in place, You need to brush generousely the whole surface whith full strong white glue After a day, the hardshell is dry and you are ready to had scenery. My Clemi mine, named of my late lovely girlfrienfd Clementine which had dissappear just a few weeks ago, is set in Virginia, so a few rocks formation are needed to had some relief to the hills. They are cast in plaster; two ways to put them, cast in place or cast at the workbench and glued to the hardshell. If You cast them in place, You need to wet the place where you put them before casting. All the casting are painted as usual, nothing new here. They could be prepainted on the workbench too. In the same time the track is ballasted and the contours of a small road are put in place. The track was prepainted whith some individual ties retouched whith different Brown colors to add variety. When everything will be finished, the track and ballast will be retouched whit a black wash. The hole in the base and between the track is for falling coal; because the mine will really deliver coal. When the casting are finished, I painted the rest of the hardshell area whith a green forest latex paint, to hide the color of the paper. To simulate the forest and some distance, pieces of clump foliage by Woodland scenics are glued on the hardsell. I use here a latex transparent glue used for floor carpeting; I brushed only small area at a time. This glue is extremely tacky and dries fast. This is the only time consuming part of the construction, because You need to glue the foliage piece by piece but I was quite atonished by the result in a couple of hours. To seal all the foliage in place I spray it whith an hair spray when finished. The finished diorama whith the hills and the mine still unfinished and some base scenery put in place. The method is so neat that there was no dust anywhere. Howard Zane had really brings a new way for hardshell construction and I highly recommand it. In Track Planning 2013, the layout in construction inspired by the Duluth and Missabe use the red rosin paper method too. Visit the site of Howard on www.zanetrains.com Marc from Belgium.
When the lattice is finished and you like it, You glue piece of red rosin paper in place on the carboard strip whith hot glue, following the shape of the lattice.
When all the pieces of paper are glued in place, You need to brush generousely the whole surface whith full strong white glue
After a day, the hardshell is dry and you are ready to had scenery. My Clemi mine, named of my late lovely girlfrienfd Clementine which had dissappear just a few weeks ago, is set in Virginia, so a few rocks formation are needed to had some relief to the hills. They are cast in plaster; two ways to put them, cast in place or cast at the workbench and glued to the hardshell. If You cast them in place, You need to wet the place where you put them before casting. All the casting are painted as usual, nothing new here. They could be prepainted on the workbench too. In the same time the track is ballasted and the contours of a small road are put in place. The track was prepainted whith some individual ties retouched whith different Brown colors to add variety. When everything will be finished, the track and ballast will be retouched whit a black wash. The hole in the base and between the track is for falling coal; because the mine will really deliver coal. When the casting are finished, I painted the rest of the hardshell area whith a green forest latex paint, to hide the color of the paper. To simulate the forest and some distance, pieces of clump foliage by Woodland scenics are glued on the hardsell. I use here a latex transparent glue used for floor carpeting; I brushed only small area at a time. This glue is extremely tacky and dries fast. This is the only time consuming part of the construction, because You need to glue the foliage piece by piece but I was quite atonished by the result in a couple of hours. To seal all the foliage in place I spray it whith an hair spray when finished. The finished diorama whith the hills and the mine still unfinished and some base scenery put in place. The method is so neat that there was no dust anywhere. Howard Zane had really brings a new way for hardshell construction and I highly recommand it. In Track Planning 2013, the layout in construction inspired by the Duluth and Missabe use the red rosin paper method too. Visit the site of Howard on www.zanetrains.com Marc from Belgium.
After a day, the hardshell is dry and you are ready to had scenery.
My Clemi mine, named of my late lovely girlfrienfd Clementine which had dissappear just a few weeks ago, is set in Virginia, so a few rocks formation are needed to had some relief to the hills.
They are cast in plaster; two ways to put them, cast in place or cast at the workbench and glued to the hardshell.
If You cast them in place, You need to wet the place where you put them before casting.
All the casting are painted as usual, nothing new here. They could be prepainted on the workbench too.
In the same time the track is ballasted and the contours of a small road are put in place. The track was prepainted whith some individual ties retouched whith different Brown colors to add variety. When everything will be finished, the track and ballast will be retouched whit a black wash. The hole in the base and between the track is for falling coal; because the mine will really deliver coal. When the casting are finished, I painted the rest of the hardshell area whith a green forest latex paint, to hide the color of the paper. To simulate the forest and some distance, pieces of clump foliage by Woodland scenics are glued on the hardsell. I use here a latex transparent glue used for floor carpeting; I brushed only small area at a time. This glue is extremely tacky and dries fast. This is the only time consuming part of the construction, because You need to glue the foliage piece by piece but I was quite atonished by the result in a couple of hours. To seal all the foliage in place I spray it whith an hair spray when finished. The finished diorama whith the hills and the mine still unfinished and some base scenery put in place. The method is so neat that there was no dust anywhere. Howard Zane had really brings a new way for hardshell construction and I highly recommand it. In Track Planning 2013, the layout in construction inspired by the Duluth and Missabe use the red rosin paper method too. Visit the site of Howard on www.zanetrains.com Marc from Belgium.
In the same time the track is ballasted and the contours of a small road are put in place.
The track was prepainted whith some individual ties retouched whith different Brown colors to add variety.
When everything will be finished, the track and ballast will be retouched whit a black wash.
The hole in the base and between the track is for falling coal; because the mine will really deliver coal.
When the casting are finished, I painted the rest of the hardshell area whith a green forest latex paint, to hide the color of the paper.
To simulate the forest and some distance, pieces of clump foliage by Woodland scenics are glued on the hardsell.
I use here a latex transparent glue used for floor carpeting; I brushed only small area at a time. This glue is extremely tacky and dries fast. This is the only time consuming part of the construction, because You need to glue the foliage piece by piece but I was quite atonished by the result in a couple of hours. To seal all the foliage in place I spray it whith an hair spray when finished. The finished diorama whith the hills and the mine still unfinished and some base scenery put in place. The method is so neat that there was no dust anywhere. Howard Zane had really brings a new way for hardshell construction and I highly recommand it. In Track Planning 2013, the layout in construction inspired by the Duluth and Missabe use the red rosin paper method too. Visit the site of Howard on www.zanetrains.com Marc from Belgium.
I use here a latex transparent glue used for floor carpeting; I brushed only small area at a time. This glue is extremely tacky and dries fast.
This is the only time consuming part of the construction, because You need to glue the foliage piece by piece but I was quite atonished by the result in a couple of hours.
To seal all the foliage in place I spray it whith an hair spray when finished.
The finished diorama whith the hills and the mine still unfinished and some base scenery put in place. The method is so neat that there was no dust anywhere. Howard Zane had really brings a new way for hardshell construction and I highly recommand it. In Track Planning 2013, the layout in construction inspired by the Duluth and Missabe use the red rosin paper method too. Visit the site of Howard on www.zanetrains.com Marc from Belgium.
The finished diorama whith the hills and the mine still unfinished and some base scenery put in place.
The method is so neat that there was no dust anywhere. Howard Zane had really brings a new way for hardshell construction and I highly recommand it. In Track Planning 2013, the layout in construction inspired by the Duluth and Missabe use the red rosin paper method too. Visit the site of Howard on www.zanetrains.com Marc from Belgium.
The method is so neat that there was no dust anywhere.
Howard Zane had really brings a new way for hardshell construction and I highly recommand it.
In Track Planning 2013, the layout in construction inspired by the Duluth and Missabe use the red rosin paper method too.
Visit the site of Howard on www.zanetrains.com
Marc from Belgium.