Model Railway Forum

Hi All,

Probably a daft question, but I'm starting to think about creating embankments or raised areas for scenery such as a street or grassed area, and was wondering how others create these with wood?

Do you screw or glue frames to the baseboard then use plaster etc?
I have a couple of card kit bridges made up so going to have a road running throughout that is higher than the railway instead of having a flat board.

Thanks

David

Lots of ways of building e.g. a lattice of card strips fixed with a hot glue gun followed by plaster bandage or paper mache, or carved polystyrene covered in a layer of plaster, plaster bandage or paper mache, or balls of newspaper taped down then plaster bandage or papier-mâché or a combination of these techniques. Some material are more accessible at the time than others - I just use what I’ve got there and then. I also favour cheap and cheerful- a bit like the wife but with a lot more humour!

P.S. Sometimes I use a hardboard profile of the bank shape if it’s at the front of the layout and I build on from that.

On the recent slope area I built on Montgreenan, I first made several card formers at different gradients and glued them in every 4 or since inches, and then I cut and fitted polystyrene sections snuggly between them. I then covered everything with many strips of newspaper immersed in PVA in order to give a hard shell with plenty of contours, before painting and applying static grass.

Not sure if this is the best method but it worked for me and utilised stuff I had lying around with next to no cost....... I didn’t see the need for plaster bandages, but then my layout is fixed so no need for a stronger solution for transportation purposes.

Hope this helps - Richard

Thanks all

A word if advice, using hot glue on an attic layout may lead to failure if you have a hot attic.

Learnt that the hard way ! Should have gone with PVA in the first place !

Rgds

I used some wire mesh and covered with plaster cloth then paint and static grass.
Picture of test section I made to see if it would work. turned out very well.
Puddles