The Scenic Model Railroad: Creativity at its Best Part I
One of the greatest joys of model railway building is creating a scenic display that represents nature as your own creative work of art somewhere in the world.
The variables one finds are endless in imagining how you want a design to look around the track work including bridges, buildings, mills, coal mines etc. You can duplicate some scene from nature or you can decide to create a scenic landscape that is completely your own.
What are the various products available to build a scenic landscape for your railway? There are several ways you can build such a scene.
The easiest way to build a scenic railway is to build an open frame layout that gives you height and contour so you have pre-made elevations to work with. Your choice of size or area to develop a design is based on the area you have to work with. You can even build your design on a sheet of plywood or similar. I wouldn’t recommend it because you’ll get frustrated after a while and want to have something a bit more realistic for your design.
Before starting the scenic part of the route, you must plan your follow-through. The main routes, yards, single and double track, passes, along with station points and possibly a roundabout. The best procedure is to build the entire track first, with its elevations, tunnel portal locations, bridge locations, and its default rule degree.
Once this is accomplished, you can begin building mountains, hills, streams, canyons, gorges where bridges would go, rivers, and other unique features that will provide scenic beauty through design.
Tools needed are putty knifes, water, hot glue gun, scissors, plastic bucket or large plastic intestine, wood stirrer such as one used for painting, possibly an electric staple gun, masking tape, and paper towels.
The types of products available are numerous. Much of it is general household material that you would normally throw away. For example, cut one-inch-wide cardboard strips from the boxes to the length you need. If the cardstock doesn’t sit still long enough, splice a strip together with a hot glue gun. Cardboard is the medium to build a general framework of mountains or mountain ranges, small hills, rail sidings, etc.
You may want to use chicken wire and bend it to your liking and staple the edges to the appropriate mounting points to create what you want. You will still need some type of support material to keep the chicken wire in place, such as heavy cardboard or wooden price. I do not recommend it because it is expensive, heavy and difficult to handle.
The other way to make outlines is to use Styrofoam. It can be cut/shaved to the height and depth you want. Once the basic mountain is formed, it can be covered with different types of media to create a mountain of your choice.
Basically you have to have some kind of format that creates a skeleton to add other materials to form a realistic mountain, etc.
The material used to cover its skeletal structure may vary depending on the use.
1. Portland cements contoured onto the mountain surface sprayed with a paper or cloth medium that will allow the cement to adhere.
2. The above material can be covered with Styrofoam and allowed to dry.
Once this process is complete, you need to stamp and outline your mountains or whatever scene you are creating.
3. You can plaster the coaster by hand with spatulas of different sizes.
4. With Hydracal, you must work fast or make small batches, as it will harden very quickly.
5. The chicken wire lining will require some type of semi-porous medium that will absorb the plaster, such as paper towels or the like.
6. Use Hydracal or Portland cements with cover materials that do not allow the material to drip through the chicken wire.
7. With any of these methods, you can use vermiculite as a rock-look cover while the medium is still moist.
8. Small pebbles or rough sand will also act as good cover simulating open landslides or rock patches.
Choosing the materials that best suit my needs seems like the fastest and cheapest way to create any desired scene. I use the material that I mentioned before. The cardboard strips and the Woodland Scenics plaster cloth. Included with this product is a product called Sculptamold which comes in the form of a semi-powder with shredded paper fine like papier-mâché. You add water to it until it has a semi-loose consistency. Using a putty knife, mold the Sculptamold onto the dry plaster cloth completely covering the surface. Different shapes and contours can be produced that resemble most rock formations found. You can work with the Sculptamold while wet to create a ridge, canyon walls, overhangs, etc. Do not overdo it when preparing the Sculptamold as it will harden in about half an hour. Room temperature has an effect on the rate of evaporation of water. Just work in a way that covers the surface in a timely manner. Do not rush.
In the Part II article, we will discuss the painting of mountains and other formations, plus various grasses, plants, shrubs, and trees along with artificial water. Learn to build culverts for water to flow; addition of real rocks and other materials including bridges, tunnels, and walls to create realistic scenes.