by Ångstrom
Among today's modellers, the accepted way of producing the basic scenic shapes on a layout is with the use of expanded polystyrene foam. Boxes made from this material can be obtained free in almost any quantity from fruit shops. All that then remains is to saw the boxes up into suitable-sized pieces and stick them down on the layout to build up the decided topography in layers. PVA glue sticks this material very well although it may take a long time to dry because the foam is non absorbent.
Once the basic shapes have been stuck down, they should be filed smooth using a rasp, or Surform file. This job will take almost no time at all. By sure to have a vacuum cleaner handy while filing, because if air currents are allowed to get at the foam filings, they will spread everywhere. When all is shaped just as you want it, cover the scenic form with several layers of paper towels soaked in a fairly watery plaster mixture. When the plastered towels have dried, paint a final layer of thick plaster over the top, adding some black or brown powder paint with the mixture. Do not go into an art shop for powder paint because it will be much too good and expensive for what you want. Instead, buy some packets of cement colouring material from a hardware shop. A packet of each of black, yellow and red is all you will need, and these packets will last you a lifetime. Ordinary casting plaster, obtainable from any hardware shop should be used. Patching plaster such as Polyfilla can be used if you wish but it is slower drying and much more expensive An alternative method which might be used where the areas are relatively flat, is to form the basic shapes with fly-screen material onto which plaster-soaked paper towels are laid.
To form rocky outcrops, which are particularly evident on river banks, crumple up into balls pieces of paper towel soaked in watery plaster. Place these balls in places where you want the rocks to be, forming them into the rough shapes you require with your fingers. The important thing to remember when making rocks is to allow them to overhang each over, and jut out horizontally from any sloping ground where they are placed. When the basic rock forms are set hard, make up a very-very stiff plaster mixture coloured with yellow and a little black powder; and with a brush, paint a thick layer of this mixture all over and round the rock formations.
It is important to use a quick setting plaster (ie. the cheap stuff) for rock work, because when the plaster is starting to go off, you must start carving strata lines into the surface. Use a small screwdriver or similar blunt object for this job, making all the cuts horizontal. Try to tear at the surface rather than slicing it. Be sure to carve deeply into the underside of the rocks so that prominent overhangs appear. When this final layer of plaster has set hard, attack the resultant rocks with a stiff brush to remove all the loose bits, and vacuum these away.
At this stage the rocks will appear very coarse in texture and may or may not be the exact colour you are looking for, but don't worry about this. The final stage of rock making will be to paint them, but not with real paint. Instead make up a very watery plaster mixture, and into this include small quantities of coloured powder The most pleasing colour I have found is obtained from a mixture of mainly yellow with very small quantities of red and black. Be sure to err on the too-light side rather than the too-dark side because it is much easier to darken the surface with a second coat of this paint mixture than it is to lighten it. Paint the rocks all over with your mixture which will have the added benefit of evening out some of the coarseness of your carving. Next add a little more black to the mixture and a little more water and paint this on the upper surfaces of the rocks. When dry, view your work and add further layers of very watery paint until the required finish is obtained. During the final stages of colouring, sprinkle bits of fine greenery in crevices between rocks
What I have described up to now are rocks depicting what nature has sculptured. Rock cuttings that would have been man made mainly by explosives, or rocks that have been formed by larger rocks breaking up naturally look quite different. Here the rock surfaces are much smoother and with very little in the way of strata lines. Rubber moulds can be bought to make up such rocks, but more simply, an open mould can be made up simply from crumpled up aluminium foil, obtainable free from any kitchen. Cast your pre-coloured plaster into these moulds, and when set, glue or plaster them into position on the layout. Colouring these rocks will be the same as for natural rocks.
Where grassed areas are needed, there are three main techniques used as follows.
(a) Zip texturing. In this method, dry plaster mixed with powder paint of the required colour is sprinkled though a tea strainer or stocking onto areas wetted with water from a spray bottle. This method is popular for mountainous American and Australian scenery where vegetation is not at all lush. However, in my opinion it cannot simulate a Typical British scene. Moreover, zip texturing will not stand up to any sort of abrasion, and, in most cases, will deteriorate quickly.
(b) Grass carpet. With this product that can be bought from model shops, a paper-backed sheet of grass can be stuck down over large areas. This is the method that I have used myself extensively. Grass carpet is a very hard wearing and long lasting material, but has the disadvantage of displaying a too-even, bowling-green-type finish. I get over this problem by attacking the carpet with watered down bleach over selected areas, particularly on steep slopes. Where the bleach is applied, the carpet will go browner, or if you use too much, go yellow or white!
(c) Scatter material. A traditional method of simulating grass is to scatter died sawdust over a pre-glued surface. In my mind, this material is far too coarse, and looks awful. Woodlands and other companies produce a granulated died foam material to be scattered as vegetation and this is very good but quite expensive. Rather than buying the stuff, which is usually too dull in colour for British scenes, I make my own by breaking up lumps of polyurethane foam, dipping these in thinned-down bright-green paint, and when thoroughly dry, munching up the pieces in a coffee grinder.
In my view, the best grassed scenes are obtained by a mixture of (b) and (c) above.
Good or bad trees can do more than anything to make or mar an otherwise good layout. The secret of good trees is simply time and effort. I take up to three hours making a medium sized example. The method is well known and consists of trunks and branches fashioned from fine copper wires all soldered together. There may be up to 60 or 70 wires for a largish tree. The great advantage of making your own trees, is that you can make them realistic sizes. I find that all commercially-made trees are ridiculously small for 4mm scale. In real life a typical grown tree (say an Oak), would be at least 20 metres high, or 25cm in 4mm scale and many of my trees are as tall as this.
After the branches have been formed, foliage is fixed to each branch by twisting the copper wire round a chunk of plastic foam about 2cm in diameter. Smaller pieces are then glued to the main chunks to fill up gaps and hide any bare wire ends. Some people use sponge rubber, as it is easier to tear up and its cellular structure looks better in the short term. The big disadvantage of rubber is that it rots quite quickly, giving the trees a useful life of about two years only. When all the foliage has been applied, it can then be sprayed the required shade of green and, while the paint is still wet, sprinkled with dyed scatter material to provide extra texture. Finally, when the paint is dry, the trunk and branches can be hand-painted with a matt, grey-brown colour water-based paint into which a little plaster is added to give it an ultra-matt finish.
A lot of thought should be given into the arrangement of the trees on the layout. In Southern England, trees tend to grow in small copses, which I believe were, in some areas, planted as fox coverts. I have, wherever they are necessary, made use of such clumps to form scenic breaks with trees of dense foliage. Also, trees should be positioned along streams and roads as in nature. Above all, avoid placing trees at regular intervals. Both large and small trees of less dense foliage should be positioned at intervals near the baseboard edges to give foreground to the layout. If necessary, baseboard-edge trees on an exhibition layout can be planted on separate bases and removed during transportation.
A few amateur photographers at exhibitions may complain about trees at the front of a layout and how they get in their way, but genuine photographers will be very glad of foreground to enhance their photos.
Wherever water is represented on a layout, clear polyester casting resin should be used for the actual H2O. As a preparation, the bottom of the stream or pond should be covered with sand and pieces of rock and small stones from the garden. A thin layer of resin is then poured in, and pieces of greenery placed mainly near the edges. The water level is then raised by adding many thin layers of resin until the required depth is reached. Leave each layer to set, before adding the next, because if you add too much at once, the heat generated in the curing process will cause the resin to crack. Finally, after a few days, the surface should be painted with a hard clear varnish for protection.