Building mountains, tunnels, and varied terrain--where to begin?

I think there's as many different ways of building them as there will be replies to this thread.

My understanding is that using screening or chicken or any kind of metal wire is out as it may interfere with or degrade a command control signal, so I would stay away from that method.

I don't think there's only one tried and true method, but using the foam method to construct the basic outline of the bridge or tunnel is popular and then sculpting or finishing with some type of plaster product. I've heard of rare cases where foam degrades, but it's used in hundreds of thousands of homes so I can't believe it's that serious enough an issue to prevent using it for our applications - whatever you feel comfortable with using.

I've also used wadded up newspaper, cardboard strips and paper maiche' to form mountains and tunnels. Michaels' sells a product called "Fast Maiche'" that is very easy (but messy) to work with. Right now I'm building a large tunnel with pre-made portals and using foam to form the basic outline and I'm experimenting with using expandable spray foam and vinyl spackling to create the outline of the mountain.

https://ogrforum.com/...deconstruction-phase

You can read about it and watch videos until you're blue in the face.  But nothing beats actually digging in and doing it.  That's what I did about 20 years ago, and model railroading got a thousand percent better for me ever since then.  I stumbled across a Woodland Scenics diorama kit at a hobby shop, bought it, built it, and started my learning process of successful scenery building.

Woodland Scenics makes some nice, little, inexpensive landscape learning kits that are made to order for folks wanting to learn model landscaping.  Give them a try - they're worth every penny in my opinion. 

Here's a link to one such kit: https://woodlandscenics.woodla...ow/Item/LK954/page/1

Hey Ted....take a breath. You are making this more difficult than it really is.

First, get Dave Frary's book "How to build Realistic Model Railroad Scenery" and read it cover to cover....a few times.

Second, buy some 1/2" or 1" foam (pink or blue) and cut it in descending concentric shapes and glue them together in a shape of a mountain peak. Make it maybe 12" to 15" across at the base to keep things manageable.

Third, cut some cardboard into 3/4" to 1" wide strips. Buy some "plaster cloth".....and some "Sculptamold".

Items #2 and #3 are all I use to make pretty good looking terrain. I run TMCC exclusively and never had an issue with the signal. I admit I also use "Gunrunnerjohn" signal booster but then my new layout is fairly large and passes thru (3) rooms.

I would never use "metal" screen and paper towels / plaster anymore on a model railroad. The cardboard strips and plaster cloth are the way to go. Much, much easier, no cut fingers and a whole lot cleaner.

Yes, cutting foam with a hot wire will produce not so nice fumes to deal with. If you want to try the hot wire to shape the foam, do it outside or in front of a powerful fan. I just use an old serrated kitchen knife, a screwdriver, awl and sandpaper to shape mine. If you seal the foam with a "water based" paint, then you will never have issues with it melting. Solvents will do just that.

You are going to try these techniques to get used to the products, No need to incorporate into a layout at this point.

Using your weapon of choice, start to "carve" the foam shapes into something that resembles a slope. No need to be fancy at this point, anything irregular looking is fine. Play around with making some rock outcrops by sticking in either the screwdriver or awl and popping out a section of foam. Chances are, it will look like a jagged rock face or fissure. Keep some areas smooth and do this with the sandpaper. When satisfied, using Dave's techniques, paint it all a scenery black paint color and let it dry. Finish with "rock tones" like a sienna or gray and highlight with a cream. I use all cheap tube acrylics for this. For the smooth areas, cover with a layer of thinned down Elmers and apply some ground up foam for ground cover. All of these techniques are described in detail in Dave's book.

Make yourself a little diorama using two levels of plywood. All that is important is some vertical distance between the two levels. Again, keep it small. Take the cardboard strips and hot glue them together in a mesh pattern, weaving them together. This is your basic land form. Get your plaster cloth and drape the wet sheets over the cardboard strips. Use at least two layers. Fill in any gaps or make some rock outcroppings with Sculptamold. Let dry and paint and detail as above.

Again, this is just for practice to get used to working with the scenery products. There are a ton of  preformed mountains, rock castings, walls, etc available that can be used in conjunction with the above simple techniques. The key is to gain confidence in your ability to build believable looking scenery over your cookie cutter layout.

To close, I have been in the hobby for over 50 years and have built a number of layouts. My old layout was featured in RUN 255 a few years ago. My new layout under construction will be featured hopefully in OGR starting next year. Allan and I are working towards that goal.

And I cannot cook either!

Have fun and just get started. That is the only way to learn and gain confidence.

Donald

Donald, thank you!  I ordered the Dave Frary book and it's on the way!

Paul I looked at the Woodland Scenics kits.  They seem to be more about detailing and texturing the surface (which is hugely important to the final appearance.)  But that's definitely a "scenery" question.

My question is more about the FOUNDATION of the terrain, and the events that happen before ground texture.  For example, the first task is identifying where the track is going to go, placing risers, and sub-roadbed.  But what's next?  How wide should the base of a mountain be?  How tall?  What kind of "slope" looks good in O scale?  What about the balance between uneven terrain, and flat areas for industries, towns, and structures??

Another basic question is: since risers establish the height of the sub-roadbed, how "low" should the joists be?  As I understand it, the whole idea of open grid benchwork is that it permits creating terrain below track height.  If at one point on the layout the track crosses a river valley, does the depth of the river bed determine the joist height for the rest of the benchwork?

Sorry for all the questions, but I've never done this before.  It doesn't seem too hard to go "up" from a flat table.  It's supporting the terrain below track level, and flat areas on open grid benchwork (as well as the relative "size" of everything), that has me most concerned.  Fellow Forumites, what other resources were most instructive to you in your early days??  Thanks!!

I strongly suggest a bottle of Jack Daniels first. with beer chasers.

Step one - clean the room.

Step two - paint the walls 'Sky Blue', then hills, trees and distant buildings.

John

Also check out ericstrains.com. He has tutorials on building tunnels and mountains. 

John Pignatelli JR. posted:

I strongly suggest a bottle of Jack Daniels first. with beer chasers.

Good advice.  I'll get started on it right away. 

I would suggest meauring the room you want to build a layout and then start playing around with a track plan.  A lot of us start with a table top layout in the center of a room, perhaps like an 8 foot by 8 foot that has a look and feel of a Lionel display layout.  That is what I did, and then  I have expanded it to 10 by 12.  However, in looking at my train room, I am considering making a  round the room type layout that lends itself to a longer run.  

I have a lot of those books on building a layout using the open grid framework, I agree its looks complicated.  I think on my next layout, I will use a flat table top and then add features.  

Like you, I lacked confidence in building a mountain, but using the cardboard strips, plaser cloth and paper mache to make mountains and land features.  Try something easy first, like a hill on a corner.  The corner hill below was built on a piece of form core board, (same as what is used on the sides), using the cardboard strips and plaster cloth method.  Although its firmly attached now, it could be reused on my next layout with a few surgical cuts along the base.  

good luck, dave

Wall paper was first.   Then one nail/screw at a time.  I found Rock molds and plaster cloth to be the material of choice. 

Tunnel required two levels (About 7.5" difference) .  Construction look.  

Work with Hydrocal, cast rock molds and plaster cloth.  MTH tunnel portal.  Tunnel liner is hydrocal castings done with Woodland Scenics HO tunnel liner. Most of the scenery/green is Woodland Scenics or forum sponsor,

Scenic Express.

I discovered a method on youtube, that I have been using and improving upon in early 2017.  It will work on flat table top as well as open grid.  The only plaster, (I prefer Hydrocal ), that I use is to cast rocks and retaining walls.      I was so "sold" on this method, I made several Youtube videos and shared them here.  I like the results, it's faster and cleaner than any other method I have tried over the course of 40 years.   I am building my "last layout" and decided several years ago that it was going to be built in modules, irregular in shape but movable all the same. 

This method allows me to produce mountains and hills that don't weight a ton, as they are constructed with 1/4 inch luan backboards,  hard pink styrene insulation, expanding spray foam, and "low loft batting" which produces kind a textured matt that you customize to your desired scenery scheme with whatever colors, textures you wish to use.   Here are some links to OGR threads for you to review.     The Youtube video links are included in the links below.   

The first link below is the most recent from this past summer.   The second link is a post with text and photos from June 2017.  

https://ogrforum.com/...17#80973530309282717

https://ogrforum.com/...m-and-fabric-batting

I inserted 4 photos of mountains I have built with this method,  some off the table,  and some in place, all are easily removable.