Different approach to hard shell

Thats going to work great, put plaster cloth over it with a thin coat of drywall compound. Make sure you cover those tracks....... its a little messy.

I think I would rather do this than plaster cloth. I guess my cardboard lattice wasn't sufficient but my plaster cloth wanted to sag a lot. The chicken wire would eliminate that. I'll be interested to see how it turns out!

Bill, I tried chicken wire years ago, it did not go well. .  This stuff is the type of lath that is used for parging walls for a scratch coat.

Sweet!  We called that stuff expanded metal when I was growing up.

Lightweight and strong, especially if you use the aluminum version.

Mike

I'm looking at it closer now. I thought that stuff had square holes @Tom Tee @Mellow Hudson Mike but it's the diamond stuff. I remember it from some remodelling I did at my house but I assumed it was just a type of chicken wire.

I would love to be able to go this route for the mountains I have to build. I'll be watching this closely!

Tom: In the tile trade, the same is available in plastic, comes on a roll. Lightweight and won't cut you! Would be great for vertical walls. Would have to be put over balled up newspaper for horizontal land forms. Better than fiberglass window screen. The brand is Mapei.

Pete, you are talking to someone who went to the Mapei school in FL and the tile school in GA,   I am familiar with the soft bodied smooth surface products.  That is exactly what I sought to avoid.  I wanted something that would hold 3 dimensional shapes on it's own with minimum support.

I am also using this medium for some lift out ground features to access hidden trackage if needed.

The nice thing about lath is that you can force it into any shape.  Sometimes you will create a somewhat unnatural shape but a hammer and backer will help to reshape folds and unwanted peaks.

However, it would not be good for anyone on a blood thinner.