Paper Towels for Plaster Cloth

I prefer paper towels dipped in hydrocal or plaster of Paris. The plastercloth seemed to need extra plaster brushed on anyway. I would go with a wood base and supports then attach cardboard strips hot glued to form the mountain. Layer paper towels dipped in hydrocal over top. You could also buy rock molds from the various scenery vendors and add them in as well.

I have to disagree with GEF, though it probably is a close call. I find plastercloth incredibly easy to work with. I use two coats of cloth, applied at the same time. It is neat, easy and quick. I often 'tune' the contours with sculptamold. I then do coat with a layer of brushed on hydrocal.

 

Jan

I believe it's personal preference.  The towels seem messier to use.  They don't seem quite as strong as the cloth, either.  They sure are cheaper though, especially dipped in regular old Plaster of Paris.

On one of the mountains we built on our club layout we used the blue Scott Shop towels, they are still paper towels, but heavier than white towels. They worked quite well, and were preferable to the plastercloth, due to the size of the mountain and the cost involved.

I too make the choice of plaster cloth vs. paper towels by the size of the job. The plaster gauze is easy, but can get expensive on larger projects - check out Pinnacle Peaks State Park in the next issue of OGR magazine.

 

You can make the paper towel technique easier for yourself in various ways. First, always use a heavy-duty industrial grade towel (like the brown or blue varieties). The white kitchen towels are too weak.

 

Next, use a slow-setting plaster or drywall compound. Nothing is more aggravating than having plaster-of-Paris or hydrocal set up in your bowl, and having to clean it out and mix a new batch.

 

The Structolite brand of plaster (from Home Depot) is cheap (about 25c a pound) and has an extremely slow setting time. I can mix one big batch in a huge bowl and dip paper towels all evening without it setting up. It actually takes several hours to fully set and cure. Slow setting drywall compounds are also available in powder form.

 

If you have a lot of nearly vertical surfaces to cover, the plaster gauze is easier to use. If you want to use the towels on vertical surfaces, use the roll type so that you can go from top to bottom of the cliff with a single, long, plaster dipped piece of towel. Smaller pieces will tend to slide.

 

Also, there's no reason why you can't use both methods. You can use the cheaper towels in the easy areas, and save the plaster gauze for the trickier situations.

 

Finally, whether you use the plaster gauze or the towels, remember that this is just the initial shell. Don't expect this to be strong enough for the final mountain. Applying extra layers of gauze is just wasting money. Instead, cover your initial shell with a good thick (1/4") layer of Structolite or Sculptamold. This is what provides the real strength for your scenery.

 

Jim

Interesting.  So far, I've used neither.

 

I just use some old bed sheets that I "tack" into place with hot glue and then just "paint" with Hydrocal.....

Martin,

 

Glad you mentioned that. Cloth makes another excellent scenery base for plaster.

 

Once when I was in an experimental mood, I even used pieces of cloth dipped in latex paint and draped over cardboard strips. The paint covered cloth was amazingly tough. The process was a little messy, but the results were good. I imagine slightly diluted white glue would be just as good or better than the paint.

 

Some other ways of using cloth were described in my "Flexible Rocks" article in OGR Run 256.

 

There is no right or wrong, or any one way of doing good scenery.

 

Jim

While we are on the topic, there is something I have always wondered about.  Back in the late 50's in the days when I used to pour over the Sacred Texts from Lionel, they went on and on about making mountains out of a material called "Celastic", which is some kind of a plastic-impregnated fabric.  Apparently you activated it with acetone, drooped it over your forms, and it hardened. The authors of Model Railroading were in a swoon over this stuff. (It apparently came in the #920 Scenic Set from 1957.)

 

This stuff is apparently still available, but I never hear about it around here.  Has anybody ever tried it?

 

Cheers,

Acetone? Hah. Not in my home with it's several appliances off nat gas. Not to mention the nervous system issues you will experience when using this stuff.

 

Back in my time we simply shoved chicken wire over the hills and draped with newspaper strips out of a bucket of liquid plaster. That did well enough for the time.

Actually, contrary to what one might think, Acetone is in fact relatively safe. Believe it or not, it is naturally occurring in the human body:

 

http://www.entheology.org/tips-acetone/acetone.htm

 

The flammability is another matter.

 

In any event, my query was primarily for historical interest.

--Cheers,

Pete,

 

I had never heard of that material, but looked up the 920 Lionel Scenic set and there it is! I'm going to have to ask some of the local Lionel experts about it. Most sources just call the stuff "mountain paper".

 

Here's a link:

 

Lionel Scenic set

 

 

I do remember linoleum paste (nasty stuff) being suggested as something to trowel onto wire screening. There was also some furnace cement (probably with asbestos) talked about at one time.

 

It's interesting how some techniques stand the test of time while others fade away. Remember zip texturing?

 

Some like that acetone activation and the practice of mixing asbestos powder with plaster are a couple best left in the past.

 

Jim

 

 

 

 

I tried paper towels and shop towels, shop towels worked the best for me.  The paper towels are too weak. 

if you are in an area where paper bags are available in the grocery as opposed to p;astic it is heavier than any paper towels and takes to plaster very well..i have portoins of an old layout i built in the mid 70's and still in great shape. i applied over crumpled newspaper then removed paper after plaster dried,very old school.

If your household uses "dryer sheets" (fabric softener sheets placed in the clothes dryer), they make a lightweight, strong substitute for paper towels.  If you collect a few each time the laundry gets done, you'll soon have a considerable stock - free!  I hot glue them directly to the scenery framework and paint on the plaster.

Thanks everyone! The dryer sheet and bed sheet ideas sound very interesting.