I'm renovating my layout and right now I have green felt on it. At my local train shop they have a paper that looks real. I'm debating whether or not should I buy the paper or make my own scenery.
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Trainguy714 It's just my opinion but when you lay out A roll of something the whole area looks alike. If you put down ground foam or dyed sawdust it just adds more texture than A flat roll of whatever. Like I said just my opinion hope you don't mind. Choo Choo Kenny
I would recommend, Traditional Scenery, see Photo
Take a look at this book by, Model Railroading
The Complete Photo Guide
Basic Scenery for Model Railroaders
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The roll out mat will be much faster, but doing your own scenery will be more satisfying in the long run.
Be sure to check out Fusion Fiber - it's fantastic stuff!
Be sure to check out Fusion Fiber - it's fantastic stuff!
Forum Sponsor Scenic Express, IMO has a very nice website with a very good search feature. I also used the Kalmbach soft back book(s) listed above, a great starting place. Click on underlined phrases to link. You can view a portion of these publications.
This plowed field is a composite sheet that is glued-down.
Scenic Express products.
Some of this product comes in sheets.
Example 4 mm X 12" X 19"
Another product in sheets
Click on the underlined phrases to link to the Scenic Express website.
IMO, a lot of nice stuff available from Scenic Express. Maybe a bit pricey but it sure beats green grass, porch carpet.
Mike CT
100% without a doubt.....build your own scenery.
They green paper is a good idea as a base for a tin-plate layout of something. but it does have a rather uniform look that is a bit unrealistic. However, you may wish simply to cover everything initially so it does not look like raw benchtop, then you can always go back recover it with other ground cover later, but in the meantime you have something of a scenery cover.
I used an earth-tone paint as a base color and then built scenery on that. Here is a post from a previous thread. Note the latex paint mix from a local hardware store.
This post is from several month back. There is a paint mix listed for an earth-tone.
Plaster cloth application to a module. Fabrication of the part that doesn't come in the box. 
I stapled a base layer of plaster cloth on the hillside relief, using two overlays, Woodland Scenics or Scenic Express, I have both. Once installed, I wet the cloth with a brush and allowed it to harden. It appeared a bit too smooth, so I did additional detail with pieces of wet cloth installed randomly.
Paint used is Benjamin Moore Deep Base N215 3B (Mix BK 6 1/2, BR 2 3/4, OY 13, Quart can)
Flock and Turf uses is Scenic Express EX897B Green Adirondack Blend. Small pieces of coal were added.
Retaining walls and post detail are part of the Cabin Creek Coal Tipple.
Hi Train Guy 714
You have a lot of modelers giving you input on this topic, including myself,
What way are you thinking about going, Green Felt Grass or Traditional Scenery.
It is all up to you.
Best of Luck & Cheers from Michigan
You need to do what feels right for you. I know that I did mine from scratch, it was both easy and rewarding. Scenery is not as difficult as people think. Now wiring....Whole different story!
For wiring my friend is a electrition and he is custom building me a powerhouse thing that I can wire all my accessories to and he will put dimmers so I'm looking forward to that.
