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 Posted - February 19 2012 : 09:48:44 AM
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Anybody here use plaster as a base for your scenery? I wanna use it rather than foam. What all needs to be done prep wise and what paints can be used on it?
" Heck with counting 'em rivets, TRAINS ARE FOR FUN! Not called the Mad Scientist for nothing either!"
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Posted - February 19 2012 : 10:54:41 AM
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One of our club members was building mountains on his home bedroom layout yesterday. Basically foam base and cardboard, then applied the plaster type material over it. I don't believe it was "plaster" plaster, as that's somewhat brittle for making good vertical rock faces, it was a more specialized variety, I forget which . Anyway, regular plaster is usable but heavy if you're going to make solid mountains,not sure of your intent here, simple ground scenery should be fine, as you won't have it too thick anyway. But it takes paint easily enough, and I don't think other than having something solid for it to stick to on your layout, it should stay in place. If you are choosing TRUE real plaster, remember it is more brittle than the model railroading variety, so it will split and crack unless your base is very solid. Any flexing in the underlying structure will cause problems with cracking, etc. True of the Hydrocal as well, but I think that has a bit more flexibility to it than just regular plaster. Good luck with it!
Our resident layout artist uses Xact-o knives to carve the layered rocks, anything thicker and it causes the plaster to bulge out, and the rocks look more rounded than flat-faced, as the grooves go too wide. If you're just doing granite, then layering isn't necessary. And ground terrain variations are simple enough, and should do fine with plaster, long as it's not too thick.
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - February 19 2012 : 11:06:06 AM
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I have a 3 inch to cover on my future layout's upper level. I've thought about styrofoam. I wanna use something thats not to hard to mess with. Foam presents a problem with painting issues, messy clean-up, and would be hard to get just right. I wanna make a nice steep slope to go around the upper level.
" Heck with counting 'em rivets, TRAINS ARE FOR FUN! Not called the Mad Scientist for nothing either!"
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Posted - February 19 2012 : 4:29:31 PM
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Most plaster mountains have an underlying base, from plaster-soaked cheesecloth to cardboard, foam, etc. You can build the rough mountain contours with foam or cardboard, which my club did, then apply a thin ( less than 1" thick ) layer of plaster over that. Sturdy, fairly light still, and easy to work with. Most people are using pink foam-board, not that white foam that is sort of foam balls heat-glued together ( styrofoam, basically ), that is a MESS to cut. The foam board is easy to cut, minor foam dust to clean up with vacuum, and takes the plaster overlay well. For the steep mountains, my club used cardboard strips criss-crossed and stapled to the wood framework, then cheesecloth and then plaster, then trees. In the truly rocky mountainous area, was the same. Both turned out well. Many different methods can be used, depending on your own resources and what you can scrounge, too.
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - February 19 2012 : 6:40:24 PM
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There are many options for building up slopes to lay plaster over. I've used combinations of crumpled up newspaper, window screen, foam insulation board, paper mache, etc,. The options AMC mentioned are also good.
Plaster takes most paints very well. I've always used acrylics and never had any problems.
The layout I'm currently working on is paper towel dipped in plaster and laid over foam:
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Posted - February 19 2012 : 7:18:37 PM
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Nice work on this layout Cheez.
Alco Fan
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