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New member 12 posts richard daphne New member 12 posts
richard daphne
I recently got my hands on a few pieces of polystyrene over the past couple of days and was wanting to use it to create the foundation of mountains with crumpled up newspaper placed in certain areas then drape plaster cloth over everything to create a solid frame to paint and mould into scenery how would I go about getting the heights right in order to make them realistic in height and size according to the scale of the train set

Richard daphne
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barr_ceo Super User 3,276 posts
barr_ceo

The only mountains I've EVER

The only mountains I've EVER seen scaled realistically to the size of the trains was some ZBendTrack modules.

I saw this at the NTS in Cincinnati in 2005. You viewed the modules from an elevated platform. The track was another 2-3 feet higher... and the peak of the mountains was about 12-15 feet off the floor. See this link for pictures.

It's Z scale.... and all DCC.

I hope you've got high ceilings...

BTW... polystyrene in what form? How thick? How big are the pieces?

Read my Journal / Blog...

!BARR_LO.GIFFreelanced N scale Class Digitrax & JMRI

 NRail  T-Trak Standards  T-Trak Wiki   T-Trak Wiki Pages
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richard daphne New member 12 posts
richard daphne

polystyrene mountains

The polystyrene I am using is about 1 centimetere and is the type found in new tv boxes the size of the pieces are a meter squaredm when I said I wanted them to scale if I am modeling in ho scale what hieght would you suggest I make the hieght so that the trains look authentic to the hieght of the mountain

Richard daphne
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barr_ceo Super User 3,276 posts
barr_ceo

Oh, I don't know... something

Oh, I don't know... something around 40 feet tall, the height of a 4 story building? Got a Zeppelin hangar to build it in?

 

(that's NOT a model...)

Remember that 15 foot tall mountain I mentioned before? That was in Z scale - 1:220. That's a 3300 foot (1 KM ) peak in real life. in HO, that's about 38 feet (11.5m) tall.

1 cm pieces 1m x 1m are pretty much useless for what you're talking about. You need something like 2 inch (50mm) foam in  4 x 8 foot (roughly 1.25 x 2.5 m) pieces... and LOTS of them.

You might want to get a little more realistic about what you want to do.

 

Read my Journal / Blog...

!BARR_LO.GIFFreelanced N scale Class Digitrax & JMRI

 NRail  T-Trak Standards  T-Trak Wiki   T-Trak Wiki Pages
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richard daphne New member 12 posts
richard daphne

If you have a look on a model

If you have a look on a model layout in let's say ho or n gauge how do you judge what height to make the hills and mountains on the layout

Richard daphne
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barr_ceo Super User 3,276 posts
barr_ceo

It's simple math, if you're

It's simple math, if you're wanting the REAL proportions of mountain to train size.

Mountain height divided by scale factor.

If the mountain is 1000 feet over the rails, then

1000 / 87 = 11.49 feet in HO

1000 / 160 = 6.25 feet in N

Most people settle for significantly less height, in the name of practicality.

Read my Journal / Blog...

!BARR_LO.GIFFreelanced N scale Class Digitrax & JMRI

 NRail  T-Trak Standards  T-Trak Wiki   T-Trak Wiki Pages
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