On with the Plaster!

I recently started laying down the plaster scenic shell on my layout. I'm using a 1:1 mixture of patching plaster and vermiculite for my shell a la Joe F. I've really come to like working with this mixture. It goes down easy and is certainly a lot less mess than the plaster soaked towels which I used on a previous layout.

It's not much to look at, and certainly isn't very exciting, but here are a couple pictures showing my recent progress. 

It's amazing how much plaster mix is needed to cover even this small section. I can see it's going to take a while to work around to the other end of the layout, but with some music playing in the background, laying down the plaster is really rather relaxing. 

The smaller patches of brown you see in the pictures are spots where I will be carving some rock faces out of plaster. I've been working on some trial pieces in the worshop just to get a feel for the carving technique, and am experimenting with some different methods of coloring the rock. I can't say that I'm totally satisfied with my work yet, but I'm learning!  

The larger section of brown in the middle of the lower deck is a removable mountain piece for access to a track below. I used a piece of vinyl as a divider in the joint to provide a wall that I could lay the plaster up against. Once the plaster hardened somewhat I took the vinyl out. I'm waiting for the current plaster to dry, then will put the vinyl back in place and add plaster on the other side on removable section. I'm hoping this will make for a nice joint in the plaster that won't be too fragile.

Thanks for taking a look!

"It's not much to look at"

au contraire!

 That's looking fantastic. This stage of layout building is one of my favorites to watch. There's so many decisions to make and so many ways to achieve the results that you are looking for. 

Keep the progress photos coming as even the little incremental changes are interesting to many of us.

Rick 

I just love to see mountains

I just love to see mountains grow... looks fantastic!

Looks good Paul, won't be

Looks good Paul, won't be long till time to plant trees!

Ah, I love the smell of

Ah, I love the smell of plaster in the morning. Looking good!

Replies

Thanks guys! The kind words are appreciated. You know you've got good friends when they rejoice with you over watching plaster dry! 

OH YEAH!

"It's not much to look at, and certainly isn't very exciting, but here are a couple pictures showing my recent progress".

 I disagree. This is the best of modeling times IMHO. What you have gives great definition to the area and it looks like you are moving along on a well thought out plan. It looks GREAT!

TomO

@ Tom

Tom,

Thanks for the heart warming message! I'm starting to see what you and the others have been talking about. The further I go with the scenery, the more excited I'm getting about the layout!

Today's Progress

Had the day off from work and was able to get some more plaster down at the other end of the layout on the upper deck.

DAY off

And that's all you did? LOL, just kidding.

Never having been to the area you are modeling, your landforms are giving me a sense of being somewhere out East where mining is done.  Are you planning to continue on with just the plaster work or will you stop and detail some of the areas you've plastered? I am finding that once I start the land forming I feel I have to continue around the layout. 

Thanks for sharing

TomO

A NOT train craving...

Nice work Paul. The second pic gave me an almost insatiable craving for a monster cinnamon roll.  But alas, I had no Dough Boy's in the fridge and I'm not a big from scratch pastry kind of guy, so...a bowl of Cap'n Crunch had to suffice!  BTW...I got another box for your "Cereal City" if you need it...!  Looking good. 

@ Tom

Tom,

Truth be told I could have done more on my day off but I also had to...get some inline speed skating in on the bike trail, went to shoot my Glock 43, washed dishes for my wife, swept the garage, sharpened and changed blades on my lawn tractor, cleaned out the mower deck, then watched a movie in the evening. 

No wonder more isn't getting done on the layout!!!!!!!!!

If the mountains are looking like they are out East to you, I must be doing something right. The scenery is meant to represent mountain ranges found on the West Virginia, Kentucky border. Like you, I plan to get all the plaster shell in first before going on to other things. It's a matter of efficiency. It takes more effort to constantly switch between tasks than it does to bring one task to completion. I guess once I'm on a roll I like to keep going. 

@ Jeff

Jeff,

I LOVE Captain Crunch! Glad to see I'm not the only one.

You can recycle the cereal box though. I've given up on that as a resource and am going to redo my building mockups with foam core board like I did the mines.

Uh Oh . . .

. . . I see a problem here!  A BIG problem!  You work so darn fast you're likely to be done with your layout in a few months.  Then what are you going to do? (besides mowing the grass I mean.)

Kidding aside, it's looking great!  Keep the pictures coming!

Temporary Snow Storm on the Pokey!

I finished the plaster scenery shell a number of weeks ago, but never got around to posting my progress. This is the only time it's going to look like a winter scene of snow covering my layout, so I thought I better snap a few pictures before it melts away.

At first I didn't mind the stark white, but it's really starting to drive me nuts. My progress on the layout slows dramatically once the weather outside gets nice, but I think I'm going to have to set some time aside in the near future to get some basic ground foam cover on before I go crazy!

The snow

Looks good Paul. I do understand the boring comment unless you intend to do the winter scenes. Just get out the 3" brush and some cheap flat latex paint and in a couple hours all the snow can be gone. Then when time permits come back and do the ground cover. 

Thanks for sharing

TomO

As usual . . .

. . . that looks fantastic, Paul.

I understand what you mean about summer.  Most of my time has been spent mowing the lawn, but I did manage to bottle 26 bottles of Cabernet with my wife last night!  They should be ready to drink by August or September.  

@ Michael

Thanks Michael! You're always so generous with the compliments!

Like you, lawn work is eating into my railroad time as well. Ugh! I did manage however to go through the whole layout and clean all the track after the plaster shell was complete. So at least I can run some trains when time allows, which is always fun.

Given the place I'm currently at on scenery, I may be contacting you somewhere down the road closer to winter about your puff ball trees. I remember you posting something about that once, and really liked the process you devised. If you care to share that info with me now, even better!

Cheers!

Puffball Trees

Hi Paul,

Sure thing!  I don't have a lot of pics, but here are a few.

Materials:

1. ModPodge Diluted 3:1  (I'm going to experiment with Elmer's Glue 4:1 because it's cheaper)
2. Corse ground foam in multiple colors.  I use Woodland Scenics Light, Medium & Dark, and a mixture of all 3 from the leftovers that fall off the completed trees
3. Polly Fibre - I use both the Black and Green from MicroMark.  I like the black better, but the green adds variety.
4. Cheap hair spray

Tools:

1. Empty coffee cans or similar containers, one for each color.
2. Barbecue/kitchen tongs (cheap ones)
3. Wax paper
4. Rubber gloves (wear while making)

Method:

1. Pull off a small tuft of ground foam about the size of a golf ball or a little smaller.  Roll it in your hands to make it round (my lovely wife's idea).  I make a whole cookie tray of these ahead of time while watching TV.
2. Dip the puffball in the ModPodge and squeeze most of it out.
3. Drop the puffball in one of the containers, put the lid on, and shake it until covered.  I've found I can successfully do two at once.
4. Use the tongs to lift the puffball out, shaking gently
5. Place the puffball on the wax paper to dry
6. When finished, spray the batch lightly with the hair spray to help the foam adhere

Installation:

I install these to hillsides with either white glue or hot glue.  Hot glue works with steep hillsides.  

I've also found that the trees low down to the level ground can be cut in half before gluing.  This makes a lower profile tree and gives more room for detailed foreground trees and bushes.  You could even do the whole hillside with trees cut in half, doubling your tree output!  I did that on my gorge and it worked well.  But I like them better on horizontal surfaces if they are not cut in half.

Another method I used was to stick some toothpicks along the background and put the puffballs on top of them, making an elevated "forest" canopy.  This worked pretty well too.

I hope this is helpful!  

These trees are all full puffballs
 

These trees are all cut in half. 

Poly fiber can be made to

Poly fiber can be made to look even better if it has a trunk. I saw someone do this with sticks of various kinds and instead of making them round they were greatly elongated. This mass was given the ground fom treatment and instead of a lot of ball shaped trees they looked a bit more like trees.

Now that is not a knock on the puff ball trees they produce a good effect, but the ones I saw produced with a bit of a trunk were very impressive.

Trees

Michael - Thanks for the extended description of your puff ball technique. It's much appreciated.

Rob - I might have to experiment with your suggestions. I can see that idea working particularly well right behind the detailed foreground trees.

Looking good

I like the progress. I admire that you are finding time in our busy Minnesota summers. The layout will really come alive when you add foliage and color to those mountains.

Time

Thomas,

Thanks for the compliments. As for time however, other than occasionally running some trains in the evening, work on the layout has come to a virtual halt. Remodeling one of our bathrooms and painting a hallway hasn't helped, but the real reason is that I can't bring myself to spend time in the basement when it's sunny outside. I hope work on your new yard has faired somewhat better!

I've seen pictures of your

I've seen pictures of your basement it has windows. In the snow belt where you live the chance to be outside is likely a big deal so I understand. For us in the south it is a great time to get out of the heat and mosquitos. Not to mention the burning effect from the sun. If there was no air conditioning most people would be further north. On a positive note we have not been looking at 100 plus days with no end in site like we have in some summers past.