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Polystyrene.


RichardS

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I’ve started adding some polystyrene to the foam board experiment to create some topography. Boscarne junction is cut into a hill side so at the rear there is a fairly steep bank. While to the front the same hillside falls down to water meadows and the river.

The whole exercise is turning into a little diorama and I shall experiment further with the surface dressings I might use on Bosmelin. Thus I shall need to include some ‘water’ and of course trees both of which I am less confident about.

A while back I bought Paul Bambrick’s book ‘Creating a Backscene.’

Backscenes on model railways are often a bit of a Cinderella feature. Occasionally one will see a top notch backscene but more often than not they are blue painted pieces of hardboard. Inevitably these are too low and end up as elbow rests for operators. A slovenly presentation at best. Less frequent but far too common are layouts with no backscene save for coffee cups, beer bellies and “stuff.” Enough said.

Backscenes are crucial for presentation in my view and constrain the layout. They can add atmosphere and provide time and place.

To provide depth a back scene can be built in 3D or as a kind of decopage and I shall use the experimental board to test this too.

I’ve been planning this adventure for far too long but now my zeal has been unleashed.

img_20190307_1655007949702009541013663.jpg?w=700


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Mikkel

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Only a proper modeller would used the word "zeal" in relation to polystyrene :D I like the look of this. I'm very interested to see how you get on with the backscene too. I don't have Paul Bambrick’s book yet, but from what I've seen of his backscenes they are extraordinarily good.

Edited by Mikkel
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It looks a good start, I've built similar Hillsides on my N gauge layout, the hillside rises a good 6 inches behind the railway, Where the backscene board does protrude above the  hillsides, I've spent some time getting a graduated blue sky not plain blue.  Later when more is built there will be a clip on section in one area, taking the hillside up higher.

 

As for covering the polystyrene. My favourite is genuine J cloths soaked in a pollyfilla water / pva mix, then coated with a thicker mix.  Genuine J cloths have holes in them and allow the polyfilla to link through. PVA in the mix gives a harder surface less likely to chip and produces a hard shell. I suspect with a couple of layers it would stand on its own without the polystyrene beneath..

 

To Hide the operator and cups of coffee, the back of the layout will have a light blue curtain, So that if neccessary you can reach through ( I hate the hand God on layouts) but otherwise remain hidden.

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Thanks for the comments @Mikkel and @TheQ .  A proper modeller - I like that, a lot! :D    There's something satisfying about slicing through the material with a hot wire.  I think with Paul Bambrick's book like all of these things it's about of taking the ideas and applying them to your situation rather than religiously following them. It's a weighty tome and there's a lot of info contained in it's pages.

 

I hadn't thought of J Cloths I might give them a try. I have found plaster bandage at Hobbycraft they do 3m rolls by I think 8cm for £1 which is quite a bit cheaper per sqm than branded versions. A colleague ordered some from a medical supply company and that worked out quite cheap too. Tasma also do a cheaper versions which is fine. For this little project there's no point in ordering in bulk but when I get round to the main layout I'll need considerable amounts.  I was lucky to be talking to Barry Norman on Friday evening (I move in exalted circles - although they probably think I'm the caretaker or something) about baseboards he used on Petherick and he still felt that wire netting covered with bandage or similar was valid provided the underside of the netting was also plastered over - this must avoid separation and I suppose the netting then performs the same role as the mesh or J cloths.     

 

All the best

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