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What to use for thin landscape? Plaster, filler or what


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I’m building a layout on plywood topped baseboards. I have several quite large areas which need a thin coat (approx 5mm ) of something to bed in buildings and get rid of the flat earth look. For example, the goods yard surface which is about 300mm by 150 mm (I’m working in G scale). My concern is that whatever I use may not bond well to the ply or could easily crack, especially if the layout is exhibited. I did try on a earlier section applying a coat of neat pva then plastering on top while it was still wet. This didn’t work, although the plaster was very well stuck to the ply baseboard top, it dried with loads of cracks.

 

The materials I have to hand are,

 

Woodland Scenics Casting Plaster, which I think is unsuitable as it is quite fragile.

 

Woodland Scenics Shaper Sheet plaster, which might be OK.

 

Tetrion Ready Mixed Filler which I think contains a small amount of adhesive.

 

But there may be other things I could use. Any suggestions welcome.

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I use Sculptamold which appears to be a combination of a powder like Hydrocal and papier mache. It's not cheap but is easy to use, very light weight and sticks well to wood. I usually use ot over a thin plaster bandage on top of sculpted foam; but have also successfully used it on wood directly. I'm a huge fan of it!

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Thin cork sheet laid over some small mounds of layers of cereal box card.  This would also allow you to bed in the buildings where necessary.

 

Use paths / roads/ tarmac repairs/ etc to hide the joins in the cork sheets.

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I did a road surface for a tram layout that I scribbed on a stone set surface made out of car body filler direct to the plywood surface. The thickness was no more than the rail hight also laid direct to the wood. It never cracked and proved to be very durable.

Many years later when I broke up that particular layout I had to chisel the filler off to reclaim the boards.

Edited by Londontram
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I use Sculptamold which appears to be a combination of a powder like Hydrocal and papier mache. It's not cheap but is easy to use, .............................

Yes, great stuff. On four  layouts now we have used Sculptamold with a blend of PVA, paint and vermiculite based on an american recipe for 'Goop'. The vermiculite 'stretches' the Sculptamold and used in thin layers 3-5mm drys quickly. Any left over will keep moist for weeks in an air tight container. Vermiculite is available in many sizes from large chunks to almost dust. In the smaller scales fine reptile egg incubation grade is about right. Trowels out nicely, can be smoothed and sanded but leaves a very slight 'texture' It has shown no sign of cracking and is incredibly tough once set, but will soften with water. seems to stick to almost all substrates, on expanded foam we brush with neat PVA first. Takes all paints and scenic dressings.

Steve W

Edited by steve W
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Thanks for all the suggestions. I’m going to use them all.

 

I hadn’t heard of sculptamold before, but will get some for the next part of the layout. Meanwhile I’ve been trying to use up all the bits in my scenic bix.

 

For one section which needs to be fairly flat I’ve used foamboard which I had in stock (instead of cork) which I’ve distressed to make it uneven and used some card bumps, then painted with liberal amounts of texture paint.

 

Another section I glued some modroc (found some in my scenic box) down with pva and then coated it with Woodland Scenics Shaper Sheet Plaster (had half a carton in my scenic box) to which I added some earth and green paint (used up open bottles).

 

I’ve got a narrow strip to fill about a metre long and 10mm wide between ballast and a wall, I havn’t got any car body filler, but I have some Milliput, so tonight i’m going to make a long saussage of Milliput and press it into place. This should strengthen the bond holding the wall up and unlike plaster etc, the Milliput will not run into areas I don’t want it to go.

 

I havn’t yet tried the balsa dust & pva mix, but I have a few little gaps it would be idea for.

 

Thanks again.

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Thanks for all the suggestions. I’m going to use them all.

.............

I’ve got a narrow strip to fill about a metre long and 10mm wide between ballast and a wall, I havn’t got any car body filler, but I have some Milliput, so tonight i’m going to make a long saussage of Milliput and press it into place. This should strengthen the bond holding the wall up and unlike plaster etc, the Milliput will not run into areas I don’t want it to go.

....

Milliput is my favourite filler, but for scenery use as you propose would not be my first choice. If I wanted to ensure that I could control it creeping onto track etc. I would take a look at DAS air drying clay. Has the approximate consistency of Plastiscene so is easy to work (no mixing) and sets hard but not brittle. It probably will do as good a job of holding up that retaining wall as the Milliput would.

DAS can be obtained easily from craft and art shops (Hobbycraft usually it or a similar one).

 

Going back to my prev post above, 'Goop' does not need a lot of water to bring it together, does take a bit of mixing, but it should end up as a soft paste that can easily be spread. For Sculptamold check EDM Models. A similar material, 'Celluclay' is available from Hobbycraft and saves postage and works as well.

 

 

Cheers

Steve W

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Morning,

 

I found two unopenned packets of DAS in my scenic box. Although they were well over 5 years old, they were still soft and useable. So I used it as suggested above (thanks Steve W) and it nicely filled the space between ballast and wall. The photo below shows the results (remember its G Scale).

 

post-19248-0-36822200-1541072946.jpeg

 

At the top of the picture near the coach and glue bottle is the goods yard, foamboard and a thin coat of coloured plaster.

 

The area in front of it and nearer the camera has modrock glued to the ply and a coat of coloured plaster.

 

Just behind the buffer stop is a small area of Tetrion filler (had run out of plaster).

 

Between the wall and ballast is the thin strip of DAS.

 

The grey areas on each side will have buildings, these will be removable to make it easier to move the layout. That’s 1.5 baseboards out of 8.

 

Thanks again to everyone for your help.

 

ColinK

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