Modelling low contours in N gauge

[richardperou]

I am a complete elderly novice.  I decided to try my hand at modelling as the winter here in Southern France is as wet and windy as was in England even though a lot shorter. 

 

I thought that I would keep things simple by trying to build a simple end to end in N gauge of an area that I was familiar with in East Sussex. At least I thought it would be simple. As I stared at the recently made baseboard and reviewed videos and photographs of the prototype I realised that what at first view was a completely flat area wasn't.   The levels of the area around the station buildings changed by a few feet.  The area is tarmacadam, no problem there, but how do I model these slight contours?  For domestic reasons I want to avoid messy materials like plaster cloth.

 

Advice please.

[Kris]

If the changes in level are not too sharp, don't go over too large an area and don't go in multiple directions, you might get away with a large sheet of thin card or plastic.

[JeffP]

Thicker card or ply or mdf formers.

Chicken wire, the smaller holed variety.

Old cloth soaked in diluted PVA, followed with papier mache.

[Stubby47]

4 hours ago, Kris said:

If the changes in level are not too sharp, don't go over too large an area and don't go in multiple directions, you might get away with a large sheet of thin card or plastic.

 

Another option would be a 2-3mm thick sheet of soft foam, as sold in craft shops. 

 

Lay your top surface over layers of thin card (cereal packet) to give the variations in height.

[DCB]

Making a distinction between the track level and the supporting base board is an easy first step. No reason the supporting base has to be horizontal even if the track is.  The US style L and T girder construction is an alternative but usually involves chicken wire and large amounts of messy gunge where building up contours of ply and fibre board can minimise the need for filler papier mache of similar gunge.  I feel scenery below the track level is generally more important than that above, generally because the scenery below is foreground...