By necessity, I have to have lift out sections in the middle of my layout. I have a 4x8 area that is open and flat and clear of track, and that area has two end-to-end 20 inch wide and four foot long lift-outs of plywood. I have to have them if I ever want to do any maintenance on some inner rails, so I will rarely lift them out but it will happen some time.
I initially painted this 4x8 area and started to lay grass and landscaping. I had roads along the straight cracks, and the edge of the black roads hid the small cracks really nice.
But looking at it, I thought it was no good because it was flat and all the roads were straight and aligned with the tracks and board edges. I need some depth.
I've started gluing 1/2 inch foam on the plywood and I cut the cracks at the lift out areas sort of squiggly in an effort to make them less noticeable. It's a little like a jigsaw piece now, except I only squiggled about a 1/2 inch back and forth randomly along the cracks. I'm going to lay the roads in with some angles and stuff after I get some gradual rises that might go as high as 2-1/2 inches.
Has anyone hidden cracks like I will have, but still had the area unattached so it can lift out? I was thinking of either grinding down into them a little and making them ditches with the crack at the edge or bottom, or laying trees, houses, and brush along them to hide them or at least pull people's eyes away from them. Does that sound like a good way to hide them, or is there a better way??? I thought making them jagged instead of like lines would help, and it seems to, but I need to plan a disguise.
Tom
I initially painted this 4x8 area and started to lay grass and landscaping. I had roads along the straight cracks, and the edge of the black roads hid the small cracks really nice.
But looking at it, I thought it was no good because it was flat and all the roads were straight and aligned with the tracks and board edges. I need some depth.
I've started gluing 1/2 inch foam on the plywood and I cut the cracks at the lift out areas sort of squiggly in an effort to make them less noticeable. It's a little like a jigsaw piece now, except I only squiggled about a 1/2 inch back and forth randomly along the cracks. I'm going to lay the roads in with some angles and stuff after I get some gradual rises that might go as high as 2-1/2 inches.
Has anyone hidden cracks like I will have, but still had the area unattached so it can lift out? I was thinking of either grinding down into them a little and making them ditches with the crack at the edge or bottom, or laying trees, houses, and brush along them to hide them or at least pull people's eyes away from them. Does that sound like a good way to hide them, or is there a better way??? I thought making them jagged instead of like lines would help, and it seems to, but I need to plan a disguise.
Tom
