I am trying to gather up some ideas on scenery construction here. As I progress I will keep things tied together in my other thread in the layout planning area but this question is very specific to scenery so I think it fits best over here.
What I am working on is an N scale layout. From the ground up it is being designed around being modular - IE the layout framing will bolt together. The table top will be in sections molded around the frame sections. This also means that everything on the table has to be in those sections also - track, buss wire, and..... scenery.
Some construction techniques I have seen now include the following:
- News paper crumbled up, covered in plaster + cloth
- Styrofoam insulation board
- Woven cardboard strips covered in plaster + cloth
- Wood framing/deck risers with any combination of the above
From a mobile standpoint, I am not liking the plaster idea because I feel it is too brittle. The newspaper and cloth/plaster technique on the layout I visited recently does not seem very durable to me. Does anyone have any experience in relocating a layout in a vehicle? Possibly a modular club layout in the same theory I am going about my design? Plaster, to me, seems like it is going to crack and crumble with road vibration.
The styrofoam insulation board seems like a pretty sure bet - it is solid and somewhat firm, not a thin shell with a weak hollow structure. The hard part is it is flat. If plaster is prone to cracking/crumbling - what can I use on top of the foam to build up terrain?
Another consideration is greenery and gravel/aggregate. It appears the technique is to glue it all down. Both appear to be pretty "loose" in their raw form. Are there any glue considerations you think would be important? The Woodland Scenics spray adhesive seems common, but the durability of the adhesion seems questionable.
Track retention - From what I have read so far it is not very common to tack/screw the track down. Glue seems to be more of the norm. I would think the main reason for this is the tack or screw idea will transfer too much vibration to the table below = takes out the sound dampening purpose of a proper road bed (foam seems like it is the newer high-tech, lower-noise option, whereas cork is the old school method)
My goal is to make each layout "module" a box, of sorts. Think of it like a cake box where the plate is the table top, the cake is the layout, and a lid covers up the cake/layout. Sort of like custom wood shipping crates.
What I am working on is an N scale layout. From the ground up it is being designed around being modular - IE the layout framing will bolt together. The table top will be in sections molded around the frame sections. This also means that everything on the table has to be in those sections also - track, buss wire, and..... scenery.
Some construction techniques I have seen now include the following:
- News paper crumbled up, covered in plaster + cloth
- Styrofoam insulation board
- Woven cardboard strips covered in plaster + cloth
- Wood framing/deck risers with any combination of the above
From a mobile standpoint, I am not liking the plaster idea because I feel it is too brittle. The newspaper and cloth/plaster technique on the layout I visited recently does not seem very durable to me. Does anyone have any experience in relocating a layout in a vehicle? Possibly a modular club layout in the same theory I am going about my design? Plaster, to me, seems like it is going to crack and crumble with road vibration.
The styrofoam insulation board seems like a pretty sure bet - it is solid and somewhat firm, not a thin shell with a weak hollow structure. The hard part is it is flat. If plaster is prone to cracking/crumbling - what can I use on top of the foam to build up terrain?
Another consideration is greenery and gravel/aggregate. It appears the technique is to glue it all down. Both appear to be pretty "loose" in their raw form. Are there any glue considerations you think would be important? The Woodland Scenics spray adhesive seems common, but the durability of the adhesion seems questionable.
Track retention - From what I have read so far it is not very common to tack/screw the track down. Glue seems to be more of the norm. I would think the main reason for this is the tack or screw idea will transfer too much vibration to the table below = takes out the sound dampening purpose of a proper road bed (foam seems like it is the newer high-tech, lower-noise option, whereas cork is the old school method)
My goal is to make each layout "module" a box, of sorts. Think of it like a cake box where the plate is the table top, the cake is the layout, and a lid covers up the cake/layout. Sort of like custom wood shipping crates.
