Plaster cloth
John D. Hinckley
folks who have used the plaster cloth method and what their experiences,
comments, ideas, and thoughts are on this method. Please include
information on paints, etc that you may have used.
Thanks to all in advance!
john
CBT2000
material draped over a form. This is easy to lose with a little forethought and
planning.
Don Cardiff
Kenneth Smith
nearly 20 years but scenery has consisted of model kits on a flat 4x8 board.)
I'm currently trying to build a desert scene including some mountains and
I am in LOVE with plaster cloth. I never imagined it could be so easy to
get good results. (One note - Every single book or article I've read uses
taped newspapers for a base. I've gotten easier and better results using
old clothes.)
Peter L. Leahy
Kenneth Smith wrote in message <789nle$6...@login.freenet.columbus.oh.us>...
I have found plaster cloth to be easy to use. As Don Cardiff mentioned in
another post - make a good repesentation of what you are looking for before
applying it. Newspaper is good, I have also used packing foam with good
results. Just tear off pieces of it to make it look like the terrain and
apply the cloth over it pushing it into the crevices. I used Woodland
Scenics paints for coloring(actually these are more like stains than paints,
you apply several coats and add differnet shades to get the look you want -
very effective! since it is water based you can wash it off if you don't
like the results)
Good luck!
Pete
----
Peter L. Leahy
ple...@adelphia.net .*** ___ _
p...@ycrdi.com U___@_| _ | ____ ___|_|__
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D Holliday
get you plaster cloth, in bulk. Much cheaper, "make TOM happy!"
I cannot be too enthusiastic about the foam cutters. (Hot Wire Foam
Factory). I tend to be more of an engineer, not an artificier. So the
"Foam Factory" allows me to sculpt, a skill I did not (probably do not)
have. Firm, lightweight base under everything.
I'm not even sure that plaster gauze is needed, using this approach.
Regards,
D.
TOM
<><><> TOM <><><>
-----------------
scrooge
couple
of the local medical facilities who pick it up whenever possible. The
hospital
doesn't use partial rolls so...
Dave in AK
bobda...@my-dejanews.com
stuff, including plaster cloth. It is so much easier to do than the old
screen-mesh and plaster paper towels of my youth, it's great.
Basically you want to plan out where the contours should be. Spend hours just
staring at the unfinished layout, daydreaming where the contours go, how the
trains interact with them, etc. Run the trains through it in your mind,
looking for problems with clearance, access, etc.
Build up your terrain with newspaper clumps taped into shape and then taped
together. Repeat step 1 above, staring, daydreaming, etc. Go to bed.
Rebuild your terrain with the same newspaper clumps. Ask your kids what they
think. (Your wife will say "It looks nice, dear," and she will think "The
faucet, the lawn, the car, the taxes, the dishes, and he's staring at balls of
newspaper??") Repeat step 1 above.
Mask all track that might get dripped on. Dress yourself and your kids in
messy clothes. Set up your water dish, scissors, plaster cloth rolls, etc.
Donate 1 whole roll to the cause of kids' enjoyment and involvement; they'll
waste less than this before they get the hang of it, but writing it off in
advance makes it easier to stay calm and focused on having a good time.
Work with sections no longer than 2 feet. Use 2 layers of cloth on every
square inch you cover. Smooth out the plaster enough to make the 2 layers
stick to each other, but don't try to cover every little hole! You'll just
ruin the plaster's adhesion to the cloth if you fuss with it too much. Leave
access to the newspaper to pick it out after the plaster is dry.
Paint a very thin hydrocal or ultracal mix (thinner than honey, thicker than
milk) over all the plaster cloth. This closes up all those little holes.
Paint the whole thing with pigments. I used Woodland Scenics pigment, but I
hear cheap Latex paint is ok too. Go with one color over most of it, with one
or two spot colors liberally mixed in. Plan on eventually covering every
square inch with ground foam, lichen, trees, rock molds, etc but paint it all
anyway.
I started with a smaller layout section to get the hang of it, a 3-level
mountain about 4' in diameter. It worked fine but I should have masked more
carefully. When I did my main layout section, I did a 5' x 11' plus 3' x 6'
area all at once. Masking carefully with plastic taped to the cork roadbed
took 3 days, but really sealed it off. I left that masking on for 3 weeks
while doing the plaster, painting, and ground foam.
After doing all the plaster, we did all the painting, then the "base" of
ground foam spread as liberally as possible on virtually everything. The
total masking job enabled use of "power tools" like a bug sprayer to apply
the Scenic Cement and a blow dryer/gift wrap tube to blow on the ground foam.
I let that dry for 3 days before I started taking off the masking. It took
over an hour to carefully remove the masking. The result, when the masking
was off, was a stunning conversion from toy train table to model railroad
layout!
Good luck,
Bob Davis
Modeling Stampede Pass in O27
In article <berkley-2101...@dial-175-tnt-btvt-02.ramp.together.net>,
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TOM
Thanks for the information!
<><><> TOM <><><>
-----------------
D Holliday
If you define the term "it's". <g>
However, you probably don't want to buy "water damaged" goods.
I can give addresses, phone #s for local suppliers.
David, in WA
Tim Trewhella
City. They sell a 25 lb box for about $55 as opposed to a 5 pound box
for $20 or $5 for a 5ft long strip that goes in no time.
--
Tim Trewhella
tr...@bestweb.net
http://www.bestweb.net/~trew
Tim Trewhella
incredibly fast, clean, easy to work with, strong and EXPENSIVE. Might
be feasable for a smaller home layout, but it needs a layer of plaster
or sculptamold over it for best texture. Thinned laytex or even spray
paint looked great over it. See the results at my site below. My pet
peeve with the stuff, beyond the expense, was that when you try and save
money by buying bulk boxes (which is the only way to go- forget $5 a
package) they toss in a lot of thin strips and edges that don't work as
well. Still, it does let you make hard shell in one pass, and it's a lot
cleaner than mixing plaster. your floors will thank you.
Tim
"John D. Hinckley" wrote:
>
> As I start my first scenery in 25 years, I would like to hear from
> folks who have used the plaster cloth method and what their experiences,
> comments, ideas, and thoughts are on this method. Please include
> information on paints, etc that you may have used.
> Thanks to all in advance!
>
> john
Tim Trewhella
>
> I consider myself to be a relative newbie. (I've 'played' with trains for
> nearly 20 years but scenery has consisted of model kits on a flat 4x8 board.)
> I'm currently trying to build a desert scene including some mountains and
> I am in LOVE with plaster cloth. I never imagined it could be so easy to
> get good results. (One note - Every single book or article I've read uses
> taped newspapers for a base. I've gotten easier and better results using
> old clothes.)
Also scrap foam, wood, the family cat... anything that will stay put
long enough to cover. Chicken wire works really well with the cloth.
Tim
Tim Trewhella
I'm dying here. Perfect.
All I would add to Bob's excellent tutorial is to consider your scenery
in terms of "view blockers". On our display last year- the one on the
site- we had five trains running on independent loops, with two
independent levels. People had a hard time figuring out how many trains
there were, and where they were going, because deliberetly used scenery
to break up their view. Many people were surprised to learn that there
was no grade between the upper and lower level. This years layout was
even more sucessful at that, and I'll get pictures up soon.