covering a foam mountain

[Hobojim]

Hi any tipa for useing plaster to cover a mountain made of layers of 1inch foam board? someone told me mix alittle backyard dirt with plaster to help with ground cover anyone try this??  thanks all hobo jim

[SteamGene]

I don't know about backyard dirt, but try mixing some brown or reddish brown paint or paint powder so that if some piece of plaster breaks it doesn't look like you have a dead shark lying on the hill.
Gene

[Terry Toenges]

Just a thought - When I started using foam on layouts, I quit using plaster.
I was able to carve the foam into what I wanted and didn't need the plaster.
I did use Woodland Scenics foam putty in some places where I needed it.
My objective was keeping the weight down and portability of the layout.
This might not work for everyone.

[tommy4u2]

I watched these videos on utube and was really impressed with how to shape and landscape foam mountains maybe they might be of some help to you the link is below

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?p=r&user=thebige61&page=2

[r.cprmier]

On foam;
I go with Terry's experience.  I haven't really gotten to the point of scenery yet-been too busy with work this fall-but I had a rather serindipitous experience some years back;
I carved some styrofoam to my liking, cleaned it up, put on some wet rock castings, then took a Windex@ bottle, did the alcohol, water, and Liquitex@ paint, sprayed it on the whole shebang, and it looked half-way convincing, just as it was.  The rest was very cosmetic and grass, sticks, trees, etc.  I thought it looked good.

Rich

[engineerkyle]

Jim,

I cover my foam landscape with plaster. Actually it is a product called stucco patch. You can spread it on with a paint stick and sculpt it wet with an old brush or plastic knife. You can also put those blue paper "shop towels" in a pail of the stuff and lay the soaked papers on the foam.

The stucco patch takes about an hour to cure and gets rather plastic before it sets, making it very nice to push around and detail. I also concur with the previous poster. Tint it with something before application. Any flat latex earth tone is better than white. I've also had great success tinting my "mud" with black and terra cotta tempra powders.

Here is a foam hill covered with tinted stucco patch. The face of the cliff behind the rolling stock has been painted, then blackwashed. The terrain in the foreground was done the same way, but has rocks embedded and WS ground foam sprinkled on.






This next pic shows a work in progress. Much of the track is on unfinished luann, the grey earth in the foreground is what the tinted stucco looks like before paint, trees, grass and such. You can see some of my finished landscaping in the foreground, too.






I love to landscape. Enjoy!




Kyle

[ebtnut]

You could also try using the plaster-impregnated cloth that Woodland Scenics also sells.  Wet it, lay on the foam, and spread the plaster by hand to a uniform thickness.  It is basically the same stuff that is used for setting broken bones, and if you can find a supplier, it may be cheaper in bulk than what WS sells it for. 

[SteamGene]

OTOH, medical supplies are expensive.  I must admit that a friend of mine found a bunch of it on eBay some years ago and bought it at a very good price.
Gene

[jazzfan4]

Rolling hills and sandstones can be done without plaster.  Granites and other igneous rocks require sharper detail and plaster casting are the easyest method but if you are an artist you can carve the foam if you want to do the work.  A smooth surface painted, covered with ground cover,  bushes and trees and no plaster necessary to create a pastoural scene.

[SteamGene]

e-Bay has lots of plaster cloth for sale.  The Woodland Scenic cloth has a MSRP of $8.79 so one needs to keep that in mind while bidding.   A lot of the shipping charges are, IMHO, ridiculous.
Gene

[Tim]

Gene

This is the best price I have found.

http://www.sceneryexpress.com/prodinfo.asp?number=EX0060

Tim Anders
Souderton, PA

[SteamGene]

A very nice site.

[japasha]

An easy to work with material is Wallboard Compound. It isn't runny and will adhere to all foam products without any treatment. If you carve your foam, this stuff is like a finishing layer. A bucket costs about $6 and goes a long way. It can be carved to represent rocks or stonework. Been using it for 40 years and it is very inexpensive.  You can even put it over dry papertowels or newspaper.

[lanny]

An easy to work with material is Wallboard Compound. It isn't runny and will adhere to all foam products without any treatment. If you carve your foam, this stuff is like a finishing layer. A bucket costs about $6 and goes a long way. It can be carved to represent rocks or stonework. Been using it for 40 years and it is very inexpensive.  You can even put it over dry papertowels or newspaper.

This is kind of what I have been considering doing. My layout is not in a good place to mix plaster of paris and coat anything. But the premixed buckets of 'wall compound' for drywall seem like that material would be ideal. Any suggestions anybody has sure would be appreciated relative to using premixed drywall compound over foam insulation or other structural support materal.

thanks

lanny

[tomcat623]

Joint compound is what its called by drywall guys (or drywall mud). I've got thirty years in residential construction and I would not recomend premixed for that type of application. It gets cracks easily without some suitable type of reinforcement. Try durabond "90" dry compound, you mix what you need to the consistency you want and get about an hours working time. Its a much stronger product and is more resistent to moisture and cracking.It costa about 9-12 per 25 lb bag. Also it is usually a varying shade of light grey.
Tom