Model Railroad Scenery Techniques

Foam Terrain

• Use extruded foam to give model railroad scenery dramatic topography. The foam, used for insulation, comes in 4-by-8-foot pink sheets, available at home-improvement stores. Cut and shape the foam with a hot-wire foam cutter sold at hobby stores. Use a knife or break off corners for rougher edges.

  Place the cut foam loosely on a tabletop or workbench work as you plan the terrain. Build up a hillside by stacking layers of foam, each layer cut slightly smaller than the one below it. When you̵7;re satisfied, glue the sheets of foam together with Liquid Nails or similar adhesive.
  To complete the topography, and make it easier to paint or apply ground cover, the website Building Your Model Railroad suggests you cover the foam with plaster cloth, a gauze coated with dry plaster that you cut in sections to make it easier to place. You can also use paper towels soaked in a watered-down mixture of Hydrocal, a lightweight plaster sold in hobby stores.

Rock Molds

• You can buy rubber rock molds in hobby stores to create cliff edges and outcroppings, with many shapes and sizes to choose from. Spray the inside of the mold with a diluted mix of water and dish soap, making sure no bubbles form on the surface of the mold. Then pour in a mix of Hydrocal, allowing it to dry overnight.
  Cut a small hole into the plaster cloth and foam to fit the back side of the plaster rock, and use a thicker mix of Hydrocal to blend the edges with the foam terrain and hold the rock face in place.

Ground Cover

• Ground foam is a commercial scenery material of dry foam particles in natural colors to simulate grass and weeds. Use different colors or blends for a ̶0;growing wild̶1; look. Paint surface areas with a flat, earth color, and spread a layer of the foam on the wet paint. You can also secure layers of ground foam with drops of white glue diluted with rubbing alcohol and water, usually one part glue, one part alcohol, four parts water. Use colored lichen, also available on hobby store shelves, to add bushes and scrubs to the scenes.

Trees

• You can buy commercial kits with tree trunks and limbs of fine enough detail to pass close inspection. These come with their own bags of dyed, coarse foam that you glue on for the leaves. Use these kits in parts of the layout where the trees stand out.
  A cheaper method is to use twigs and dried vegetation for tree shapes. Then with a diluted white glue, on ̶0;branches,̶1; you dip them into the dyed foam as you do with the store-bought trees.