Model Railway Forum

Work on the new tunnel/hill/scenic break between the scenic part of the layout and the fiddle yard has begun. On Steve M's recommendation I bought a pack of Jablite - this is a more dense polystyrene and is black - four slabs 1200 x 450 x 50 cost £19 from B&Q - but only appears to be available from the "superstores", so a trip to Farnborough had to be made. I've bought a hotwire cutter and this certainly keeps down the mess when using poly. As it appears to be a denser foam, cutting with the hotwire is a little slower that expected, but with patience you get a nice "sealed" cut - no bits flying everywhere. I intend to incorporate the rock face again, and hopefully the whole thing will be "lift-off" as before, for track cleaning etc.

With practice I’m sure you can make a mess Barry. I was in the shed ‘picking’ at a new hill to make way for a narrow gauge wagon track - balls everywhere.

I still prefer the pink foam boards that Wickes used to sell, but Jablite is a reasonable substitute in the absence of anything else.

Some serious carving required - everything is a "loose" fit at the moment.

Lots of bin bags for the carved offcuts needed.

I presume you will be using plaster bandage? Make sure you get your stocks in - our local Hobbycraft and the Range have both sold out (I got the last two rolls from the Range ).

Assuming they have it in stock go to Hobbycraft as it’s only £1 per roll.

A micro blow torch works well and no mess.

brian1951 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 21, 2019 6:37 pm A micro blow torch works well and no mess.

Might need the fire brigade on standby!

I've been into Hobbycraft this morning, and very easy to spend too much! I was after some plaster bandage, and went to the area where the Woodland Scenics stuff is displayed, and there was a roll of plaster bandage at £9.50. - quick word with member of staff and pointed in a different direction, and there, as Steve M had said, was piles of the stuff at £1 a roll - a little narrower than the £9.50 roll, but I've bought five rolls and I think I have a wider roll lurking in the stores box. Thanks for the heads-up. Barry

Well I've done a lot of carving and shaping (yes there were a lot of off-cuts Steve!) - but I'm not sure about the cliff face. They are not staying (if they do) white, I was thinking dark greyish. If I do away with them, I can create a bit of a slope down to track level, although it will be pretty steep. The whole lot needs covering with plaster bandage - so away to go yet!

Barry, what I have done in the past to avoid the ‘regularity’ of the casts (they are all the same height) is to cut them lengthways at different heights then cut more of the polystyrene away where the cliff face dips to create a more varied slope. That means more offcuts.

Another thing to watch for (just found this on my latest hillside) - one end slopes down into a thin pyramid shape. The whole thing is encased in plaster bandage but as it has dried out, it has shrunk and pulled the thin end up slightly. Great for modelling bananas but not for hills.

I’ll put a picture up later to demonstrate what I mean.

As you can see, this thin bit at the end has bowed up and out as the plaster has dried.

20191030_132255 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

I’ve already decided to cut this piece off and redo it. On the other side of the layout thee is a similar piece, but a lot longer, I have planned to plaster this piece directly to the baseboard as it does not need to be removed which should solve the problem. It also provides a datum point when relocating the big bit that does lift out.