How to make landscape for your trains o scale layout. - Shoestring update

by Alex Corbie

Another trains o scale shoestring update for you model train set scenery.


First you start off by marking out where you want all of your hills to go, then you build a small cardboard wall all arround the place where you want your hills to meet the flat. you can do this with ordinary cardboard. Make a strip about two inches thick then fold a flap a third of the width to glue to the floor. You will need to cut the flap so that your strip of cardboard can be bent around corners.

Then you need newspaper! I told you this would be done on a shoestring... then you get the newspaper and screw it up into little balls about the size to fill your palm.

Make sure that the smooth bit is facing up although this only matters for the ones at the top. Leaving the scruffy bit at the bottom and stack them to the desired height.
The great thing about this technique is that its so easy to fashion. Even once you have stacked the newspaper you can still just push down on the whole lot to adjust the hill, it just requires a bit of compression.

Then once you have created the mounds you might want to check to see if any of the hills/landscape has any holes or obvious dimples in them, if so simply fill them in with a bit more paper and secure each mound with masking tape or dip the balls in some PVA and water if you already have it out for the procedure below.
Now you need some plaster cloth and a bowl of water. Plaster cloth can be bought from most hobby shops.

However you can just use a mix of PVA and water (1PVA:4water) with paper towels or something else that is strong and absorbant. As you will be able to use the pva time and time again its a good idea to get a bit bottle to start off with rather than keep buying tiny bottles designed for crafts.

Soak the plaster cloth in the water then lay it out over your hills in the desired way.
Once this has dried you can start painting. You can use liquid paint if you like but I think you are making hard work for yourself and missing out on many effects that can be utilised with aerosols. The other benefit of course is that you can simply spray over the mistakes you make!

Done! You now have some rolling hills and valleys ready for foliage.

Happy Railroading

Alex http://www.trainsoscaleus.com

See the article with pictures at my blog: Trains O Scale





About the Author

I am model train enthusiast from england with a keen passion for making train layouts and making them on the cheap! My sets are trains o scale but I am interested in every scale and gauge. I am a pragmatist through and through and hate wasting money.
You can read my blog here: Trains O Scale Blog