A Unique Technique for Constructing Model Railroad Mountains

Well, did the mountains cause you any problems? I mean, that's really different kind of scenery. The only thing I would say about mountain scenery, it's incredibly messy. Again, I get back to John Allen, I marvel at what he did, and the volume of mountain scenery that he had, and, for me to try to, well I'm trying to copy it now. It's just a lot of work, and it's very messy. Because of plaster. The plaster, yeah. By the way, I've been working with that, what is it, that foam? I think Malcolm Furlow? Polyurethane foam? Polyurethane, yes! I've been tinkering with that the last few months. Instead of plaster. Yes, and it can look almost as good. Almost. Almost. I say almost because I would like to use it in the distance. By the way, Allen, let me show you how I constructed some of my large mountains. I used this method because I found it nearly impossible to apply wet Hydrocal towels and plaster molds to a vertical surface. So what I did, is I assembled the framework on the layout, so you can see it's very heavy here, and I put it together using drywall, screws, and Elmer's glue. And I let it harden there, then I took it to my workbench instead of trying to put it together in place there, and then I stapled on this chicken wire here, and after that was in place, I applied Hydrocal-soaked towels over it. And after that hardened overnight, I applied the rock molds, as you can see here. That's heavy, yeah. This is very heavy. Wow. And this is the finished side before it's all painted and detailed. And what I did, is I detailed it flat on my workbench. I was able to apply all the grass, and the weeds, and the dirt, and that way nothing ran down, everything was flat, it was much easier that way.