East Staging and Trestle Scene: Berms and Gaps

Berms and gaps along backdrop

Over the last few weeks, I progressed with the terrain along the backdrop and tying the several sections together with the trestle scene module and the new staging section. One successful technique for realism with model railroad backdrops is to hide any ninety degree angles such as where the benchwork and backdrop meet. Creating a berm or slight rise in front of the backdrop can accomplish this. In this post I hope to show how I approached creating these terrain forms. Throughout the process, I had the backdrop protected with wax paper and the track with blue painter's tape

Step One: Create a terrain base or supporting structure for the berm with a slight gap in front of the backdrop. While other techniques exist, I used just a few here:

Crumpled paper held in place with masking tape

Packing styrofoam in "topographic" shapes, stacked and glued in place

Step 2: Cover the form with plaster cloth, a gauze embedded with plaster. I cut the plaster cloth into smaller pieces and briefly wet it by pulling it through water in a narrow paint tray. As I draped the plaster cloth over the forms, I overlapped the sheets and gently smoothed the sheets together. In addition to the berms, I also reformed several hills that had been cut apart to separate the modules for our latest move using the crumpled paper and masking tape technique to connect to the existing cardboard web foundation. 

Plaster cloth repair application and water tray

Step 3: Add a few rock castings. As the plaster cloth dried, I mixed up some hydrocal and cast a few rocks from one of the molds I had on hand. A few days later after all had dried, I glued the rock castings onto and into the plaster cloth. 

Rock castings attached and stained

Step 4: Covering the plaster cloth with Sculptamold or "ground goop." While I have posted about using ground goop before, I decided to go with Sculptamold, an easy to mix, paper mache-like material that I had on hand instead. It spreads with a palette knife, the back of a spoon, or just moistened fingers. 

Sculptamold over the new berm, covering cracks, and
hiding old plaster cloth texture

Step 5: Paint the white Sculptamold areas with my brown "earth" color and remove the protective blue tape and wax paper. 

Terrain painted and ready for next steps

Next steps: With the track uncovered, I want to run some trains to check the track work, electrical, and rolling stock again. Double checking through every step should help towards identifying issues while they are still easy to correct. While I am still in the planning stages for foreground scenery, the newly formed berms are ready for the first layers of ground cover.