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| Last updated on December 8, 2020
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Cardboard strips? I you or friend has a table saw just set the guide for 1 inch and run the cardboard thru the saw . It’s amazing how many strips you can cut in just minutes. Get a large box and you can cut them in long pieces. Costs only the electricity to run the saw, cardboard is free anywhere, true recycling.
Placing plaster cloth on a layout. I have never "heard" anyone mention that the plaster cloth has to be wet and rubbed to smooth out the bubbles of plaster. THIS is what make the plaster cloth more rigid. Juist laying pieces of the wet cloth one on another does not do it.
thanks for the tip Cody soon I will have to build hills for my layout
If you don't want to $pend on plaster cloth, you can always soak paper towels in plaster for the same effect! Great job, Cody!
Clear concise and useful!
Thanks
good work Cody that cardboard will work as the backbones of Winter Hill now all you have to do is install the rocks and the crusher and Winter Hill is right in front of you.
Hay Cody ever consider having an expert tips article in the magazine?
I wish all my teachers in school when I was growing up where half as good as Cody.
Plaster cloth is easy to work with, expensive as is most everything from Woodland Scenics. The cardboard strips precut are nice, but Micro Mart products are also expensive. Instead, watch a good movie on TCM, cut strips from old cardboard boxes, thus recycling, Costco has tons of FREE boxes, buy, yes I said spend some money, on a roll of nylon screening at HD or Lowe's, Sculpt A Mold at a hobby shop add Joint Compound and you can build a mountain in pretty fast time and for less money. Remember, make the Sculpt A Mold into the consistency of Oatmeal. It will take the Sculpt A Mold depending on room temperature a day or several days to dry.
really enjoyed it!
I agree with Richard of California. Especially us novices
There is almost no way to avoid mess when working with plaster of any kind. Get plastic table cloth and cut it down to twice the work area planned, leaving enough room for water dishes, dipping dish and cutting of plaster cloth. Follow instructions on cloth wrapper, and plunge in.
Have fun, as always..
I agree that some actual demonstration would be helpful to the novice modeler,but I am grateful for any and all video modeling tips.
Interesting method, easy and cool scenery.
OK, I'm a newbie. Why couldn't you attach the castings direct to the cardboard strips. Why use the plaster cloth?
I agree that it would be nice to see you actually do the work. Just showing pictures or a video of what you did is no help to me. This seems to be prevalent in your magazine as well. I'm a novice, and seeing how you handle the materials, avoid making a mess, and cleanup tips afterward would be helpful.
Easy to add, easy to modify, and easily removed….just what all modelers require.
Thanks Cody & Happy New Year
Summer useful tip as always…
When I saw that you were going to show how to use carbon strips and plaster cloth to build a hillside I thought you were actually going to do so, not just show a group of After photos. While I use Plaster cloth on my layout, it would have been nice to show how to work with the cardbord strips and hot glue.
Good Luck with the new website i plan on subscribing.
Happy New Year.
Good video, would like to have seen you do some of each step in action instead of just a photo with step already done. Thanks.
Wonder if anyone has tried to substitute drywall shims for the cardboard strips? Readily available in 1 1/2" wide strips about 3 feet long.
Every hint or demo is important to the future growth of the hobby.. They see how it is done and adds an imortant skill.
Keep them coming!
Here's an idea I used successfully. If you are in a club, it might work for you.
In 2010 I located a source for plaster cloth end of roll scraps. They were packaged in 25# boxes. I put together an order for 25 boxes (625#) for the BoulderModel RR Club and had them drop shipped to a friend's place of employment with a loading dock.
Because of the amount and the drop shipping to a dock, we paid $11/box or $.45/pound. The source was SACS Distributors at the time. They seem to have morphed into a different business now but they may still have bulk sales like this available.
There are a lot of great tips and ideas, that I will be using. I have been an O gauge fan ( Lionel, etc.) for the last twenty years. Due to lack of space, now available, I have gone back to N scale, and now building a small layout. Thwese ideas will help me alot. Thanks!
So of the art supply shops have plaster cloth available, often at a lower cost than Woodland.