Basic uniformed ground cover for entire board

Hi Dontano,

usually a good coat of paint colored in the earth tone of the region where the railroad is located. Then, white glue and scenic material finish the job.

If you want to mimic Lionel's postwar display look, it is all paint with some of their mixed color grass glued on. There are specific colors for that look.

Back to earth tone - if you go outside and look you will see that there is earth showing through everywhere there is vegetation. So, one doesn't completely cover an area with grass or shrub material. it is all a blend that the eye sees as one texture.

Even the earth tone changes color depending on the region. (topsoil, clay, sand, rocks) So, two or three colors are slopped on as the base coat. 

yeah sounds like modeling, but it is easier than you imagine.  

Roads and streets can be taped off and painted with clean lines. 

I think Woodland scenic still has "grass paper" but it is on vinyl backing and can be shaped. You can get a lot of scenic material and paint for what they cost.

There are many videos on youtube on creating scenery. 

Just back up a few levels from what you consider modeling and just slop on the paint and haphazardly brush around glue and sprinkle scenic materials. You'll get a better effect than a mat and like the look compared to just paint.

Hey Don, I see my old Lionel station behind those passenger cars. Happy to see it still has a very good home! I would never have room for that now on my current layout.

Don, you well know that I have gone the hi-rail approach in the past with scenery. For this last and current layout, I went with what I jokingly call a "low-rail" approach.

I painted the whole board a satin grey for the track ballast. Then I put down all the track, made sure everything worked, then added brown foam ties that I cut myself from those foam sheets sold at Hobby Lobby, Michaels, etc. to reduce noise rumble to an acceptable volume. 

From there, I used a light green paint to generally paint every area that wasn't the "track ballast." At the craft stores or even Walmart, you can buy these small containers of acrylic paint in all sorts of colors for 50 cents to one dollar.  I used all different shades of green, brown etc. And as time allows and as the layout developed, I would add different shades of green and brown over the base coat of green to mimic more actual detail.

Around a work building or a water tower, you could add more brown to mimic less grass and more dirt or mud. Around a station or a diner, which would naturally have a more manicured lawn, I keep the green more uniform in tone. Roads are easy by using black or very dark grey. Or dirt roads by using various shades of brown.

And if you don't like what you did, it's easy enough to paint over it and change it.

I'm still making hills and mountains out of blue or pink insulation board. Latex and acrylic paints work on these just fine.

Yeah, even being an 027 guy, I always liked the hi-rail approach to scenery. This time I wanted something that was easier and lower maintenance. And it just happens to have a more postwar look to it also.

BRIANEL_K-LINEGUY.  That is very sage advice. It will save me a lot of time. I'm currently using thin, black foam "ballast" under the track, and I don't like it. I will have much more copntrol and flexibility with paint. Thanks so much. Any shows coming up in Elmira?  

MOONMAN, thanks for the the info about the traditional post war look. I like the idea of how you eye will see textures. 

I wish. The Upstate TCA organization hasn't updated their web or Facebook pages in quite some time.

Not that I need more trains. It's always with hindsight, but there are several 027 cars that I wished I hadn't gotten rid of when I had to move. With a much smaller layout, the 027 cars just look better. And you know, me I can't leave well-enough alone! You work with what you have.

I'll have to do some photos of some of my recent re-creations. Just turned an 027 tank car into a representation of the modern unibody tank cars.

On more quick thought Don...

On a smaller layout the track doesn't really need to be raised up higher with a roadbed. Especially with the already higher O gauge track, in my opinion.

Another trick I did, was I added a self-adhesive piece of foam weather-stripping to the underside of each metal 027 tie to help reduce the noise vibration transfer of the track to the wood surface. Of course, your layout is in the basement, so maybe not so much of a concern as for me.

For what it's worth, I put down a roll of indoor / outdoor carpet that was almost like tile - very tight, low weave - since I liked to occasionally rework the track plan and move other things around on what is essentially a tinplate layout. I've been very happy with the look and it dampened the noise admirably.

Thanks Doug Murphy. I like that idea and will think about it. 

I like the indoor/outdoor carpet method.  However, I found that some post-war operating accessories didn't like it as well as operating on a harder surface.  My present layout is 1/2" Homasote on top of hollow core doors.

Operating a more post-war type layout I am seeing more and more the benefits of old school stye surface prep like simple paint on a hard surface.  Our layout, when we were kids was painted with a gloss, Philadelphia Green, paint.  The same green that was on every garage door in the city.

A side note; The only tricky issue with the doors is getting wiring through.  But with a piece of stiff wire used as a puller, it isn't that difficult.    

A side note; The only tricky issue with the doors is getting wiring through.  But with a piece of stiff wire used as a puller, it isn't that difficult.    

Dan, I use those really narrow diameter straws. I don't know what they're specifically called, maybe sipping straws. But either way those work very well. Drill a hole in the door, put the straw in the hole, then run the wire into the straw, and pull the whole thing through.

Here's my method, which is pretty easy.

Use 3/4" or 1" green/blue foam board from Lowes glued down with construction adhesive over the plywood. Anywhere the foam sheets meet, I tape and cover with a good, sticky duct tape that won't lift off. I then paint the foam (and tape) in large sections with a generic dark earth brown latex paint (Lowes, too) with a cheap brush and, while still wet, sprinkle a mix of green and yellow fine and coarse turf from shaker bottles onto the wet paint. The duct tape also takes the paint and turf very well. That way, when the paint dries, the turf will be stuck to the layout - no need to go over with scenic glue spray, although you can if you want. I do about a 2' x 4' section at a time so the paint stays wet, being careful not to get any turf on the next dry section. If I do, I just blow it back onto the wet section. That way you're not painting over loose turf

I use dark green and yellow fine turf from Woodland Scenics. The process is so random it typically comes out looking good. I usually put the green down first and then lighten and blend it out with the yellow. Make sure you mask the streets and roads off first with duct tape and, once the paint dries, I go back and remove the duct tape from the roads and then mask the road edges with green painter's frog tape and paint the roads (black or silver/grey) and add white/yellow stripes with a paint pen and yardstick. The painters tape is just sticky enough to give a good edge so the road paint doesn't bleed onto the turf, but not so sticky as to pull the turf up off the layout when removed.

I use Fastrack, but with the foam for sound deadening, you might not need roadbed, either.

My Layout is Old School Lionel Tubular track.  1/2 inch Celotex on plywood. Paint the Celotex an earth brown color using latex paint.   Track is screwed to the Celotex with #4  3/4" panhead screws.  Paint the screw heads black.  Insert wood ties between the metal ties,  Add Ballast.  I like to collect material from nature.   I went to a local creek and found pools with a very fine red sand.  Brought home a bucket full, let it dry out and ran it through a sifter.   I paint the Celotex with a white glue / water mix and spread the sand evenly over the surface.  After it has dried, brush up the loose sand.    Add Woodland Scenics Ground Foam and Turf with White Glue / water mix.

Picture above is my yard area.  The surface is covered with the sand, and track is ballasted.

The above picture is area under construction.  Rock out crop is Celotex staked up like a layer cake.  Painted brown then covered with the sand.  Track is partially ballasted.  I add the ties as I ballast the track.  The area in the foreground is the plain Celotex painted brown.

The same area above finished.  The weeds in the picture above are bristles from those cheap throw away brushes with the wood handles. Take apart the brush, soak the bristles in cheap green tempera paint.  Drill a hole, put white glue into the hole, and insert the weed.

Portal area under construction.

Finished Portal Area.

Overall picture of this portion of my layout.

Enjoy your 4 week vacation.   Merry Christmas.

Steve

STEVE24944. 

Wow. Your layout looks great. Thanks for sharing the pictures. I like the idea of the Celotex. 

I painted the insulation top, the color I used on my old layout and didn't like it. While looking for alternatives the grandson was in the LHS and they had WS Ready Grass, Desert Sand color. He bought me one roll so I only had to buy one, 50" x 100". A lot more than many other solutions posted, but the end result is everybody loves the look and feel.