My First Layout: Creating the base and terrain

My layout will be created using extruded foam and spackling. I used a single 4x8 sheet for this layout. For my base I cut a 30"x30" piece of foam, and for the hills I cut the basic shape, then angled the edge that would be on the layout. for my large tunnel mountain I made two identical pieces for the tunnel and two slightly smaller pieces for the top. I cut the area for the track out of the bottom two, and glued them together. i then glued the other pieces on top to top the tunnel, and added small pieces at the ends so the tunnel wasn't so tall.


Once everything was glued together i added spackling to fill in the seams and shape  the mountain. Once it was dry I sanded it down to blend it in to the foam. I then set up my buildings and set to make sure everything looked good to me.

I then remembered something... I had to ballast the track before gluing down the mountain! I proceeded to break them mountain from the base. I then decided this would be a good time to but the earth coat on, so I ran to home depot and got some brown paint. I painted the base and the mountain along with the inside of the tunnel. Once the paint dried I ballasted the track in the tunnel section and put the mountain back on. I used some quick dry drywall patch to blend it back into the base.

 

 

My next post will be about my actual terrain, and wiring the buildings for lighting.