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:eek ear Forum Members, I have spent the last 17 months building bench work, cutting out plywood sub-road bed, installing the road bed on the benches, elevating it, with risers, getting it all, just right..........then came the cork road bed, piece by grueling piece,(Oh, yeah did I mention, 300' of right-of-way), next......300' of flex track, laid and carefully soldered,(gotta paint it, Floquil, rail brown, for realism), power lines soldered to the track, etc; etc; etc.......BUT, NOW COMES THE FUN PART>>>>>>>>>>>>Cardboard webbing, and MILES, of good old, PLASTER CLOTH!!!!!!!!!!! I have just finished my mountainous area, 3' X 10', and I'm Feeling, BURNED-OUT!!!!!!! If I hadn't of already used a bunch of plaster cloth, on the rest of my 13' X 18' layout, I guess I wouldn't be feeling like this, right now.........Don't get me wrong, I love and enjoy, model railroading, it's just that I decided, a while back, if I was going to build a model railroad, then I was going to do all the, "homework", and do 'er RIGHT!!!! MUCH, MUCH EASIER SAID, THAN DONE!!!! But, guess what? Less than 18 hrs. has passed since I finished, ALL THAT PLASTER CLOTH.....I'm right back at it, running the trains around and getting, "ALL FIRED-UP", again with this love of mine called, MODEL RAILROADING!! I'm sure I'm not the first to experience this, "ROLLER COASTER RIDE OF EMOTIONS", but hearing from some of you, and your experiences would certaintly be a boost to my feelings of, frustration.....Richard
Posts: 144 | From: Yanceyville,NC. USA | Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
Well, I guess none of you, have ever gotten, "burned-out", working on the 'ol railroad, like I did when it came time to do all that plaster-cloth, over, cardboard! Just goes to show, how much we all, LOVE MODEL RAILROADING!!! Keep it, up...... ....Richard
Posts: 144 | From: Yanceyville,NC. USA | Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
Richard, I thought I replied to your post, but my feeble mind must have simply imagined it !! Yes I have become burned out doing scenery stuff. I never used plaster cloth, but paper towl squares dipped in plaster. Would'nt have been too bad if I did'nt have SO much vertical face to scenic on my mountains . What did I do to cure this?? When I started scenicing, I completed one end of the layout before moving to the next area to be plastered. Then as burn out set in, I moved back to the already finished area and began coloring the plaster, laying initial foam down etc. until I got burned out with that. Then I returned to plastering. I completely finished the scenery on one end of the layout before I was done plastering, and this pushed me to finishe the rest . Oh yeah, I also took time off to run trains through the new and incomplete scenery !! I look at it this way...there are SO many things to do on a railroad, if one gets boring there are hundreds of other things to go to for a while (like mounting those KayDee couplers on your rolling stock, or lubing your loco fleet, or there is that building kit you have been meaning to get to ...!!) Happy Modeling!! John
------------------ The Santa Fe and Southwestern, Chief of the Southwest!
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John, I want you to do something for me. Buy just, one roll of, Woodland Scenic's, plaster-cloth and apply it as follows: Cut the plaster-cloth into the length-size, pieces you'll need to cover a particular area, you are going to work on. Cover any track or other objects, you don't want to get wet, place the, DRY piece, of plaster-cloth in place and spray it with warm tap water, in a spray bottle. The plaster-cloth will lay right down, in place! Overlap the next piece, spray and move on. Smooth the joined edges while the cloth is still wet. It is so easy to place the cloth in an area, like along the roadbed area, tuck it nice and neat, and spray. With a very little practice, you'll get the hang of it and wonder why did I use all that, sloppy, messy plaster and paper towel, combo? I'm sure you are doing it like that to keep the cost down, but please do yourself a favor, and at least try what I'm telling you, OK? Another thing you won't miss, is all the times the old, "mumble fingers", dropped, slopped or miss placed, the plaster-towels!!! Your wife will be amazed at how neat you are, after a long session working at this particular part, of the layout process! Richard
Posts: 144 | From: Yanceyville,NC. USA | Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
Richard, If I use plaster again, I certainly will use the plaster cloth . The current layout is being designed, however, so that it can simply have paint over the foam, and scenic material over the paint. We will see how this goes on a test module, but I suspect it will work !! Happy Modeling!! John
------------------ The Santa Fe and Southwestern, Chief of the Southwest!
posted
Thats why I model the great plains. No mountians or big hills. I have a switching layout, with a few hills and a lot of structure's. I used to have a large layout that I never seened to get finished but my current layout I beleive I will get done. My son donated his bedroom for my cerrent project, a 6'5" + 14' switching layout that I never thought I would like, but it's a blast. I can use detail like I never thought I could, and it's fun to run. If you don't like the plaster deal I can agree, it sucks! I would trade anything so I wouldn't have to do plaster!!!!!!!! I like the idea about woodland senic's plaster cloth, never thought of that. Sounds good. I don't want to depress you but I started on my project november 26 and I can run trains and have 25% of the layout complete (I used most of my scratchbuild structures from my old layouts ) and should be done by the end of february when racing season starts. Have fun doing it and always remeber that the bigger the project get's the harder it is to finish, chill out out and let the trains and mind run and break it down to small projects and don't! make it like work. I had a college kid teach me how to scratchbuild about four years ago and that's what I do when I get tired of the basic model railroad blues(bench work, $$, plaster, $$, rolling stock, $$, loco's, $$, structure's, $$ get it). Like jcater siad, there is alway's something to do.
posted
Orange Chrush: Don't misunderstand me, I'm not all,"burned-out", totally, just have to walk away from a, tedious, part of the job, for a while!!! It sounds like you, "cheated", when you designed your layout! That is one way to get out of, all that, extra, WORK!!! By the way, "Welcome to the forum", we will all look forward to hearing from you. Thanks, for your comments...... ......Richard Posts: 144 | From: Yanceyville,NC. USA | Registered: Nov 2000
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ear Forum Members, I have spent the last 17 months building bench work, cutting out plywood sub-road bed, installing the road bed on the benches, elevating it, with risers, getting it all, just right..........then came the cork road bed, piece by grueling piece,(Oh, yeah did I mention, 300' of right-of-way), next......300' of flex track, laid and carefully soldered,(gotta paint it, Floquil, rail brown, for realism), power lines soldered to the track, etc; etc; etc.......BUT, NOW COMES THE FUN PART>>>>>>>>>>>>Cardboard webbing, and MILES, of good old, PLASTER CLOTH!!!!!!!!!!! I have just finished my mountainous area, 3' X 10', and I'm Feeling, BURNED-OUT!!!!!!! If I hadn't of already used a bunch of plaster cloth, on the rest of my 13' X 18' layout, I guess I wouldn't be feeling like this, right now.........Don't get me wrong, I love and enjoy, model railroading, it's just that I decided, a while back, if I was going to build a model railroad, then I was going to do all the, "homework", and do 'er RIGHT!!!! MUCH, MUCH EASIER SAID, THAN DONE!!!! But, guess what? Less than 18 hrs. has passed since I finished, ALL THAT PLASTER CLOTH.....I'm right back at it, running the trains around and getting, "ALL FIRED-UP", again with this love of mine called, MODEL RAILROADING!! I'm sure I'm not the first to experience this, "ROLLER COASTER RIDE OF EMOTIONS", but hearing from some of you, and your experiences would certaintly be a boost to my feelings of, frustration.....Richard
!! Yes I have become burned out doing scenery stuff. I never used plaster cloth, but paper towl squares dipped in plaster. Would'nt have been too bad if I did'nt have SO much vertical face to scenic on my mountains 
. What did I do to cure this?? When I started scenicing, I completed one end of the layout before moving to the next area to be plastered. Then as burn out set in, I moved back to the already finished area and began coloring the plaster, laying initial foam down etc. until I got burned out with that. Then I returned to plastering. I completely finished the scenery on one end of the layout before I was done plastering, and this pushed me to finishe the rest 
. Oh yeah, I also took time off to run trains through the new and incomplete scenery 
