Terrain part 7 - more on the big hill

As you may recall, we left the big hill as a skeletal structure in blue craft foam and foam board. Having managed to clear myself a space to work in, it was time (having run out of space in both the rubbish and recycling bins) to stop clearing up and continue on with the hill.

Here's the step by step:

First up, start with scrunched up balls of newspaper between the ribs, to give the hill a bit of support. These are loosely held in place with masking tape.

The stack of hard drives is to weigh down the slightly warped bit of foamboard while the glue on another rib sets to pull out the warp.

And here we are finished - a hill carcass ready for an outer skin.

The outer skin is Woodland Scenics plaster bandage, courtesy of the local excellent model railway shop, Trains4U (they do mail order). It is dusty as all heck, so what I do is open the package containing the roll and put it in a plastic bag. I then work with my hands inside the bag, ripping off strips one at a time around 3" wide (that's the bit that makes all the dust!), and dunking them in an ice-cream tub of water.

Get each strip good and wet, and lay them, overlapping, across the carcass of ribs, craft foam, masking tape and screwed up newspaper.

 Leave to dry for a day or two. I'm in Cleethorpes. They're drying and have been since Thursday.