I am ready to build tunnel liners on my layout. I am considering several different ways of building these, but would appreciate some input. What materials and processes have you used for building tunnel liners and what do you think were the pros and cons? You input is appreciated. Ron
The first time around I cut my tunnels into polystyrene, which left a nice rough texture. I then rounded out the corners, painted it a nice dark grey tunnel color (if there is such a color lol) and that was that. This time around I'm cutting into blue board, which leaves a nice smooth finish. To compensate for this I'm lining the walls and roof with plastered-paper towels. So far I'm happy with the results. Have yet to paint anything though. Onwards
I've never done a full lining as such. Just enough to get out of eyesight, and simulate concrete. Styrene, flat painted, or light weight painted cardboard.
for a stiff black aluminum foil, I use cinefoil --- http://www.filmandvideolighting.com/blackwrap.html. It has some strength & integrity so it doesn't rip that easily - crumpling it a bit gives a nice rough appearance.
I cheated...my only viewable tunnel entrance is on a curve facing a hill and turning away from the viewer. So the viewer is unable to look into the tunnel beyond its gray rock face entrance. This comes from many years helping my wife design and build sets for community theater plays....build and paint only enough to expose what the audience can see and nothing more, let their imagination take care of the rest.
I am working on a tunnel liner myself. My tunnel is only about 5 inches wide so the viewer will be able to see through it. I made a jig out of blue foam and lined the area with styrene. I then slopped hydrocal on the styrene and pressed crumbled foil to it before it dried. Once it dries i will remove the foil and paint the casting with pigments. I'm going to use plaster to join my casting into the tunnel and shape the tunnel mouth. may be a bit more involved but I plan on running a camera car around my layout someday and figured it was worth the effort
How important is it to be able to make the tunnel liner removable? I imagine if the tunnel is short enough to reach derailments, and the remote possibility that the track will need maintenance beyond simple cleaning is infinitesimally zero, then the liner can be made permanent. On my scenic layout I left a hole in the mountain and never installed the tunnel liner roof in order to gain 5 finger access. I used that access a few times. Has anyone made theirs removable?
Yes, I have. I then covered the gap with trees planted below the gap so that the tree crowns hid the gap.
Sometime way back in the 1960's, MR ran a series by Jim Findley called 'double your layout for a dollar'. One of the tips was to spray the insides of all tunnels FLAT BLACK - track, roadbed,everything, then just clean off the railheads. I've been doing that ever since. I just use cheap cardboard thumbtacked in place, and then spray-bomb from the outside. The end result does exactly what it is supposed to, the tunnel just looks infinitely dark and deep and there's nothing visible in there to distract you with something unrealistic. What you can't see in there is that the track goes left - SHARPLY, just inside the portal, and there's a switch in there as well. You can't see any of it. And the entire hillside lifts off for access, too.
I built removable tunnel lids as well. Here in this early shot, you can clearly see the gaps: The liners are super-low-tech. I slides 2" strips of cardboard from a box, cut them to length, hot glued them in and used tape to hold it in place. I tossed a 2" wide roll of tape and a small paint jar between them to hold the size and allowed to dry overlinght. Next, I mixed up a thick batch *or 4* of Sculptamold tinted with india ink. I slathered it on the liners thick, and allowed to dry completely. Next was a good coat of flat black paint. The result is a bare rock liner that has minimal detail, and blocks the light:
