I was reading Model rr articel about the Woodland Senics Scenery mat and was thinking about using it for a base when I start my door panel layout. Any of you used it before and if so how was it? Thanks for the help
I'm guessing that the dearth of replies to this topic means that most of us don't use or even consider using a 'mat' for scenicking. I'm curious about this too... but not because I plan to use this product. I'd like to see how others may consider using it on their layout. There are some products out there that come in a 'mat' configuration and are then cut-up to create a particular type of scene... such as a bog... as shown in a recent N Scale Mag article.
It has it's uses, but for the most part, it's not what you think. A better plan would be to get the Woodland Scenics Scenery Kit, which is a diaroma scenery base, and teaches you how to build scenery that looks so much better than a train mat. It's really pretty easy. Just follow the steps, and in a couple days you are done. There is a guy in our train club who had no experience with building modules before, and following the instructions in the kit, had a beautiful set of modules, with great rolling hills, and rock face mountians, in a week by just following the simple instructions. After the first day he was not so sure it was going to look good, but he kept plugging, and after he got to the plaster cloth stage everything was starting to take nice shape, then he used the pigments and colored the base scenery and it was looking good, and the next day he was sprinkling ground foam and it was looking fantastic! And it was easy! The mat is good to use for small areas. After your base scenery and terrain are complete, cut irregulat shapes of the mat and glue down, then glue ground foam, turf and clumps around the area to hide the edges of the matt. Plant a tree or a few, and put a structure next to it. You build small scenes this way. I like to set aside 15-30 minutes a day right after work where I go out to my module and do detailing. One day I glue down a car. The next day I put up a power pole. The next day I plant 3 trees, so on and so on, and progress is fast. After a few months I look over the entire area and sometimes I am not happy with it so I cut everything out and start over on that section. Visit the Scenery Express site at www.sceneryexpress.com and download their free scenery catalog, and you will get lots of great info and pictures to help. They carry just about every scenery product made worldwide, and have decent prices too!
