New layout...what comes first?


Matthewd5

Member
Hello

I'm just about to start a 4x8 N Scale layout that is about 1/3 water feature with a river running through it, emptying out into a seaside harbour


The question is should I do all of the water feature stuff first and then lay track or just rough out the water and then do the traditional layout work?


I have all the materials and pieces for the entire layout and I'm retired with tons of time, I've done so much research but don't have a basis for this question!


Matthew
 
Rough out the water course, place/plan where any bridge footings will go right down to the actual profile (better yet, place them and do the bridge later when you are getting to laying track over that area. I only ever do the water last. I don't want splatters to clean up, so the water is the very last thing I do under and near a bridge.
 
Rough out the water course, place/plan where any bridge footings will go right down to the actual profile (better yet, place them and do the bridge later when you are getting to laying track over that area. I only ever do the water last. I don't want splatters to clean up, so the water is the very last thing I do under and near a bridge.

Thank you for taking the time to reply, it was helpful

Where would you start first? I mean do you play around with track bed or just try laying flextrack??

Matthew
 
4X8 in N scale is big. Plan for some elevation and lay your track but keep in mind where your water is going to be but do that last. You can always cut the track to put in a bridge or two. Do you have a track plan that we can see?
 
I haven't had much luck posting a picture, I'm just working off of a basic ho plan from the magazines database...

It's just an oval with a couple of sidings and some I dust rise mostly water/seaside industries with a large river running down the middle

It's my first layout so I'm trying to not overdo it, but also leave track and roads open for expansion, I've got a big basement and plan on doing a long narrow extension of modules similar to ntrack club modules

Matthew
 
So out of all the DVDs and articles I have read the step(s) that I now realize weren't really covered were going from blue or pink foam to track layout and when to lay down base paint layer...

Ideally I'd cut out the basic riverbed and the harbor outline and maybe paint the base oat for the streamed and harbor bottom

Then I'd paint the rest of the foam my base color which is an earthy light brown

So would it make sense to do that first then layout my track directly on the painted foam using the big t shaped pins to layout the track?

Then if all the track makes sense, draw an outline of the track and then lay the cork trackbed out. Using the lines drawn on the foam?

Matthew
 
Sounds like a good plan! A couple things to look out for though. One, if you use Sharpie on foam and then paint over with acrylics, that Sharpie will bleed through. Two, for the water cutout, make sure the base is dead flat. I cut mine out with a fork... terrible idea.
 
Sounds like a good plan! A couple things to look out for though. One, if you use Sharpie on foam and then paint over with acrylics, that Sharpie will bleed through. Two, for the water cutout, make sure the base is dead flat. I cut mine out with a fork... terrible idea.

Yes I'm definitely not using a sharpie, I've got a couple of marking methods that I'm going to test out on my test bed of blue foam where I've been testing the magic water and other things

I'm planning on using my tippit foam wire cutter for the waterways, it can be tricky when making multiple passes through the blue foam, I contemplating using a slightly soupy mix of a plaster of Paris variant to do the waterbed/harbour both the waterbed and the shore and riversides...

Going to be testing that next on my test foam board

Matthew
 



Back
Top