River bottom and land forms for Palisade Ranch

The sub-roadbed has been completed through the new Palisade Ranch section of the layout and the cork roadbed is well underway.  So now I am also working on adding the river bottoms and the land forms.  This needs to get fairly far along before I install the track and bridges especially toward the back and under the bridges.  The bench work frame is only 2 inches thick here and the river will be at the top of that frame so strips of scrap were glued onto the existing structure of the bench work to create support for the river bottom.

Next the river bottom made of hard board was glued into place on top of those supports.  The river will round the corner around the corner to the right and disappear behind the built up track.

I am using similar methods for the terrain as I have before on this layout.  For some of the terrain I am using building insulation foam board.  Along the back of the scene the hills will be built up to blend in with the backdrop.   This will then be covered with a layer of plaster cloth.  A long sheet of .030 styrene is slipped in front of the backdrop to protect it while all the scenery work is going on.

In some larger areas I use the plaster cloth over cardboard strip method.    The cardboard that works best for me is from Postal Service Priority Mail boxes that items sometimes come in.  It is corrugated but thinner than most corrugated cardboard.  I cut it into strips about 1/2 inch wide across the corrugations so it will bend easily without any sharp kinks.   The ends are glued with yellow carpenters glue and either pinned or clamped to the surrounding structures.  Areas like this usually get 2 layers of the plaster cloth.