Building a Diorama - Part #1b - Plaster Cloth

As a model railroader I come from the old school of scenery building, plaster over window screen.  The comments about a large club layout would be "How many houses were denied window screen?"  It was heavy and strong and permanent.  With today's modelers doing more portable and module layouts the weight and cracking of plaster has given way to foam or Plaster Cloth.

Many of you may have had your broken arms or legs placed in a cast made by wrapping a plaster impregnated cloth round and round until it built up enough thickness to immobilize the broken limb.  I am not sure when modelers first took the doctor's material, but, cheapened up, medical logo removed and production moved to China, we now have Plaster Cloth.  Plaster cloth is easily found at most craft stores in rolls, about 8" wide by 15 or 20 feet long and costing about $8.00 to $10.00.

Plaster cloth, when applied in several overlapping layers, produces a thin, strong and lightweight surface suitable for various ground cover textures.  Any supporting material, cardboard strips, wadded-up newspapers, even window screen, is suitable to overlay with plaster cloth.  While wet the surface can be smoothed and worked with a wet finger or bristle paint brush.  NOTE:  All plasters will dry the skin so latex gloves may be advised.

Using Plaster Cloth:
When building my diorama I used twine laced between the foam-core profile boards as the support for my plaster cloth.

 

The next step is to cut the plaster cloth into suitable pieces, approximately 8"x8", briefly dip them in a shallow pan of water and lay them over the twine.  Continue overlapping the cloth pieces, smoothing the edges, until you have two or three layers.  More layers can be applied if needed.  This is how it looked with the twine covered with plaster cloth.

Plaster cloth does have a loose weave pattern that can be worked out by smoothing while wet or covered with one or two coats of latex house paint.  These steps may not be necessary if you will be applying a textured surface.  When dry and after some simple painting I ended up with an early version of my diorama.  Sorry about the poor quality early phone pictures.  The do get better.