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9 Responses to Felt Cover for 4ft by 8ft Layout Board
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I have 4×8 O gauge plywood with green felt. First it was just sand painted plywood. Put the track and switches on, wired it up to run and didn’t like the noise of the train so removed everything and started over after putting down a layer of insulation board then the green felt. It’s much quieter now and the green offsets the brown painted sideboards so looks better. You can organize as you wish. I ran any wiring through drilled holes and run wiring underneath. Due to size I just have to keep engines at a speed where they don’t go flying off the rail.
Enjoy
It would look more realistic, if you removed the felt, put your structures down and then use green an brown ground cover
I agree with Herb. I would remove the felt and put the structures back on and use some green and brown ground cover. You can always make your own ground cover. You can sift some dirt out of the yard and put in the microwave to kill any microscopic critters. Use that and some 50/50 Elmer´s white glue and water in a spray bottle and spray it. You can also make your own ground cover with sponge rubber and some paint (acrylic). You´ll need an electric coffee grinder. After grinding the sponge rubber into little bitty chuncks add some paint of your choice. After it dries you can glue it down with the glue and water mixture. That´s how I make my own ground cover. Works pretty well as you can vary the color of different batches for different effects. Happy railroading!
Don’t let Mrs Caporossi see you abusing the coffee grinder! And clean it out VERY carefully afterwards.
I used the green felt but marked where the structure was to be placed then removed the felt. Then after the felt had been removed where the structure was to be place set the strict in. The took ground cover using a light covering around the edge to give it a mote finished look around the edge, using a white-clear glue in liquid form for a sealing to keep it in place. I used a 2 to 1 ratio. After during brushed off the excess with a medium stiff brush and vacumned it up, using a cloth to capture the excess so could be reused. Recommend a shaker when applying the ground cover to apply it so not to heavy a coating. And a soft brush to obtain the desired with and depth before gluing it down. Might want to experiment with putting it down on a separate board. When done with the ground cover you can apply bushes and other scenery.to get a more realistic effect. Your option and what effect you want to get. I took pictures of what I wanted before adding the additional scenery.
Happy rroading
Chris l
Dave, you are the perfect example of how we all got into this hobby. Most of us didn’t do enough research and ended up wasting money and time on stuff that in the end disappointed. Please watch Youtube scenery tutorials for inspiration and ideal materials. BUT before all that, learn a little from the heroes who have gone before – on the net, Youtube and the wealth of magazines from Australia, the US and Britain. It is time invested, not wasted. Plan to succeed by planning, reading and watching the experts and veterans.
David
I learned what you just put down in the nut shell by making those mistakes as well. After a few failures I then also started researching and learning from those experts and veterans.
Thanks for keeping me humble
Chris l
It’s your railroad, make it how you want, not how some expert thinks it should look. Felt is great for O. As for attaching stuff use screws.
Get rid of the felt!!. I used it in a effort to quite the track on a small timer saver/test layout. If you ever need to drill a hole, you will see why it needs to go. It will twist up around the drill bit and pull everything towards the drill. If you want an easier way to make it all green, they make ‘grass paper’ in large rolls. It will look the same (even better) and won’t give you the headaches that you will get with felt. There are also other ways to ‘grass’ your layout as others have pointed out in previous posts.
Good luck!