2.4. Base and Fascia
I've come to like Gatorfoam quite a lot for making small layout bases: it's lightweight, very rigid, and relatively water resistant. I started with a full-sized print of the track plan, which I traced onto the base with tracing film. The thin lines were darkened with a Sharpie before cutting it with a saber saw fitted with a hollow-ground blade.
Then I made risers from more Gatorfoam, using a miter saw to keep them square. The subroadbed was assembled with the risers using Tite-Bond wood glue, temporarily held together with T-pins.
A special case was the track hidden behind the trestle: I boxed off the area with thin Gatorfoam so that the scenery could be safely applied as close to the track as possible.
The fascia was wood veneer with heat-activated adhesive. The first step was to create an outer perimeter of Gatorfoam. After cutting the veneer pieces to fit, I bonded them in place with an iron.
The final step was to stain the wood. The result was a very clean, professional-looking layout.
The bottom was finished off with self-adhesive vinyl shelf liner and six large felt feet.
