Terrain Dilemma

[nachoman]

I think the kind of terrain you want to model plays an important factor with what method to use. That is, if you are wanting to faithfully emulate a certain landscape. For a layout that won't have much relief - I'd go with foam carved with a hot knife. For steeper terrain, it seems like you carve away more foam than you leave behind - and that means a method such as described by Dr Wayne is more applicable.

But perhaps more important for most modelers are mess, ease of use, weight, money, and a multitude of factors including trackplan and benchwork design. I wound up using carved, stacked foam because of the way my layout is designed. I needed the self-supporting nature of the foam because I did not have clearance for support structures to hold up a mesh armature. But, the foam approach is not necessarily the best for representing the type of terrain I am modeling.