Thanks, Dan!
And yeah, I do like puzzles. Which now makes me wonder why my OCD side made me laser-engrave position labels on each piece…
What are you going to use for filling and smoothing?
Now that takes all the fun out of it 
. I know you said this was to 1:320 scale. What is the overall size (area) of the landscape you are modeling?
Cliff,
This is really very interesting to see come to life. I probably will never tackle it because I gave no idea where I would put it. But I have wanted to do a z or n scale model of Roseland British Columbia. It had two railroads thats serviced it and the topography made it interesting. And with a little fudging in the lower front section could be a continuous layout. This really makes me want to buy a warehouse and make a N Scale Rosland
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Now Devon, if you’re buying a warehouse, why not go ahead and get one big enough and build it in G scale 
At least you would be able to see it 
Thanks for asking Devon, I’ve been wondering the same thing. I did a test panel yesterday, and tried my favorite (Minwax stainable wood filler), which is nice and sandable.
I did a quick & dirty trial coat, and it sticks very well, and seems to sand with the cardstock ok.
However, if I’d stuck with the ($$$) chipboard, instead of the “illustration board” cardstock, I suspect it would sand better with the filler. Such is life.
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Hiya Dan,
Model is 27" x 57", so 320 x that is 8,640" x 18240", or 720’ x 1,520’
Thanks for the info, Cliff. Will enjoy watching this come together.
Devon, I agree, it’s really fascinating to me, bringing in data from satellites or surveys, and letting a machine carve it out.
I tried to find topo maps for that area, but since it’s in Canada the usual USGS site won’t go there. But, maybe you can some something through the Canadian resources.
https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/maps-tools-and-publications/maps/22020
https://atlas.gc.ca/toporama/en/index.html
Since you’re dreaming big on this one, here’s an approach you might consider. I’m sort of making this up, but I’ve thought about it for a long while, and I expect others have used something like it. But as Hollywood say, YMMV. 
- Buy the paper or digital topo map(s) of interest, with the best resolution you can
- Figure out the scale factor needed to get it to N scale
- Hand the maps to a large-format printing company, and print at least 3 copies (in N scale)
- Get a bunch of foam board / etc. representing the elevation steps for your topo lines in N scale
- Spray-mount the 3 maps to 3 sets of foam board
- Start cutting the squiggly topo lines, with an inner boundary offset by 3 topo lines from the outer
- Start stacking them up and gluing, alternating from the 3 sets of map+board
The result: a hollow relief map that is 3 topo widths wide at any point (which will vary in dimensional thickness, but should give enough gluing overlap).
Approach B, however, is much simpler:
- Get the digital mapping data
- Pay someone who knows ArcGIS / etc. to convert to STEP file
- Win the PowerBall
- Hand the step file to a company having a 5-axis mill to cut the entire thing in HD foam
- Bonus tip: pay the said company to digitally fill the steps beforehand and then CNC the result
OK, there’s a third way. Well, there are guzillions of ways, but here’s a practical way to do the whole thing affordably.
- Get the digital mapping data
- Pay someone who knows ArcGIS / etc. to convert to STEP file
- Split it into X-Y chunks that you can 3d print (maybe FDM would be best in this case?)
- Start printing those chunks (think tiles on the space shuttle)
- Print a chunk a day, and a couple years later…
- Or, buy multiple cheap 3D printers and step up the pace
That’s how I’d do it. I think. At least at the moment. 
Cliff
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There’s more better way:
- Devon wins Powerball
- Devon splits Powerball 50/50 with Dan
- Dan goes to Idaho and builds Devon’s model with real dirt in his new warehouse donated by Dan
I don’t really need to tackle this project. I have more than enough rabbit holes to venture down. A little background to why this is even interesting to me. I have always like maps since I was a Boy Scout and I got pretty good at reading and navigating with them. Then I went to work for the Forest Service where I used topo maps a lot in my line of work. The thing that gave me the idea was of all things a geology class that taught us how to read topo maps for use in geologic study. One of our assignments was to translate a topo map’s “look down” view into a 2D vertical cross section. To me it was a fairly simple assignment considering I had looked at so many topo maps that I had a pretty good feel for how they translated to what you see out on sight. Its a matter of drawing a straight line across the topo map for the cross section you want to depict and then scaling the vertical and horizontal distances represented along said line. Where the topo lines intersect with the cross section line. At any rate, I did this assignment in class and handed it in before the end of the class hour. Our TA didn’t believe that I was able to do it that fast. But when she graded it, it was spot on.
After that, I had the idea of doing what you are doing. What I need to do is instead of a large area like the entire town of Rossland is to do just a very small area like maybe a certain tunnel area or since I am doing the town of Burke as my outdoor train theme do a small area model of a scene in that town.
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Yay, Sanborn maps! I love those, they’ve been super helpful on my layout.
I’m not familiar with Ron Klass’s work, does he have a site?
Interesting about the Clayton W Nichols Box Co… Sanborn says fire risk, “admittance refused.” Be a great opportunity for Ron to model a factory on fire!
I’m going to take a wild guess here. Sanborn Maps were used for fire insurance purposes. If the business refused the Sanborn “Inspector”, they would be labeled a risk because they could not inspect the building. Maybe?
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Back to the terrain…
I finished the section 3 layers, did a lot of perimeter prep & cleanup; filled the vertical mating faces, and then did edge filling.
It’s sort of a drag (is there a more up to date term than drag or bummer?) filling in the topo steps, and yes, leaving them in (and not smoothing them out) is a frequent display technique. But the model wasn’t set up for that; so I have to proceed with filling / sanding.
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All I can say is bump for post count !
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I love your idea Rooster, just struggling with phrasing the proposal to the Board…
Well you could still sign it Swami Jennings on the bottom or on the side somewhere ?
You bet! Or add a little building with a sign that says “Kama Sutro” and see how long it takes for someone to find it.
