The "mountain":

In order to hide the notch for the phone jack as well as to make the layout a bit more interesting I wanted to put a "mountain range" on the third level. I taped two pieces of notebook paper together to create a single sheet 16 3/4-inches long and used this to draw a template for the mountain range. The template was then cut out and the shape was traced onto a piece of one-inch foam board from Woodland Scenics.

Using the hot wire foam cutter I cut the mountain range along the line drawn on the foam - jiggling the foam cutter as I moved it through the foam to avoid a smooth ege. I also used the foam cutter to create some peaks and valleys for texture in the center part of the mountain.

I then used the point of my X-Acto blade to cut grooves, holes, and texture to simulate a rock surface on the face and top of the mountain. I also used the blade
to knock off the sharp edge between the top and front of the mountain.

Because the foam board isn't quite as wide as the briefcase, I cut and glued three pieces of scrap quarter inch foam together to fill the space.

The pictures to the right show the "mountain range" after texturing and as it will appear on the layout.

Foam putty was used to bevel the top of the mountain down to the filler end-piece. More foam putty was smeared (I use a butter knife as a spatula) over the flat regions at each end of the mountain and then with a "touch and pull away" technique I created some texture in the level areas with the flat side of my knife.

After the foam putty had dried I painted the
mountain with Woodland Scenics "Earth Color
Kit." I used a 3/4-inch paintbrush (not the
foam paintbrush that comes with the Kit). I
diluted the Stone Gray paint with water so
that it wouldn't be opaque and covered the
visible surfaces of the mountain. Before the
paint had dried, I used a small paint brush
to add Burnt Umber paint sparingly to the
central region of the vertical face, then
used a little Yellow Ochre on the top
surface and upper parts of the vertical face
to create a little variety in the color of
the stone.

I don't know if it's worth worrying about, but the particulate nature of the foam board became a bit more obvious when painted - the pigments concentrated more where the little styrofoam beads were in contact. I thought that perhaps painting the foam first with White paint or Scenic Cement might help.

The picture at the right shows what happened
when I tested this. At the left is a section
of foam painted with White paint from the
Earth Color Kit. The center is unpainted. On
the right I painted with Scenic Cement. After
two layers of each had dried, I painted over
all three spots with diluted Stone Gray. The
Scenic Cement made practically no difference, while the White paint did a pretty good job.