I topped the plywood with 2" thick extruded insulation foam, which is common place now for layouts. It is extremely light and strong and it is easily carved. This is important as I want to model the rolling terrain so common in New England.
Unfortunately, I own a small SUV so I had to cut the 4x8 sheet up in the Lowes parking lot with a knife and metal yardstick. The people driving through must have thought I was crazy. I searched everywhere for foam handy panels (2x4) but they don't seem to make them anymore. But it all arrived home safe. I needed 36 square feet, but a 4x8 sheet yields only 32, so I purchased a few extra 1" thick 2x2 panels that I can laminate together.
I used DAP acrylic caulk with silicone to attach the foam, laying down generous beads and spreading them out with a putty knife. Two tubes wasn't enough but I had a leftover half-tube on my paint shelf so I used that too. I still ran out and had to buy another tube, which still wasn't enough, and I finally grabbed some other caulk from my supply to finish the job.
I used some heavy weights to hold pieces down and did it in stages over the course of the day (because of the numerous hardware store runs for caulk) and it went pretty quick.
I needed the ends to be perfectly square and flush because additional layout sections would be joining up (concerns that wouldn't apply if I was building a large solid table top) so I cut up my foam into squares and did the ends first, then filled in with other pieces.
The back required a long strip that was about a foot thick. All of this resulted in numerous gaps which I attempted to fill with foam scraps.
Scenery will hide it all so it isn't a big deal, but I decided not to fill them in further with Sculptamold or "Ground Goop" at this time. I plan to use a foam cutter to sculpt the foam and it probably won't go through any hard binders so I will wait.
Then, I gave it a clean slate so to speak by painting it a dirt brown color that I matched at the store to the actual dirt I plan to use.
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