I went to Home Depot to buy a sheet of half inch plywood, and it was all junk and overpriced. But then I noticed a pallet up front that had beautiful birch 3/4" plywood for $25!!! I bought two, manhandled them all by myself on top of the van and drove them home. I then extended the cardboard template to include the area near the bridge abutment, as I wanted to make this all one piece, no seams. It came out fine, but I had a lot of detail work to do, carpentry-wise, to support it and get it even with the existing stream outlet. Soon I'll resume scenery work in the front, but I still need to get the back track ballasted and perhaps get some trees installed back there. Then I'll consider that extreme background area pretty much done and focus on the foreground. I'd say the dramatic day to day progress has drawn to a close for now.