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My scenery is very simple. I cut pieces of 1/8-inch hardboard (Masonite is a popular brand) for the grassy areas. You can cover the boards with grass mat, but I just painted mine. Put down some paper sidewalks on the edges (I drew mine, but you can buy good-looking printable sidewalks from The Virtual Armchair General or Microtactix) and then lay the boards down. Roads go in the gaps. I tried to leave about 6 inches between the pieces for roads. For road material, you can paint the bare plywood, lay down some paper (textured wallpaper for cobblestone or brick; construction paper or poster board for concrete or asphalt, or printed roads from the same suppliers as above), black packing foam roll, or commercial roads.
You can buy commercial foam tunnels and mountains, use vintage tunnels, or make your own from foam insulation sheets from lumberyards or home improvement stores. I didn’t bother, because my layout is set in the midwest, where things tend to be pretty flat.
While my scenery is pretty simple, I think it looks better than painted plywood, and it didn’t cost me a lot in terms of time or money. Working 15 minutes a day, someone else could probably duplicate my work in 2 weeks or less. In terms of cost, I think I spent about $12 on the hardboard, another $3 to have it cut, and a few dollars for three cans of green spray paint. I already had the textured paper, and I drew the sidewalks. A CD containing printable sidewalks and streets from Virtual Armchair General would cost about $12; the “Heroic Scale” Mean Streets collection from Microtactix, which includes streets, sidewalks, and some buildings, is a $10 PDF download.
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