Pizza Box Layout - Literally

[Bobster]

Good evening all,

I have been kicking around this idea for a while now.  Perhaps a bit of warped humor on my part.  I have barely started it by procuring the box.

I'm looking for advice on how to make a convincing (non edible) 23 inch diameter pizza with an 18 inch diameter circle layout on top.  I want this to be an operating layout.  Looks like a thin crust would be best.  I would like to have more texture than a picture of a pizza on a 1/4 inch piece of plywood.

Your thoughts are appreciated.
Thank you,
Bobster

[Dave V]

I have no idea how or where to start but I'd love to see what you come up with!  Sometimes we take ourselves and our hobby a little too seriously.  This sounds like fun!

[thomasjmdavis]

There are prop companies that specialize in fake food for displays.  But, that can get pretty expensive.

However, if you think about it, we do this in model railroading all the time- we use plaster, paper towels, sand, paint, etc to create landscapes.  Just think about creating a "pizza" landscape.  Along the lines of using colored plaster or "Rock Hard" wood putty to make a "crust", some thickened red paint for sauce, lay on some styrene and melt it for cheese- or just some thick white paint with a little "weathering" for oven browned areas in the cheese, and make up some pepperoni from red disks.

[greenwizard88]

This sounds awesome. Whatever you do, make sure you have steam rollers rolling out pepperonis, a tank car facility dispensing sauce, and gondolas filled with shredded cheese!

[Chris333]

Wait. You want it to look like a pizza as well?   

Usually pizza layouts just refer to the trackplan being a circle. Here is one in Nn3
https://www.raildig.com/raildig-guest/mark-fielders-nn3-pizza-layout/
http://www.zen98812.zen.co.uk/pizza.html

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[learmoia]

I think I know what your trying to do.. (and it's a really cool idea)

Look into Clay modeling..

[peteski]

Will the flat cars carry pepperoni and sausage slices, and hopper cars ground beef? How about bacon? Yum!

[learmoia]

I always had an idea to make a small N scale layout (or T-Track modeule).. but it's an O scale 'live steam'...

So all the trains are modeled for people to ride, and all the surrounding scenery is O scale....

Like the little 'train ride' loop you see on big O Scale layouts, but the focus this time is the N scale trains.

[nickelplate759]

To get it right is going to take some research, in carefully planned steps:

1. Buy a takeout pizza that looks good and bring it home.  Photograph it and measure it. This is your prototype.

2. Buy some beer, pizza dough, sauce, cheese and toppings, and build your own pizza. 

3. Cook it and eat the pizza, drink the beer.

4. Repeat step 2 & 3 until you can make a pizza that looks like the train layout you want.  You may want to ask for help with step 3.

Now you are ready to make a pizza layout out of something else.

[Maletrain]

I guess you could "scratch build" a plaster pizza. 

But, it might be quicker to order one from Domino's and just fill the box with silicone mold material over the real pizza, then wash the food out and cast it in plaster and paint according to a color photo of the real thing.  Probably can't get more "realistic" than that for the pizza.  But, no where near as cheap as scratching it with plaster, even if you order a pizza and eat it for inspiration while playing with the plaster.

I thought about "Play Dough" but that will soon crack.

So what is the roadbed going to look like?  One continuous "cheese crossing"?

[peteski]

I seem to recall that several years ago there was a feature article in one of the N scale magazines that covered some sort of pizza box layout building contest for elementary grade students.  It might have been in the NSC magazine, or possibly N-Scale, or NTRAK magazines.

It wasn't a actually a pizza layout - just a layout build in a pizza box.

[learmoia]

I assume the answer is no.. but is there some form of sealer or preservative that you could coat/seal a real pizza?

[peteski]

I assume the answer is no.. but is there some form of sealer or preservative that you could coat/seal a real pizza?

Very realistic "display food" is popular in Japan. They display it in the restaurant windows.  It is amazingly realistic and probably made from foam rubber.  I wonder it those items could be purchased online?

[cgw]

checkout  displayfakefoods.com/fake-pizza  its a bit pricy    but the quality is good.  A couple of years ago when i was in Tokyo i remember going to a department store  and they were selling platters of fake sushi to bring home.     i alway thought that was odd.   found out they make silicone molds cast the food items in polyurethane and then spend an insane amount if time airbrushing the food items.   each piece was unique.       Almost every restaurant had the fake stuff in the window to entice the consumer to come in and order the real stuff. 

[MetroRedLine]

Good evening all,

I have been kicking around this idea for a while now.  Perhaps a bit of warped humor on my part.  I have barely started it by procuring the box.

I'm looking for advice on how to make a convincing (non edible) 23 inch diameter pizza with an 18 inch diameter circle layout on top.  I want this to be an operating layout.  Looks like a thin crust would be best.  I would like to have more texture than a picture of a pizza on a 1/4 inch piece of plywood.

Your thoughts are appreciated.
Thank you,
Bobster

I recommend you call your layout the "SP." No, not Southern Pacific -- Sausage Pepperoni.