Foam Scenery?

Well, after getting a little more foam laid down, I dont think I like its current form.
So, Im going to start reshaping the foam this week.
I guess thats the nice thing about foam... it allows you to reshape things again and again.

Rich.

 

1) Glue the foam pieces together with LIQUID NAILS LATEX PANEL ADHESIVE. Look at the tube lable, it has to say LATEX, the lable should not say FLAMMABLE anywhere on it. You can lay a bead out with a caulk gun and then spread it thinner with a flat wood scrap.
2) I have used cork roadbed glued down with white and/or yellow glue. The yellow seems to work better. Haven't tried the PL 300 glue.
3) I will use any foam board I can get my hands on (ie: FREE). I use the white cheap beadboard for building up hills and mountains, but try to use blue and pink foam board for any area that I an going to carve on. A whole lot less mess then carving on the white beadboard. A QUICK TIP: When cutting/carving foam, lay the nozzle of your Shop-Vac by where you are using the knife. This way any shavings will be sucked up, rather than end up on the layout or floor.
4) MODEL RAILROADER MAGAZINE had an article about using DAP ADHESIVE CAULK to lay track. This sounds like a real good product for putting down trackwork. I have a couple of tubes and am going to try the stuff on the INDIANA RAILWAY soon.

 

Thanks to everyone for your ideas and comments.
After re-evaluating my current layout, Im now contemplating starting over.
Much of my foam scenary will remian (close to) the same.
Im thinking about going to a "L" shaped layout and considering going two level.

Hmmmm.... I think Im going to need more foam!

Rich

 

I have had pretty good luck building a couple of layouts using the blue styrofoam insulation you can buy at any home store such as Lowes or the friendly local Ace Hardware. I have never bothered with a hot wire tool. I have an old serated kitchen knife which works quite nicely. I also have a couple of old wood files I inherited from my grandfather and an old Shurform Plane which help me shape things nicely...albeit a bit of a foamy mess in the early stages. I build a rough contour from layers of 1" foam laminated together with good old Liquid Nails. After I shape the contours, I usually just cover the exposed sections with some cheap spackling paste. I have found that water based paints and adhesives adhere well enough for scenic duties. I have not done terrain which called for rock faces...just rolling hills...but I would go with the ideas of using rock castings cemented to the profiles created in foam.

 

Over the summer I have been working on a small area on my layout where the Mainline and the Branch line separate. The branch line (on the right in the photo) follows a small stream that has cut its way through rock and dirt to form a narrow valley with steep sides. This track was once the main line until locomotives got bigger and a new main line was constructed (track to the left). To keep the curves broad the main line had to pass through a solid rock ridge on the south side of the stream that the branch line follows. The main line also follows a small river for a short time.

All of that said, I spent the summer creating the scenery to support this story. I used extruded foam sheets glued together with a hot glue gun. I carved the shape of the hills with an assortment of knifes and a hack saw blade. I was going to make the rock faces from plaster castings, but I didn't have any that looked like what I wanted. So I took out my box cutter knife and started carving into the foam. Once I got the look I wanted brushed diluted dry wall joint compound over the foam. This helped seal the pores of the foam and the joints in the stacked sheets.

I painted the rock faces with artist acrylic paint from tubes. I started with a dark gray, which I painted over the entire rock area making sure to get it into the deep cuts. When this dried I painted the lighter colors, light gray and browns. When that dried I flowed diluted black acrylic paint in to the cuts. Last, I used white to highlight the edges of the rocks.

I thought I was done at that point until a trip to Taylor's Fall Minnesota. I noticed that the rocks were the color I painted mine, but I noticed that there was a green moss all over the top parts of the rocks. That night I went home and dry brushed some green here and there.

There is no plaster on these rocks except the joint compound that was bushed on to seal the pores, which was a very thin wash and did not cover the foam surface.

So you can carve foam to look like rock and not have to use castings. I make lots of cuts and tear parts away and before I knew it, it started to look like rocks.

next I will add weeds, grass, and trees.

 

I like the idea of carving out some of the rock formations from the foam.
I may give that a try.

Thanks
Rich.