How to make homemade ground foam..

[Anonymous]

I read in one of the mags (MR?) many moons ago about making my own ground foam. Back then I tried it and it worked very well - I just didn't make enough of it. I wanted to make some more but couldn't find the article. I proceeded anyways since I didn't recall it being anything special.

I made enough ground foam to virtually cover a 4'X8' area solid! For less than $10.

I don't claim to be the inventor of this, but I thought I'd share it since usually I'm asking for information versus sharing information. I do wish I could find the original article because I think it had some tips to use.

Regardless, here's what I did. I went to the Dollar General store and bought 3 packages, at $1 per package, of those smaller, any-color-goes, sponges. Luckily for me each package had all yellow except for 1 and it had 3 purple ones. Each sponge is maybe 3"X5"X1/2" thick. Chinsy things. these particular packages had 9 sponges per package. I also picked up some Tintex - they only had dark green and I knew from doing this before that lighter is better. So I picked up yellow too. By mixing various amounts of the yellow and green you can make different shades.

What I did was tear the sponges into 'bite size pieces' or smaller. this takes some time so tune into your local sports talk show.

I have a blender that I use only for this. Picked it up at a yard sale for a couple bucks. Even if you don't have an extra blender, having the top plastic part is all that really matters. The base/motor can be your good one.

Put 1 or 2 SMALL handfuls of sponge in the blender container. It's better for your blender's motor to error on the light side.

Mix up some Tintex or Ritz dye to the proper proportion in a separate container. Add enough of the watery dye to the sponge (in the blender container) to cover it at least 1/2 of the way. Too much water and the sponge doesn't seem to get chopped up enough, too little and it puts too much of a burden on your blender motor. >1/2 is better than <1/2.

PULSE it about 10 times and then blend on medium speed for 10 - 20 seconds. Dump the stuff into a strainer over a bowl (the bowl will catch the excess dye so that you can use it again for the next batch). Press down lightly on the sponge while it's still in the strainer to get out a bit more excess liquid. LIGHTLY. Dump the dyed sponge onto paper towels to dry. Spread it out with your hand and let it set for several days.

Some of the sponge I didn't dye at all. I thought the purple, mixed in lightly with the green would look nice. I also left some of the yellow undyed for the same reason. Kind of like a dandelion field or something.

The results are not as fine as Woodland Scenics ground foam, but are finer than clump foliage.

I'm telling you - I have so much of this home ground ground foam for < $10 and I love it.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info Alan I'm going to give it a try.
I am planning a layout, you posted at the right time.
Angelo

[Anonymous]

I have a co-worker that does some woodworking and she has brought me some ice cream buckets full of sawdust. I mix this with water and some latex paint and then dry it out on newspapers.

I have used some mixed with light grey and dark grey paint to make ballast for my track - I glue it to some roofing tar paper cut to size and slide under my track.

I have also mixed some with light green and dark green to be used for grass, trees, etc.

I used some just plain for some gravel parking lots.

[FJ and G]

There are several types of sawdust. The very fine kind and the courser stuff. You need to experiment to get the effect you are seeking. Follow markborchardt's procedure. It really does work.

I've also, for ground cover in the forest, blended dead leaves & twigs in a blender. It messed up the plastic shine to the blender but I got the effect I was looking for.

Dave Vergun

[Anonymous]

Cool article! But call me stupid! What do you use this foam for? Topping the table for sound absorption? What?

[eZAK]

Mr. Train,

Very Good!

Frugality at it's best!

I love it!

Amtrak Jack, Possible uses are ground cover, bushes, shrubbery(I love that word) and trees.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by eZAK

Mr. Train,

Very Good!

Frugality at it's best!

I love it!

Amtrak Jack, Possible uses are ground cover, bushes, shrubbery(I love that word) and trees.

Thank you

[waltrapp]

Mr. Train:

This is truely AMAZING! This post is almost WORD-FOR-WORD identical to my post of a year or so ago! I have a hardcopy of the post and just can't believe how the words match up.

- walt

[3railguy]

Walt, I remember seeing this on the OGR forum almost a year ago. Like you say, amazing!

[Anonymous]

Yep, I've seen this same thread before. What's going on here?

[Anonymous]

Youse old guys are supposed to have lost your memories. The original author is posting his rebuttal on OGR.

[waltrapp]

The 'original author' (me!) is over it. I went to OGR to ask the question "Should I be insulted or proud?".

Please don't make this an "us/them" thing. I don't think that's what the intent was - just trying to make sure.

I decided to be flattered and drop it!

- Walt

[Big_Boy_4005]

Good work Walt, I had a similar experience a while back where one of the younger members who posts over on the MR forum "borrowed" my signature line "If it has flanged wheels, I like it!!!". As far as I know I made that up, but it was clear that he had not. Eventually our paths crossed for a different reason, and I called him on it but didn't get angry, and told him if he liked it that much he could use it. He kept it for a while, but eventually gave it up.

On the subject of ground foam, back in the early 80's I worked as an architectural model builder. One of the projects called for custom colored trees and ground cover. We ended up using an old sofa cushion, some latex paint and a hand cranked meat grinder to get the desired results. This is a handy technique, and allows you to make any color of the rainbow. I also like the idea of the old blender, my arm got tired cranking that meat grinder.[swg]