cutting a grade, making fills

[FJ and G]

OK, I know I'm doing it the hard way. Scenery and terrain first, followed by tracks. Hard work but fun.

Been blazing a trail through the beady styrofoam with knives, using a level to ensure my spurs are gradeless, making cuts and fills. The tracks tend to be rolling as I'm laying them on the terrain slopes.

A very very interesting way to do it, more like engineering and surveying work than if you have your wood roadbed all hunky-dorie before any scenery is put.

[daan]

That's the hard way! I've used a hot wire (resistorwire with a carbattery laoding transformer). The resistorwire gets hot and slices through the styrofoam like a hot knife in the butter. You don't have all the snowball glueing everywhere and the surface is nice and flat.
You can also use a cupper wire in a soldering gun...

[Buckeye Riveter]

Dave, by accident I found a way to cut styrofoam. First spray the area you intend to cut with a water-glue mixture that would be normally used for scenery. Let it dry overnight. It cuts with less mess, but still takes effort to cut.

I found this out on a very small area where I had been spraying glue for the ballast and then went back to cut some foam.

[wrmcclellan]

Hi FJ&G,

Some interesting ways I found to shape foam are (in a well ventilated area):

1. Heat gun (like for stripping paint). The foam contracts and in some cases forms a crust that helps protect the surface from abrasion. This is especially good for large flat areas. I used a foam base on my layout and did not like the mess created from scalloping areas to give the terrain some undulations after the track was in place. I used the heat gun to shape and depress areas for a very nice result. Be aware that if you are close to a seam of edge of the foam - it will pull back a bit. I just filled the area with some foam-safe latex caulk.

2. For rock formations - I used an old soldering iron to "carve" the foam - dragging the tip back and forth over the area. With beaded foam - the result is a very satisfying rock face effect - and no mess.

The fumes are no worse than of you used one of the hot wire foam cutters.

Regards,
Roy

[Anonymous]

Michaels sells these wondercutters in the floral dept. for around $5, they are very handy for sculpting foam.
http://www.thecraftplace.com/store/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=218