Scenery foam

[Anonymous]

I can't find the blue or pink foam (extruded polystyrene) locally here in SoCal, as has been documented here before. But what I have found at the local Home Depot is Insulfoam (brand name I believe). I checked their website and it indicates that it is expanded polystyrene. But I noticed that it has a thin skin (plastic?) on each side of the sheet. Does the blue and pink foam have this skin on each side? Am I looking at a comparable product?

Thanks.

[selector]

Some manufacturers place a blue plastic peel-off skin on their foam products, but I don't recall my Dow Styrospan extruded foam coming with that layer. If the expanded foam crumbles relatively easily into little pills or balls, it is not going to be much use to you. Have Home Depot order in a bale of the 1 or 2" extruded foam. It will be worth the price. Failing that, ask at home builder supliers, insulation stores, whatever. Someone has access to it where you live.

[Anonymous]

I checked into it further and found that the Insulfoam or R-Tech is the kind that will crumble, no good.

I just need one sheet. I think ordering a bale is out of the question unless there are other takers in SoCal (Orange County) that need some.

I'm building a coaling tower (Chama) and sanding house in O(n3) scale and would like to mount them on the foam. I will need a few layers below ground level to encase the coal pit which extends about 3" (12') below grade. I will also need to add layers above grade behind the tower for the hopper dump track. Of course the sides of that track will need to be sculpted. Any suggestions for another material or technique to create the grade?

[Anonymous]

The white/expanded/beadboard styrofoam can be used for scenery and so on, especially if you are going to cover it with plaster cloth or other type of hard sheel scenery. It can be cut cleanly with a hot wire cutter (ventilate!). However, you should probably not use it where any strength is required, such as subroadbed and/or tabletop.

You could go with L-girder type construction, with a frame and track on a plywood sub roadbed. This will allow you to have elevations below track (e.g. pit) and above (e.g. hopper dump track). You can fill in the resot of the landforms with the white styrofoam. Dave Frary has published articles on doing landscaping with "great Stuff" expanding foam and beadboard.

Andrew

[Medina1128]

I skipped all the fancy cutters and such for cutting my foam. I "retired' one set of knives and bought the wife a new set. I then went to Wal-Mart. They have a knife sharpener over in housewares or sporting goods that works GREAT! It looks kind of like a set of brass knuckles with a notch at one end. It also has scissors sharpeners, too. As with anything that works well, there's a tradeoff. You'll really give the shop-vac a good workout. We invested in a Rainbow vac a couple of years ago, and it really works well, and you don't have to worry about emptying the bag every couple of hours because the filter is clogged with foam dust and won't suck anymore. The other benefit to a Rainbow is that you can run it without the hose for a 1/2 hour or so, and it does a fine job of filtering the dust out of the air. [:)]

[Anonymous]

Has anyone tried using the foam in the spray can? Here's what Im thinking:

The coaling tower and sand house will be mounted on a 12" x 30" board, but ground level will be about 3" above the board. The bottom of the coal pit will be resting on the board. I then could create sides, much like a facia board for a layout, that go up to ground level. Then fill this with the expanding foam and carve off what's not needed above grade level.

Any thoughts on this?

[Anonymous]

Filling it simply to carve it off level seems like a lot of work. However, as I mentioned above, Dave Frary has done some work with the spray foam for landscaping.

Andrew