Gatorboard is just a trade name for one manufactures "board product. Gator foam is infact foam core board. As far as where one can buy it most art supply houses etc. carry both it is manufactured by Alcan composites. It's trade name for the really hard stuff is Structa-board. Structa-board is harder to work with but is very strong actually for the purpose of modeling I feel a little over kill. Foam-cor board is compresable some what but when you glue all the pieces together geometricly it makes a very strong structure. It's actually what is used for arhitectural modeling.
My only reservation at this point is how will it take paint. It does come in a variety of colors white, black, blue, yellow, red and I beleive tan. I picked up a few sheeets in AC Moore and Micheals crafts.You can glue it together with rubber cement or Walther gue pretty much the same thing I think or use a hot glue gun which is a lot faster and it works very well.
At this point I intent to skin or cover the ouside with either styrene or possible bass wood or something similar, but hey for the cost and time involved I'll give the air brush a shot and see how it comes out. As mentioned for the use of a backdrop structure or a strucutre that is towards the back of your layout or even just somethign to cover a peer or post or something obsure like that So far it seems like a decent material to work with. I'm curious as to what some think may be a better choice other then Gator-board etc.
Thanks
As Maxman says it's intended use is by teachers, students, and jr. executives trying to impress their boss. Like I said, it is inappropriate for structural use. It's main use is for displaying art and projects, it is available at art, craft, and business supply stores such as Staples. Gatorboard is available at many hobby and craft stores. It is popular with doll house builders for it's light weight but strong structural integrity. Micromark also sells this item.
Folks:
I'd like to try foamcore. What I'm curious about is how people deal with the thickness...foamcore is pretty thick, isn't it? Does the thickness tend to get in the way?
Just some need some info:
Where to buy "Gator Board" ( Is this the name it goes by in stores?)
What size & thickness does it come in? Colors?
Approximate price?
Best way to cut ?
What types of adhesives to use?
I know I'm not the only one who is interrested. Thanks for sharing!
ewl01 I don't intend to start an argument.... I think by inferior you may mean inadequate for the above use. Foamcore is not an inferior product when used for approriate projects.
I don't intend to start an argument....
I think by inferior you may mean inadequate for the above use. Foamcore is not an inferior product when used for approriate projects.
Well, my original post concerned the building structure application, and I'll stick with "inferior". My opinion is that the foam board is just too flimsy. I would not even use it for a structure base.
But this isn't a case of starting an argument or otherwise, it's just my opinion. And that opinion would be that the only appropriate use for foam board is as a place for kindergarten teachers to pin their students artwork.
I think by inferior you may mean inadequate for the above use. Foamcore is not an inferior product when used for approriate projects. True Gatorboard is in fact a wood and melamine veneer over foam product. The structural integrity is what makes the difference. Foamcore would make an acceptable base for buldings made from Gatorboard.
Just my opinion.
Eric
I used some Gator board to make a structure for our club layout. We needed a tall structure that would fit around a corner (sort of "L" shaped). Another member made some scanned copies of a Walthers warehouse. I cut them out and glued them to the gator board. She also made some individual copies of the pilasters (Spelling?), the vertical columns that separate brick buildings into the different panels. I cut these out, glued them to some thicker poster board, and then glued the poster board onto the original pictures so that there was some relief texture to the wall section.
I wasn't making a contest model, so I didn't spend too much time on it, but from a couple feet away it looked acceptable and served its purpose.
You mentioned foam core. This is a lot cheaper per square foot than the gator board, but in my opinion is an inferior product. The gator board has some sort of wood fiber veneer, while the cheap stuff has what looks like a paper veneer. The gator board is, in my opinion, the much better product. If you get two equally sized pieces of the two products, I believe that you'll see that the gator board is stiffer, and the surface is firmer. If I were spending any time at all to fabricate a structure, I'd use the better product.
Recently I have been experimenting with using Foam core board and Gator board for structure building. It's virtues are it's extremely strong and light weight, cuts very easy with an Exacto knife or you can purchase the various tools made for working with foam core which I recommend. I know this is nothing new as I got the idea form watching one of the Allen Keller videos and seeing it first hand on someone's layout. So far I like it because it is very easy to work with and unlike styrene or wood it doesn't need much blocking or support. I was wondering if others have used it and your thoughts pro & con.The biggest plus for me is you can build very large structures for practically nothing.
I have a couple of pictures of a backdrop warehouse that needs to be finished but you get the basic idea.
Things are still in the mock up stage so I haven't painted it or decided on weather to side or brick face the structure need to check out a few more ideas first.