Got to the fun part of scenery with insulation foam. I needed a gentle hill. Took a scrap of 2 inch foam, laid it on the layout, and drew the outline of the hill with a Sharpie. Quick trip thru the band saw got the outline cut. Quick pass thru the radial arm saw got a 45 degree slope on one side. A few minutes of carving with a bread knife from the kitchen got the rest of the hill contures, followed up with some work with a wood rasp. Plunked it down on the layout and neato, it starts putting some vertical challanges into an otherwise flat-as-a-pancake layout. Much less mess than plaster. Foam rules.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Faster too! No need to let it harden for days.
We have it pretty good now compared to 'the good ole days'.
"Keeping my hand on the throttle...and my eyes on rail."
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
dstarr wrote: Got to the fun part of scenery with insulation foam. I needed a gentle hill. Took a scrap of 2 inch foam, laid it on the layout, and drew the outline of the hill with a Sharpie. Quick trip thru the band saw got the outline cut. Quick pass thru the radial arm saw got a 45 degree slope on one side. A few minutes of carving with a bread knife from the kitchen got the rest of the hill contures, followed up with some work with a wood rasp. Plunked it down on the layout and neato, it starts putting some vertical challanges into an otherwise flat-as-a-pancake layout. Much less mess than plaster. Foam rules.
Well, if one has a band saw and radial arm saw, pretty much anything rules I like foam, but it makes a *huge* mess, more so than plaster imo.
I use both, with hardshell being the majority.
Mailman56701 wrote: Well, if one has a band saw and radial arm saw, pretty much anything rules I like foam, but it makes a *huge* mess, more so than plaster imo. I use both, with hardshell being the majority.
Not that much sawdust (or foam dust) from the cutting. Shop vac sucked it all up no problem. Plaster, now that will make a real mess, especially if you get clumsy and spill something. Foam cuts just fine with hand tools, but I got power tools, so I use 'em. I don't have one, but I hear that those electric carving knives work fine on foam.
dstarr wrote: Mailman56701 wrote: Well, if one has a band saw and radial arm saw, pretty much anything rules I like foam, but it makes a *huge* mess, more so than plaster imo. I use both, with hardshell being the majority. Not that much sawdust (or foam dust) from the cutting. Shop vac sucked it all up no problem. Plaster, now that will make a real mess, especially if you get clumsy and spill something. Foam cuts just fine with hand tools, but I got power tools, so I use 'em. I don't have one, but I hear that those electric carving knives work fine on foam.
No doubt; if I had such tools, I would use them too. But thats the point; most don't, and another of my "complaints" with foam (besides the mess/cost); it takes a serious amount of elbow grease, all that cutting, carving, rasping, etc. by hand.
Even in the youtube videos mentioned earlier, most of the time, the guy sounds like he's about to have a heart attack from all the effort being applied :)
But options are always a good thing, and foam is a good option.
I have found a sharp utility knife, cut and snap for the basic shape works best. Further shaping I like a bread knife edge rather than a fine serrated edge. I have several knives with of different lengths and different edges. Sometimes I find one works better than the one I used on a different project. Don't know if it is weather/temperature differences or the angle I happen to be cutting. I wasn't impressed with an electric knife, but I only tried it once, it might work better shaping than trying for a full depth cuts. Hot wire cutter works well, but be sure to have good ventilation. Sanding sponges are good to smooth joints and edges, course leaves more texture to the surface.
Another thing I have seen mentioned to help with the "foamdust" created, is to get some anti-static spray and use it before cutting, seemed to help when I created a lot of little chips and dust.
Good luck,
Foam is great for carving. If you want finer detail try the Tripi foam cutter. Its a good way to get fine detail in your rocks. Its also less messy. It was purchased at a train show.
Bill D
model in O. the Western NY and Ontario Railroad
Has anyone tried one of those powered carving knives (meant for carving turkeys and roasts) to carve foam? Seems to me it would seriously cut down on the physical effort.
OTOH, I haven't found cutting foam with a steak knife to involve much physical effort - and I am most emphatically NOT a bodybuilder or weightlifter.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I've worked with the extruded foam for contouring, and also the 'bubble' type foam. I'll take the extruded any day of the week. But for large mountains, I use the foam as a support 'form' and then cover it with WS plaster cloth and Sculptamold over newspaper filler. But that's just me. I've seen photos of large stacked and carved foam mountains (Art Hill has some spectacular ones, BTW) and drooled, but I've yet to try that technique. However I sure like the results from what I've seen.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
The bubble type styrofoam is too crude/lumpy for finish use, requires covering for decent results, but can be useful for underlying layers supporting the better extruded foam. It's usually pretty cheap, at least!
Hey All,
Here's a quick slide show of my foam mountains and a tunnel all in one - click the slide show tab on the link below. The foam will be textured with water putty and become part of my newest layout I'm building.
http://home.mchsi.com/~ironmaster1963/wsb/html/view.cgi-photos.html-.html
Rules? Not quite... Highly useful? Definitely.
I find that when I cut foam with a band saw that there's tons of pink saw dust (it looks sort of like The Cat in the Hat Comes Back where the pink cake frosting becomes a pink tub ring which becomes a pink yard, etc. And the freakin' stuff is electrostatically charged so it tends to cling to **everything**. Yikes!
When sawing foam it's best done some place away from the layout (outdoors!). If you must saw it in the layout room (or any other part of the house where clean counts) keep a vaccum nearby and clean up frequently. Sanding pink foam also produces huge amounts of pink sawdust.
The best way to cut foam in my experience is with some kind of hot wire or hot knife implement which melts the stuff instead of sawing it so there's no pink sawdust at all. Someone mentioned the Tippi products I've no experience with 'em but have heard several recommendations from users. I've got the el-cheapo woodland scenics junk-meister hot wire cutter. Aside from the power switch needing repair, the plug becoming unreliable and needing to sometime push on the main forms (that the hot wire is attached to) it works fairly well. It's tough though to cut really even/straight edges. I use a straightedge for a guide but still don't get it quite perfect (but good enough).
Another problem with foam is adhesives. Yellow glue will work as will latex (NOT solvent based) construction adhesive. BUT since the foam makes a non-porous barier between the adhesive and the air outside the joint it can take YEARS before the stuff sets up. I don't use yellow glue any more. If I use construction adhesive I spread it around and give it a few minutes of air exposure before putting the two pieces of foam together. Most frequently I use hot-glue these days. This works best when attaching foam to wooden benchwork, but it also works for attaching foam to foam (don't expect an ultra strong joint though). Not surprisingly hot glue can and will melt the foam. the foam is also and excellent thermal insulator so hot glue between two pieces of foam doesn't cool off very quickly.
I typically use foam for low profile hills these days. For more dramatic scenery I use cardboard mesh (hot glued together), covered with masking tape, then covered with a 1/4" to 1/2" thick layer of plaster and vermiculite - a variation of Joe Fugate's thick shell method he demonstrates in his scenery dvds - vols 4 & 5. Plaster *is* another messy/dusty thing to keep out of the train room - I mix mine in my wife's art room which has a deep sink - once wet the dust pretty much goes away).
As far as rock carving goes I prefer the results I get with plaster to trying to carve rocks into pink foam. Here are some rocks I carved in plaster.
(both of these scenes are backed by cardboard mesh covered with plaster then another plaster layer added and wet-carved)
(the rocks behind the train are backed by a bunch of pink foam with wet-carved plaster on top)
Good luck to you.
Charlie Comstock