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<p>I once again have bought something without readig first... one of these days i will have to learn to stop doing that. Anyways, My original plan was to just throw a 4x8 sheet onto some framing, cover the whole thing in foam and carve out the scenery from there. I went to the store, picked up some 2x2, some 1x2, and a 1/2"x4'x8' sheet of MDF. I figured the MDF would make a good base because it is sturdy, not to heavy, and a lot smother than the cheaper plywood that home depot has. I really didn't want to pay like $40 a sheet for the hardwood stuff either.</p><p>Here I ran into a problem. The home depot here only caries the white styrofoam sheets. (The kind that break into tiny staticly charged beads and go everywhere) I asked them if they carried the pink or blue extruded foam and they looked at me like I was crazy. Same thing at lowes. I wasn't just asking the floor monkies either, I went over to contractor services and asked there. The local lumber yards yeilded either the wrong foam again or no insulation whatsoever. </p><p> </p><p>Fast forward to today where I have read through like 20 pages of the construction fourum, and 2 books including the "how to build benchwork" book in the model railroader series. It has become very clear to me that an L girder setup using the cookie cutter method is going to serve me best. I am wondering now though if the MDF which I purchaced will still work, or if I'm compleatly hosed. It does bend a bit, and might work, but i'm not sure if i'll be able to use it. I had considered leaving chunks of it for the yard and town areas, and then cutting the sub-roadbed from normal plywood, but this almost seems like more work than it's worth. </p><p>At this point, if I can't use the MDF then i'll probably just scrap it and get a sheet of 1/2" ply to do the whole thing. I know that MDF hates water, so plaster wouldn't be kind to it, but I may be able to paint it to seal it first? It's not that big of a deal if i can't use it. It was only like $15 anyways.</p><p> Thanks, </p><p>Justin </p>
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