I purchased a few sheets of the dow blueboard styrofoam to use on my layout and I noticed that there is a thin film of plastic covering both sides of the foam. Due to shipping, stacking - or whatever - this film has a very fine wrinkle in it that runs the entire length of the sheet. Wouldn’t it be better to remove this film before glueing it down on plywood? I even noticed in the Model Railroad DVD that the blueboard appears to have been glued down leaving the plastic film on the board. If I were to use a knife to cut out part of the board it would seem that the plastic film would “gather” or wrinkle a little bit. What are some of your experiences with this product?
remove the clear plastic covering…caulk or liquid nails and paint and etc. won’t adhere to it as well.
Also use an electric knife to cut the foam with a neatere appearance or use a Woodland scenics hot wire foam cutter. They cost about $14.99
Use foam board adhesive caulk to glue foam pieces together. And use Latex caulk (brown) to lay your track with.
I’d definitely recommend removing the plastic film. Serrated knives also work well and quickly for cutting foam and Surform tools work well for shaping it. Keep a shop vac handy for cleaning up the debris. Yellow carpenter’s glue also works well on foam.
Have Fun,
Tom Watkins
Yes, remove the film. I did not and have been paying for it. Not a problem on mountains, but i have had a couple of places where my roadbed it still glued firmly to the film, but the film has lifted from the foam causing things to move around.
Remove the film, its only there for a moisture barrier when used in a construction
job.
To cut the foam:
I use a “utility knife” that came with one of those stay sharp forever kitchen sets.
It has a one inch serrated(sp?) blade and is extremely sharp. A razor saw also does
a fine job. If you need to simply cut a piece to size, use a razor blade to score the foam
and snap it off. Dave
Something I have used for carving foam is one of those wire pipe reamers for roughing up copper pipe before soldering it. It makes on helluva mess but it works like a charm. they can be found in your plumbing dept. at your local home improvement store.
jeff
Common sense told me that the plastic should be removed - thank y’all.