So I pretty well have my layout. I am getting ready to start scenery, and it dawned on me the other night. I heard of everyone using this insulation foam for carving scenery. When I went to the building supply store and bought insulation foam, it was styrofoam stuff, which is not the right stuff as far as I know. My plan of action- Use plaster of paris, or something like that to make a scenery base over top of the foam. This would work, wouldn’t it?
Sounds like a plan. Generally, people who use foam as a scenery base use the extruded kind which comes in either pink or blue sheets, usually 1 or 2 inches thick. Styrofoam I believe is a beaded foam which will be more prone to crumbling as you try to shape it but once you get it in the shape you want, it should work as a support for a hardshell plaster land form. Once plaster sets, it’s self supporting so it doesn’t matter much what is underneath it.
Yeah, I thought I had the wrong stuff. Atleast it will still do the same job. The funny part is, I did ask for the extruded kind. The stuff must not be common around here. Thanks for the help.
Hello well i use the cheap white foam board not coverd in plaster and have had great results yes its a bit messy to shape but around here at least the pink or blue foam everyone raves about is 25-30$ for a 4x8 sheet the white foam is only 8.50$ for 4x8 at 1 inch thick just have a shop vac or like me an old kirby vacum with hose and shape away …Hobo Jim
My grandfather once told me to use what I had available and that everything works. To varying degrees, he’s right. I use beaded styrofoam, and while it’s messy, the little beads of waste make excellent small stones. I chose that material because my wife works in retail, and has access to LOTS of styrofoam for nothing in various shapes and sizes.
Heya,
I am using the pink extruded foam for my layout but I personally think the beaded stuff should work just as well. I have used beaded beaded styrofoam and floral styrofoam for non-railroad scenery (dioramas and wargame terrain) and it works just fine. All foam is messy, even the pink stuff…it just turns out a different kind of mess (beaded throws out balls, floral throws out ‘dust’, and pink stuff results in pink slivers that you have to wipe off with a dryer sheet if you cut it with more than one pass with a knife or noxious fumes if you use a hot knife.)
I think most important is the need to cover all kinds of styrofoam with a ‘shell’ of some sort. I use Mod Podge to seal it but others use plaster and other media.
M
P.S. my grandfather (and probably most others here) lived through the Great Depression and also taught me a lot about using what you have. [:)] He had a chest-of-drawers in his workshop and used to dump whatever he found on his walks into it - screws, washers, valve covers from tires, etc. Whenever he was fixing something up he’d go dig through the chest and pull out just the right item. I, however, never seem to have the right item in my own chest…maybe I need to go for more walks [;)]