Hey everyone I am new here and I would like to start on my own layout. My father and I made a simple layout years ago and now I would like to make one. Can anyone explain the Blue Foam and how it is used? and also the birthday cake style stacking. I would like to have a forest area with rolling hills that is in a forest with a path winding through it this is by a lake, then on the way to the town there is more forest and a water fall from walthers, also on the way is a number of farmers fields complete with corn and when you get to town have a rural/city style setting thats where the station is. I hope you guys can help me I use HO scale and indoors
Welcome to the forum. A year ago, this would be a novel question. Since then many of us have been expermenting and you will get a lot of answers, some of which will be helpful. MRR mag also has some on this in the current issue including a new twist (vertical stacking).
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Blue, pink, green, yellow all work, but green and yellow are hard to buy, but I find lots of scrap at construction sites. Blue and pink are the same from different manufacturers. If you buy, get the lightest weight availible.
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I stack like a wedding cake and use WS low temp glue to stick pieces together. All the foam glues take several days to dry and if you are carving or stacking very high, that is a long wait.
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I carve all the shapes directly into the foam with a steak knife. I use a hot wire only for unusual shapes, like hoodoos.
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I paint with artist acrylics when I have intricate rock carvings. I paint with ground goop for dirt and general moutains shapes.
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This is a wonderful way for planting trees.
There is so much to say and we would be glad to talk more as you progress.
Here a a couple of pics for reference
Welcome aboard. I’ve been back in the hobby for about 2 years now, and I decided to go with foam this time around. I’m very happy with the decision. My layout is a free-standing 5x12-foot table, no plywood except for some supports, and a foam base. My space is in the “family room,” so I also built the table on wheels so it could be moved around as needed. This is the original framework, made of 1x4 (outer frame), 1x3 (cross-members), 1x2 (diagonal bracing), plywood gussets and 2x3 legs. Note that the 1x3 cross-pieces are set below the level of the 1x4’s, so the foam sits down inside the frame and gets some protection that way. (By the way, on these pictures you can get a bigger version by simply clicking on the picture.)
I’ve got some foam down in this picture. I put the foam down in sections, and I’ve varied the elevation of the terrain to get more interest.
This is some of the underneath detail, where I’ve got an incline going up from the lower level to the upper level. I’ve built “trestles” of 1x2 to support the foam ramp. The foam is attached to the wood frames with Liquid Nails for Projects, in my case.
And here is my favorite photo so far, of the “finished” corner of the layout:
I like to use the blue foam, but did not have very large sheets of it. I used used white bead foam packaging to fill the voids.
There are more pics in the sequence on my picturetrail site (See link below)
When did people start using foam on their layouts? Is it that new?
I use 1" “baby boy” foam on my N scale layout’s base but I use white foam for the mountains and hills, mainly because blue foam is rare and expensive here in Southern California, but my local Home Depot stocks white foam for cheap!
I know white beaded foam is frowned upon and more messy but I discovered while doing scenery last night, if you use a steak knife and make short, fast back-and-forth strokes with the knife, you get a much cleaner cut with less beads (I suppose the cutting friction keeps the beads from coming off). Cut with slower strokes and you get beads everywhere.
I use yellow glue for my foam. Dries relatively fast and feels strong…
To MisterBeasley:
What was the thickness of the pink foam that you used on your layout? I’m an old Homasote and plywood man, but I’m about to start a new N scale layout and am seriously considering using 2" thick extruded foam glued to 3/8" or 1/2" thick plywood as my layout base. Most of the track on the layout will be at one level, but one track will go up an incline to a higher level and then back down on the other side of the layout. From your photos, it appears that you had no problem accomplishing changes in elevation of your tracks with the foam you used. I am concerned about how the changes in elevation would be accomplished with 2" thick foam.
Bob
For scenery, at least 15 years ago, probably more. The first article I remember of an “all-foam” layout (no wood at all – it was a portable layout set up on a folding table) was in the September 1994 Rail Model Craftsman by Ron Hatch.
Jon
I use all 2-inch foam. I don’t try to bend or shape it, but I make the grades with a 3-inch wide strip of foam. I do build up the bottom transition to make it smooth, and I used a separate short piece at a slightly different angle at the top. I support it every 16 inches (the spacing of the cross-members of the benchwork) with a trestle. The 2-inch foam will easily span 24-inches with no significant sagging if you don’t put anything heavier than HO trains on it.
I don’t use any plywood under the foam at all. Weight is an important consideration, since I sometimes need to move the layout around on its wheels. Foam is NOT strong enough to climb on, though. Even if you put 3/4-inch plywood underneath, you shouldn’t climb on it because your weight will dent the foam.
I did try doing one grade by making a wedge ramp out of foam, which I cut to shape. That was much harder to do than it sounds, particularly for the novice foam-cutter that I was at the time. It was a lot easier to use a flat block ramp and accomplish the elevation change by supporting it from below.
Foam is available at Home Depot…2" thick in 4*8 sheets. It’s great stuff and easy to work with. My mountains are the result of stacked foam, carved, coated with Durham’s water putty, painted, then treed…
To MisterBeasley: What do you mean by, “I do build up the bottom transition to make it smooth…” From your photos, it looks like you used a cookie-cutter method on your foam and then produced the desired incline (elevation) by supporting the cut foam on wood riser at the desired heights. Is this correct?
Bob
To Perry1060:
Nice job on the rock faces. They look like something I once saw in southern Utah. How did you do your sky backdrop? It looks very reralistic.
Bob
Bob,
The sky is 2mm thick plastic sheets (4’ * 8’) that I brush painted sky blue equivalent to Sears #25. The clouds are gloss white spray paint using a stencil, then highlighted with flat white weathering powder and a brush, which creates a bit of a 3d illusion. Here’s another look at the clouds…I’m glad you like them [C):-)]
Basically, that’s how I did the ramp. The foam ramp is very stiff, so there is a sharp angle where it meets the flat surfaces at the top and bottom. At the bottom, I built up the inside of the angle a bit, and I likewise rounded the angle at the top so that it would be a smooth curve for the track rather than an abrubt angle. Since I have a small layout and these ramps are only used by the short subway trains and the trolley, they are around 5%, way more than you would normally use. Even for a much shallower grade, though, I’d advise making as gentle a transition as possible where the ramps meet the flats. Sorry, I didn’t take any pictures of the top side of the ramps when I built them.
To Perry and MisterBeasley:
Thanks for the info. My grades will be on the order of 2-3% so I think I’ll not have a problem transitioning from flat to the incline at the top and bottom of the grade. I’ll keep in mind what you said about smoothing out any abrupt change in these areas when I start construction.
Bob
To all who posted pictures here…I have to say, what an inspiration! Thank you.
Mike