Hi all,
I’m looking for experiences with foam scenery. How do people stick several layers together?
I have been using the normal white glue and have tried various types of building/construction glues. All seem to give a problem when cutting, sanding and otherwise forming the scenery element, since the glue is much more dense/harder than the foam.
Anybody knows a glue as soft as the foam itself? 
/Edmunds
Hello, i tryed glues too what i have done with my mountains is just used 2 inch nails they push in easy seem to hold good and if one does get in the way simple pull it out move it… and yes nails every leval of foam…
hope this helps… hobojim
I use low temp hot melt glue. It is fast. It also gets hard but you don’t have to put it every place.
What about the latex caulk that eveyone is always mentioning for foam?
The problem with latex caulk is that is takes days to weeks to dry between large pieces of foam. That means you have to let it sit a long time before you can carve it. The caulk holds well, if it ever really sets. In my mountains and canyons, some is still not cured after months. I don’t use it much any more. I spot glue it with a glue gun and fill the cracks and holes with premixed drywall mud. Then a coat of ground goop, some ground foam and its done in days not months.
liquid nails for foamboard works well. make sure it says foamboard on it or it will eat the foam away. drys overnight
Could the problem with latex caulk not drying between the layers of foam be due to the application of too much caulk? Perhaps it would dry faster if the caulk was spread very thin and used like a contact cement, similar to the way in which latex caulk is used to glue roadbed and track. Has anyone used water-based spray contact cement to glue foam layers together?
Bob
hobijim probably nailed it. (Pun intended) [:D]
I don’t think there is any substance that will dry as soft as foam and hold it together. I’ve tried just about everything and haven’t found one. You just try to plan around it.
But next time, it’s nails…
Mike Tennent
Ever try rubber cement?
All the rubber cement that I’ve seen is solvent-based so it might dissolve the foam.
Bob
Thanks for the heads up on the caulk! [:)]
I’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea of using foam for scenery. I can see some applications where it would be very useful but for the most part I keep coming back to hardshell. [%-)]
I’ve recently used a product called Nail Power for foamboards. Comes in a caulking tube at Lowes. It dries fairly quickly and you can pry it up with a putty knife to make changes.
Foam allows you to draw one or two inch increment countour lines on your trackplan, then block out the scenery exactly as planned, by cutting the foam vertically to match the contour lines, then carving, brushing or sanding down the countour interval “steps”.
On our first phase of scenery construction, we used bamboo skewers to hold layers of foam in place temporarily, so they could be separated for detailed carving. Two or three skewers (100 for $1 at the grocery store) pushed through at different angles, hold the foam in place securely. We clipped off the protruding portions with side cut pliers. Those same pliers will grip the cut off skewer well enough to remove it.
After we finished carving terrain, we used craft glue made for floral foam to glue the layers together. You can get that in the craft section at Wal-mart. It’s inexpensive, and dries well enough to be stable overnight.
On the second phase of terrain construction, we stopped using the glue entirely. Once the foam is finish carved, the bamboo skewers remained in place, and we simply plaster clothed over the foam, making sure to overlap onto the wood sub-base to hold the foam structures in place. The finished plaster/foam terrain is just as stable as the foam we glued in place on the first phase.
Rubber cement is highly flammable–even after it has dried. (It has been used in films as the cobwebs in barns that are set on fire–to speed combustion!) I would stay away from it on model railroads.
A really good product to consider is Loctite Quickset for foam. I used this to glue foam to supporting benchwork on a friend’s layout. It sets up in about 30 minutes.
All that’s needed is a bit of weight to hold the layers in place as it sets. If you have several sections that you’re working on, cut the foam and give it a rough shaping, then glue it down and move to the other area as it sets. This way you can get two or three areas shaped and set in place with minimal down time in between.