Hello from Belgium, I am looking for a tutorial about making scratcbuild foam cluster.
I have found some about foam but nothing about cluster foam.
Can you help me?
Thanks.
Marc
Hi Marc, I make my own “cluster foam”, by placing florist’s green Styrofoam chunks into a coffee bean grinder and chomping it into tiny granules. I then, place it in bulk into diluted Latex paint of various shades of green, or Fall colors. It is then spread out on either screen wire, or aluminumfoil, as clumps, or as individual granules. I make my deciduous tree trunks from double pointed wooden skewers, that I stain in bulk. I cut up cheap furnace fillters, that have been pulled apart into three layers, and spray painted with flat green ,or black, and cut into rough circles. Press about 4-5 of these rough circles onto the skewers, and spray with spray adhesive (or hair spray). I then sprinkle the ground up colored foam onto the circles, or drag the sprayed circles through piles of the foam. You will end up with plenty filter scraps, and foam that can be scraped up to form “clumps”,(which can be used for shrubs, or to form the tops of trees. One can also purchase large bags of variuos colored lichens, that can be pulled apart to for shrubs, or to fill in the canopy of closely spaced trees on a mountainside. I prefer using ruggedly spaced furnace filters, to using “cotton puff balls”, ( which I feel make too uniform “eggs in a basket” trees. Bob Hahn 
Click onthe thumbnail photo to enlarge it. Then, click on the photo series at the left to view other scenes on my 24’x24’ grarage loft HO layout.
Marc - Here you go for a courser and fine ground. How are much "cluster’ are you talking about? You could always dribble something like hobbitac into a box of course grond foam, wait over night and sift out out the finer stuff
http://dansresincasting.com/Ground%20foam.htm
ratled
I used the method described in “ratled”'s link above. It worked to perfection and is very easy. I now have a bunch of sacks of different colors and particle sizes of foam and it will last a long time. I bought a large sheet of light green colored foam at JoAnn Fabrics (under $10) though I’m sure an old cushion would work just as well.
Hal
Hi again,
Yeah, I have put a try to this method and it works very well. I just use acrylics paint which are strong against UV from the GOLDEN acrylics line.
These colors are a little bit expensive but I am very concerned about the change of color in the time, so I use a color which is not to much affected by UV.[8D]
Unfortunately, this method is for “foam” and I am looking for “CLUSTER FOAM” which is like a small piece of hard foam.[%-)]
The reason is because I want to use them as a canopy for the hills of my expansion of my layout set in the Appalachian were I need a lot of them ( my layout will set in an barely 50x20 feet room).
If you look at www.zanestrains.com all the hills are cluster foam covered. It’s look great in HO and far better in Nscale.
Anyway thanks a lot for your answers.[#welcome]
Marc
The blender method above will work just fine for your canopy. You just need to leave the wet foam on a “frame” that matches the contour you want you canopy to be. Once that is dry then it will hold that shape (before it is dry make it formed how you want it) and then attach to the layout in whatever form you want. Fill in any gaps with shredded foam and you are good.
Mike