I have a rather simple question and I guess its answer will be one more of personal preference but here it goes. Do you prefer to build up blue foam scenery in stacks of singe large layer sheet, or in smaller individual easier to handle peices stacked in more of a jumble?
Heres my situation, as the pic shows, I am building up a small portable “pizza” layout, 36" square, that will have a large hill with a tunnel thru it, now logic says I should cut the foam in single sheet layers and simply stack them up, but after trying to cut the first two layers I have found a rub, namely thats its almost impossible to cut the stuff accurately no matter how big your knife is, to fit snugly against prefixed items like the 2 tunnel portals that will make up the “bookends” of the hill. now add in that I want a roadway to be cut into the foam from the bottom to the top and buildings will also be set into the hill. All this seams to make the logical way of stacking, then carving out, a very burdonsome task.
So instead I’m now considering a different tack, cutting the foam into smaller easier to handle peices and then assembling those peices together, stacking up as I go up. I think it will be easier to control the outcome than by trying to “carve it out” later.
So, what technics have other modelers here used in similar conditions? Any other options? I’m curious to hear what solutions others have come up with. Thanks.
PS I’m trying to make a large scale version of this:
Oh, boy… If I’m reading you right, what I do is start with the lowest piece and get it to fit exactly. Then I take that piece and trace it onto the sheet to cut the next piece. The next piece should be the same size (or maybe even a bit bigger). Now, you can trim it down a little. I do this again and again, until I get a slightly tapered stack. Then I glue them all together (hot glue or Liquif Nails). Then I shape it with the hot wire cutter. Always easier to make the mountain smaller than bigger.
Do a search for a “hot wire” or “hot foam” tool system. It should give you the idea of how to work foam using the system. Other wise stacking will work just fine. A razor knife works best when carving foam (blue board). Its VERY sharp and cuts the foam like a hot knife through butter. ( AND YOU IF CARE IS NOT TAKEN )
I’m using foam board as a base for my layout because I do not like the mess of plaster but with such a small layout it maybe easier for you to build the mountain out of plaster formed over aluminum window screening.
Maybe I am lazy, but I just stack it up, making sure it is larger than needed, and the attack it with my steak knife, cutting, gouging, scrapping, until I get what I want. I also get a lot more interesting detail that way. If I am doing sedementary rock I will finish with a wire brush. For the tunel, I just “blast” it out like the prototype, using my steak knife for dynamite.
Vic, first visualize and have a firm picture of the finished product. Diagrams with very close scale measurements would help you.
Secondly, do stack, but do also the initial shaping before you caulk them togehter, including cutting and rough slopes or edges at an angle to speed up the shaping. Tilt your blade at a 45 deg angle and slice that way if you can.
Then, add the odd blocking of foam for supports here and there…I have done that. Tunnel portals glue nicely to a blocked structure or brace behind them.
Lastly, use a combination of wire brush (intially), and then a sanding block to do the finer shaping and surface refining.
Don’t be averse to adding some plaster of paris or spackle in gaps between layers that are hard to conceal.
I noticed you stated you were trying to cut it with a knife. If I may make a couple of suggestions. There are “hot wire cutters” that make this process of cutting blue foam easier . Should you wish to for go the expense of purchasing this tool try cutting the foam a little larger than needed and use a “surform” tool which is basically a hand held cheese grate sold at most hardware store or drywall supply yards and "sand/grate " it to the size and shape desired.
Thanks guys, I tried to get a hot wire knife, but the biggest I could locally find was only about an inch wide at the local Micheals and it looked pretty useless, grrrr! I’m currently using a large Olfa type construction knife which works pretty well (if I can keep it straight) on my foam which is 2" thick. One of these bad boys:
After reading these replies I think I might have to consider a hybrid approach, namely stack a solid base of foam, but then using more individual peices cut to shape on the outcroppings on the hill. I do not want a smooth surface other then the roadway and building bases but am looking for a more jumbled rock formation elsewhere, so I’m thinking that if I have a rough base of stacked foam undernieth, I can then shape some of the outcropping from smaller pieces, and then attach them to the base stack, this way I can get a solid foam support structure but then use the foam natural rock like shaping abilities to maximum advantage. I’m very hestiant to use any plaster as I need to be able to carry this easily, so maybe non-expaning insulation foam might be a better choice for gap filler.
This is the effect I’m looking for:
And unlike the HOn30 micro, I’m only considering 2 or 3 structures, a whistle stop station and a couple buildings up top of the hill with a dirt road to them.
I use a hacksaw blade to cut blue foam, the blade is removed from the saw frame and just used by itself. Works very well.
When making mountains, I get a very rough shape with pieces of blue foam, secured with liquid nails, and then add crumpled newspaper to form the desired shape. This is then covered with plaster cloth from Woodland Scenics.
Time has been tight but, I’ve been cutting and stacking my hill and getting near the top, roughing out the road and some flat pads for future buildings. So far the biggest thing is that I have some gaps that I will have to fill with something, probably a latex foam spray that I have used on construction projects, its not a messy as the yellow spray foam, that stuff is nasty. This stuff cleans up with water to boot but is water resistant when cured and a heck of a lot easier to cut than the nasty yellow stuff.
This has to be easily movable by hand, so I’m not going to use any plaster coatings, too heavy otherwise, when I get to the indoor layout I will likely use a technic like yours, that doesnt have to be mobile. I’m hoping to have this done to at least a basic level by June for the Big Train Show here. The more finished I can make it the better.
I use the stack and stuff method. I’ll use the blue foam to build up the general profile, then fill the cavities with scrap and newspaper, then cover it all with Sculptamold.
Thats all that remains of my once mighty (HA!) HOn30 empire. It started as a 18" x 24" micro I built living in an apartment, it got KO’d by the Northridge earthquake knocking it off a shelf, I later retried HOn30 on a 2’x4’ but got so frustrated with the crappy drivetrians in N I gave up, and boxed almost everything, I did this layout when I discovered Carl Arendts microlayouts website a couple years later, its 9" x 12" on a built up wood base, using the shortened Woodland Scenery buildings you see, the train is a Bachmann Docksider rescaled with new cab, a modified gondola box on a N bobber chassis, and a kitbashed caboose also on a bobber chassis. I really need to finish it, I put this together right about the same time I got into large scale big time and havent looked back at HO since, I recently began collecting HOn30 but only on a small scale, old AHM minitrain stuff.
Progress:
Painted, plain flat latex, the buildings on top are just there for ideas, I’m still deciding what I want to do there. The Piko buildings may be OK but the HofB hotel looms a little large, I really want to build a series of very narrow buildngs winding there way up the hill, so these would only be temporary anyway. Even the station would eventually be replaced. But I only have a little over one month to get this ready.
Small test area for scenery, Woodland Scenics stuff, guess it works for large scale, no ballast yet, gotta get some stuff without the blue “ore” in it.
Last photo came out too bright, it doesnt look this washed out in person
