Can you just apply sculptamold directly to your foam board, or does the board need to be prepared for it. Is it necessary to maybe use some latex type primer to give it some grip. The foam board I have seems to have a plastic sheen to it, very smooth surface.
Thanks Bob
The stuff seems to stick well to even fairly smooth surfaces. A very thin coat however might tend to crumble under your circumstances, so flat latex, or just some roughening of the surface with a Stanley Surform may be in order. I’d try it without first on a small patch and see how it looks after a few days of curing and drying. By the way I usually add a bit of color to my scuptamold so that if it chips I won’t see a dead white (almost a blue-ish white) of the pure stuff. Folks do the same with plaster scenery.
Dave Nelson
I’ve never had any trouble with scultamold sticking to any surface. Its a bugger to get the hardend stuff out of the cottage cheese bowls I use to mix it in. I don’t have experience with adding color to it. I’m afraid of messing up the set time etc.
I use Sculptamold for most of my rock-work, and I’ve found that it will stick to ANYTHING! Good stuff, I don’t think you’ll have any problem with it sticking to foam at all–I sure don’t.
Tom [:)]
The foam board I am using has a thin layer of plastic on it. Be sure to peel that plastic layer off if it is present on your foam. A quick sanding seemed to help hold the latex primer I used. Sculptomold seems to be working fine. I think it may have worked fine anyhow but my plans were to prime and paint all foam anyway for any future changes.
Yes, mine has a layer of plastic as well. I did paint it with some primer to give it a rough surface. Going to try the sculptamold later today. I’m just working with a 16x16 in base, to experiment with track laying, and scenery kind of stuff. Not working on a “layout” yet. Thanks for all the good advice.
I have heard of the plastic film covering the foam, but I’ve never seen it on the blue or pink foam that is suitable for layout work. I have seen it on the yellow/white foam, but I wouldn’t use that for my layout anyway. What color is your foam?
I wonder if sculptamold ,when dry,would hold spiked rail? HMMMM. Might have to try that. It trowels out pretty nice and you could use a couple waxed stringers along side to hold it in place and form a trowel runner for an even surface,then a little sanding would level it right up. Since it sticks really well to foam,it might just work as roadbed.
Bob,
You should be able to apply the sculptamold right to the layout. I don’t think that you will need anything for a base layer. If you haven’t done this before, you should make sure that the sculptamold is about the consistancy of cottage cheese. Also, test out different ideas before you go on the layout.
Peace
thanks everyone for the great advice here. I did apply a very thin coat of primer to the foam board, as it was the white bead foam, not the blue or pink. I’m working on a diorama, and have just a small area to work with. That being said, i applied the scultamold to the base, and just very lightly smoothed it out. to give some different contour. I did not want it to be dead flat. Anyway it is drying now, and i gotta say it was pretty easy to work with, and I’m happy with the out come so far.