what are the steps to creating relistic mountains and landscape by carving from styrofoam? what do you put on top of it before painting and texturing?
There seems to be many different ways to create landscape out of foam. I don’t know that you want to use styrofoam as opposed to rigid insulation foam but everyone seems to try new techniques. Most people layer foam using adhesives (everything from glue guns to Hard As Nails) that don’t attack or eat away the foam. After stacking the foam in a general shape there are many different ways to cut a basic form of, for example, a mountain: hot wire cutters, saws, rasps, knives, and I’ve even used an orbital sander (not recommended in enclosed areas!) on large areas. I’ve seen where some people are very meticulous in carving out detail in their foam, then painting over it with an earth colored paint and putting their landscaping materials on that. Others I’ve seen will do the same cutting, but with less detail, then paint on anywhere from one to several coats of plaster or Hydrocal, then earth tone paint and landscaping. And finally, I’ve seen where a very rough shaping of a mountain is made, then plaster cloth or paper-towel-soaked-in-plaster laid over the foam is used. This is usually followed by coats of plaster or Hydrocal then the earth tone paint and landscaping. Bottom line? Get a couple of different books on the subject, subscribe to Model Rail Roader Magazine (no, I don’t work for them) and use these forums to find out what strikes your fancy. Maybe you can come up with some great new method the rest of us would want to use.
styrofoam??? messy,messy stuff. Go with a blue board or something else that will be less trouble. I have gone as far to use screen and plaster just to experiment, but am still chasing my options, but NOT styro.
Styrofoam is also known as bead board and is what stryofoam cups are made of. Blue board (or pink) is extruded foam and is what most modelers use. It’s used for insulation esp in metal buildings. Then there are other foams such as seat cushions and expanded foams from cans. All can and are used in different ways. Styrofoam is one of the worse foams to use as it crumbles, is weak, white glue and plaster don’t stick to it very well, and makes a terrible skin crawling sound when rubbed together. I advise you to use something else. FRED
I’LL TEST THE BLUE BOARD IF I DON’T LIKE IT I’LL TRY SOMETHING NEW.
THANKS ALL…
Blue board can be painted and glued with water based products. When stacking it up don’t use white glue between pieces, it never dries. The best to use is epoxy or silicon to glue stacks up. Hot melt glue is a NO NO on it. It can be sculpted with a serrated knife, hot wire, or solvents. The use of solvents is trickey, spay with solvent to start, with water to stop (basically). A hot wire cutter can be had a Michael’s for around 10 bucks. It can also be covered with plaster, sculptua mold, paper-mache, spackling, latex paint, or even gluing ground foam to it with wet glue. Fred say Blue board good. FRED
Check out my reply to this other thread; I described how I apply a coat of papier-mache over my foam, though I use expanding urethane foam (“Great Stuff”) rather than carved boards; it still requires carving but you can sculpt with the spray nozzle as you apply it, and you always get a lot of random “happy accidents” (as the painter Bob Ross would say) that translate into neat scenic features. The water-based papier-mache & joint compound mixture is guaranteed not to interact negatively with any kind of foam.
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8270
I like blueboard extruded foam. Easy to find at any building supply place, not too expensive. I carve it with a steak knife (my wife is still wondering where it went!) Also I use an old spoon with the edge of the bowl ground down to make a knife edge. You will need to use the vacuum cleaner after carving, the foam gets a static charge and sticks to everything.
If you use a hot wire cutter it should work well but provide adequate ventilation to get rid of the fumes!
On my current layout some sections will be a plywood base with foam glued to it with latex adhesive ( Liquid Nails or whatever) The plywood will preclude leaking of any plaster etc used to form creek bottoms.
Charles
Hillsburgh On
I use "plywood / “pink board” [rigid insulator board.]
I used a plastic resin of lake & water feature.
The plastic resin was a “trouble- the resin eat the insulator board.
I got scrape the " gum mess” - .
The plywood based see the day, my floor. (the wife floor).
By styrofoam I think you mean recycled packing material. It could be am alternative to strips of wood that represent general landforms. Makeup the standard hardshell hydocal from paper towels.
Perhaps its a regional thing, but none of the Big Boxes here stock either the blue or the pink ridid foam board, all we get is the styrofoam.
sigh…[:(]
Bikerdad…
Don’t know where you are exactly, but blue or pink extruded styrofoam seems to be a northern thing. We have it just laying around up here [;)] (Ottawa, Canada). Anyway, you can use the white “bead” styrofoam for scenery. It does not have the strength for subroadbed, but scenery should be ok. It is really messy, but you can cut it with a hot wire cutter to minimize the mess. Just be sure to do it outside or in a well (well!!) ventilated area.
Andrew
Hey bikerdad,
Do you have a craft shop of florist supply shop in your area???
Sometimes I have used a white colored hard foam that florists use to
make flower arrangements. Only thing is that it too is messy,but is not styro.
Try to find it ,works great .
On our layouts, we used the white stryofoam as a base and cut into it to simulate small rolling hills, riverbeds and creeks. We painted over the surface then layed down track and applied ballast. Pictures of our layouts are available at http://marc-pelletier.ca/gallery/ under the Model Railroad link.