Large Scale Central

My Indoor Basement Layout

General Discussion
#21

Same here with the pink, Ric

I had a helova time even finding a place in SoCal that even carried the blue stuff, luckily I found an outfit in nearby Burbank, hopefully over the holidays I can stock up on some. Gotz some layout building to do!

BTW for all you kids lurking in the Peanut Gallery who’ve never tried foam but are curious, some advice, the single most important tool you can have is…a shop vac!

This stuff is verrrrrrrrrrrry messy when you start taking tools like a drywall saw to it! It gets everywhere if you dont vacuum it up consistantly. :wink:

#22

Vic,

I felt the same way until I used more hot knife than drywall and surform planes. I guess it is like a rock sculpture, you just remove the parts that you don’t think need to be there and expose the shape you knew was hidden inside. :wink:

#23
Victor Smith said:
I would get a small piece of BOTH the pink and the blue stuff, experiment with it, THEN decide which looks and works better for your application.
OK let me re-phrase what I originally stated...I have used the blue foam in fact very recently, I made a quick mountain for a Lionel Display I helped a local museum set up and the blue stuff worked great for that. When I built my Washington st. station stop I tried using the blue and got disgusted. When I cut clap siding it tends to pull out chunks where the pink has some kind of coating or different material and scores quite cleanly. Perhaps it's my technique...I cut/score my lap siding lines with a very dull pencil and a straight edge. Can't do that with the blue stuff. Hey Victor....every use nasty(if snorted in a paper bag) automotive spray paint(like primer gray) on your mountains? That stuff works well if carefully applied as it eats away at the foam and can give some great detail that carving cannot.
#24

“When I built my Washington st. station stop I tried using the blue and got disgusted. When I cut clap siding it tends to pull out chunks where the pink has some kind of coating or different material and scores quite cleanly.
Perhaps it’s my technique…I cut/score my lap siding lines with a very dull pencil and a straight edge. Can’t do that with the blue stuff.”

I’ve had that happen with the blue. Now that is a reason to try to find some pink.

#25

The blue stuff works best for scenery or stone walls and the like, but I have seen entire buildings made out of it. Think it depends on the tools used. Hot wire tools for structural details seems an absolute. At least in the work I’ve seen online from Yogi Lawrence and Chris Walas. I’ll stick to scenery for now with the stuff.

No I havent tried spray paint, melted my test pieces, I’ll stick to latex and acrylics, dont like the fumes from the spray cans.

#26

I used the pink stuff to make the tops on my mountains. Hot wire cutter and a hand saw worked great. tried the spary pain as well. that worked nice but now its all coming off. this spring I’m going to cover it with fiberglass and have that painted by a friend that paints cars. Heres hoping my mountains don’t come out looking like a 68 VW bug.