# Shaping styrofoam



## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Tomorrow is the big day; we break ground on the Laguna Seca project. The layout will be a framed and bordered 6'X6' set up using strofoam insulation material for the landscaping to save weight. The surrounding boards will be a total of 11 3/4" above the OSB ply, so my total elevation change won't be more than that. Home Depot sells 4X8 sheets of 1" for just under $10 each, and I'll need at least 2, maybe 3 for all of the features of the track. 

In the past I've used a couple of methods to shape styrofoam; a hair dryer and lacquer thinner in an airbrush to melt it into the shapes I want, and the old chip and cut method that gets pretty messy. I want the foam to take the shape of my landscaping, there won't be any hydrocal or plastering involved. Once the foam is shaped I'll paint the entire layout area green and sprinking on loose railroad turf. The track will be recessed into the foam. I will be ordering the track I still need to order on Wednesday, so by Monday I'll be into full scale building. 

If any of you guys have any other idea's for shaping styrofoam toss in your 2 cents here. I have a foam cutter but I'l dealing with huge sheets here at first, cutting them into smaller sections to generate 1" of elevation change per step, up to about 10".


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

I like to keep a shop vac at the ready when messing with styrofoam...especially with the volume your talking about Pete. Doing major cuts on a cheapo drop cloth and sucking up the fallout from the slot table. 

You can also use bargain basement grey, green and brown spray paint to seal the fuzzy edges. It will also provide an natural and contrasting undertone for your RR flock, as well as that melty effect that laceur thinner would.


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Bill, then you know well the effect I'm looking for. This insulation styrofoam is denser than the stuff used to pack momma's dishes, and it takes a bit of work to chisle off chunks in an organised fashion. What I plan on doing is making 1" steps up to the general elevations I want, sort of like those geographic maps you see. Then angle one level down into the other, only a few of the places in the layout will be dead flat. Coating the whole thing in a cheap lacquer will give the ground effect I need to have the grass stick to. I took a trip out to the foothills today and took my surrounding pictures that will be on the inside of the bordering MDF boards. I'm hoping that I'm not just building a track, I'm building a legend, albeit a small one. If you guys haven't yet seen the single lap at Laguna Seca 1967 go to youtube and watch the Grand Prix Legends video, you'll see how I'm hoping the track will eventually look. I am expecting by mid summer to have several hundred spectators, all of the scafford towers, a populated pit area and amazing landscaping. What you will not find will be fancy electronics. The lap counter will be a 10-lap in track counter only, and all timing will be by hand held stopwatch. Since the cars are T-Jets for the most part, this is definately my throwback track.


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## 41-willys (Jan 7, 2000)

Please take and post your steps in using the styrofoam. I would really like to see start to finish pics Thanks


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

Sure will. You guys may get bored with this project after a while but I've been playing with things like expanding foam insulation and other stuff like that trying to come up with a very lightweight but scenic layout. The styrofoam sheets that Home Depot sell come in thicknesses up to 2" ($11.97) and all the sheets are 4X8. I've done railroad layouts in the past using hydrocal but I don't want the weight in case I move, plus plaster materials tend to crack.


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## BewstdGT (Jan 4, 2005)

Im no expert, which is obvious because I didnt know you could use heat to form the foam. I had some sheets of this stuff and I used it just a bit for my scenery but Im not finished yet so I'll be curious to see how your setup turns out! 

w/out a lot of input all I knew to do was glue stacks together to the desired height and and shape it with a good knife. I just did one corner of a hillside but heres a couple pics showing how I layered the sheets, glued them on top of eachother, and started chopping away. Bill actually gave me some help back when I posted questions as well.  Heres some pics:









Before I touched it up more with the water paints you could see the cracks in between the sheets that I layered. It came out 100 times better than I thought it would but its no rembrant. Im lazy and didnt want to take all year making it look more real but if you spend time on the foam it can come out great. Take pics of the process and post them for the folks who havent done this.


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## Tycoarm (Jan 7, 2006)

There is a how to series created on shaping extruded foam on You Tube that you should check out. 
The paint in the spray bottle worked great. I used a small foam roller for the flat areas of the track.
A tip I can recommend is to thin the paint up a bit, it goes on much easier with the roller and you use less. 

The how to part one here, you'll have to look for the rest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Q3kfDBqks

I've also have been working with the foam on my layout. though it's been on hold for a while as other things have got me busy at the moment.
http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=193164


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

The hair dryer effect worked well over smaller areas, also it tends to cut better when warmed up first. Enamel and lacquer paints tend to melt it and can be used to create some interesting rock effects. Tomorrow I'll start the woodwork, this weekend the foam. I have about 75% of the track pieces I need so I can lay out parts of it for elevation shaping.


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

I used a wire brush that had a scraper on the back side of the brush head. The scraper was good for chunking and gouging out the foam and the wire brush worked well for creating washout cliff edges and smoothing some of the sharp edges off the chunked out sections. I tried to be somewhat random in creating the ledges and washouts and not try to carve the foam per se, but hack at it in a semi controlled manner. When I was done it looked like a blue popcorn machine explosion had occurred in my workshop, but I was pleased with the results. 

I actually created most of the raised portions of my track landscaping in my workshop, off of the track table, and then plopped them on the table after the fact, using Sculptamold, latex caulk, and other techniques to blend the pieces into the total landscaping effect. 

An added benefit of using foam over hard shell screen and plaster (which I used on some of the flatter parts of my layout) is that the cars bounce off the foam scenery. Oh, and trees, billboards, signs, guard rails, etc., are very easy to mount using an awl and glue. In areas where cars are likely to strike the "rocks" with some force I "painted" the Styrofoam with latex caulk before painting and in some cases flocking the rocks. I also experimented with painting the foam with concrete crack filler. This worked well and created a harder and more durable coating than did the caulk. I'm happy with the result and about the only thing I would change in retrospect would be to create a 1/2" to 1" berm, or apron, around the entire track before doing any scenery so the scenery never runs right up to the track edge.


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

I went to the dollar store yesterday and bought a box style cheese grater, early trials show this may be the tool. I have 4 different textures that I can use for shaving. I'm plotting my elevations now and will be using 1" stops. Maximum height of the track will be about 14" but the highest place for track will be only about 10". I'm considering making the drivers positions on the back side near the corkscrew since that's where the highest point of the track, and the most trees, will be.


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