# Styrofoam



## RyanHOnaker (Dec 26, 2010)

Where do you get styrofoam to make mountains and cliffs? What's the best thickness?


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

just get the blu stuff at lowe's thats what I used to use but am thinking of useing wiremesh and plaster cloth.


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Ryan, what you DO NOT WANT is the white stuff that's composed of a zillion little balls smooshed together in a sheet. Once you try to cut it, the balls run wild---nuff said. Go to Lowes and look for sheets of extruded foam insulation panels. The best are pink, but the pink is hard to find and, as GC mentioned, the blue is more common. It comes in 4' x 8' sheets. Before you buy, look for damaged sheets (called 'culls'). If you find some, rejoice and search out the clerk for that area. Push them a little and they'll mark down the culls so you will buy them. I'd let them offer a price and, if it's not at least 1/2 off, decline and pretend to walk away. I've gotten sheets for under $10 for both 1" and 3" thickness, that way.

"How thick" is answered by "How deep and how high?" If you are going to make a tunnel, "How high" is track height+roadbed height+height of your highest smokestack, crane, cargo, etc, + enough room to get your fat hands in there and lift the cars to rerail them without hitting the roof. Take into account your need to periodically clean the track, too. Since you don't have a scale posted, I can't give you a number, but I run S scale. Cars are about 3" tall, so I like at least 5 3/4" above the roadbed. Take "How wide" into account, when you build: cars need more room on curves and overhang the track. How deep refers to tunneling down for lakes, rivers, underpasses and so on. Water does not need to be deep: 1" is plenty of thickness, since you are creating the illusion of water depth, not real depth.

To build your mountains/tunnels involves layers of sheets that you stack, glue together, sand and paint: we have several threads on the site, if you're interested. Best of luck with it!


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## MacDaddy55 (Aug 19, 2008)

*One more thought!*

Hey Ryan, Just thought of this too add to Reck's great advice! Will your Tunnel be Fixed or Removable! Access Panels are the way to go and can readily be found in Model Railroader and Kahlmbach books on basic scenery(especially for track maintenance)...it all depends on what you are doing! Good luck and post some photos!:thumbsup:


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## TapRoot (Oct 3, 2010)

Damn reckers that is genius!!

My local home depot and rona charge $20 a sheet for 1.5" 2X8
or $10 for a 2" 4X8 of the white stuff...I ended up using mostly white stuff for its price and strongly regret it.

ill have to keep my eye open for the damaged goods! thanks for that tip:thumbsup:


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## RyanHOnaker (Dec 26, 2010)

Thank you. I'm gonna head to Lowe's later just for a price check. I have yet to set up my table for my set so I still have all of my junk in boxes.

Reckers, I have HO scale trains.


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## Bucklaew (Oct 7, 2010)

Just a word of warning. Styrofoam is a petroleum product and it does not like the Lowe's brand Valspar paint eats Styrofoam. It will take a nice smooth surface and make it very rough. I have found the Lowe's brand water base paints work the best. But then I have a compressor and several spray guns that I use. I know spray cans are very convenient but I have not been able to find any water based. But then I haven't looked very hard either.


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

TapRoot said:


> Damn reckers that is genius!!
> 
> My local home depot and rona charge $20 a sheet for 1.5" 2X8
> or $10 for a 2" 4X8 of the white stuff...I ended up using mostly white stuff for its price and strongly regret it.
> ...


I'd like to take credit for being that bright, but I'm not. I learned to go for the culls from Anton, aka Tankist, so he gets the credit---but thanks for that momentary glory!


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Bucklaew said:


> Just a word of warning. Styrofoam is a petroleum product and it does not like the Lowe's brand Valspar paint eats Styrofoam. It will take a nice smooth surface and make it very rough. I have found the Lowe's brand water base paints work the best. But then I have a compressor and several spray guns that I use. I know spray cans are very convenient but I have not been able to find any water based. But then I haven't looked very hard either.




Buck is right, and I want to echo what he said to emphasize it: any petroleum distallate paint, i.e., oil based, toluene based, etc, will disolve your sheets of pretty pink and blue foam if applied directly. Thank you, Buck, for bringing that up!

Now...let me add a little to that. Latex paints, water based paints are the way to go, as Buck noted: be sure and read the ingredients, because store clerks don't know as much as they pretend to. Second, there is a secret way to use oil based paints in spray cans on the pink stuff. It works like this:

1. Practice on scrap, first, to learn the technique.
2. Once you have tried it on scrap and think you've got it, STOP. LET THE SCRAP DRY FOR AN HOUR OR SO TO MAKE SURE YOU'VE GOT IT.
3. Technique: I call it over-spray. Lay your scrap on a table top or horizontal surface. Take the spray-paint can in hand and keep the nozzle horizontal (point it straight ahead without tilting it down toward the scrap). 
4. Keep the can horizontal and hold it 2 to 2 1/2 feet above the scrap and spray into the air over the scrap. Raise or lower your can as needed, but don't tilt it down. Spray a very thin coat and stop to let it dry. Never try to do a thick coat or a second coat on the original while it's wet to touch up spots you missed: wait till it's completely dry, for that.

You're probably wondering why this would work and, to be honest, so do I. However, I did some extensive painting of pink foam on a mountain roughly 10 feet long and about a foot high, two feet thick, so I know it can be done without giving your foam sheet acne or worse. I believe that the toluene or other solvent tends to rise and evaporate when sprayed forward instead of onto the work; the wet paint falls to the foam and starts drying even faster, with all the solvents and propellant already separating from the paint molecules while they are in free-fall. Under the right conditions, you'll get a great contact-high, too!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## Jcaru (Dec 30, 2010)

I just started with trains. I built my mountain out of 1" white styrofoam without any issues. Use a hot wire foam cutter, it doesn't leave a mess and makes it easy to cut through the foam.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Good dialog and great advice above. Nice job, guys ... Reckers, especially.

Couple of quick points ... My local Home Depot and Lowes stock 2'x8' sheets of the foam ... 4'x8' is harder to find. "Extruded Polystyrene" rigid insulation foam are the proper buzzwords.

Cheers,

TJ


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

TJ, that's interesting: all my Lowes carries is 4 x 8 sheets. I guess it depends on what the contractors like to work with in your area.


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