# Tell me about this Pink foam insulation



## Dream (Jan 5, 2009)

I see homedepot carry a pink foam called FOAMULAR® rigid foam but its available in 150, 200, 250 etc. Which one is better for layouts? Or it doesn't matter? Is one easier to cut and model with than the other?

Thank you.


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

The pink foam is a easy way to help add sound insulation and also gives you the ability to be able to carve out rivers, streams, and contours.
You will need to "glue" (I use Latex caulk) the cork and rails to the foam as nails are useless.
The thicker you go on the foam the more depth you can put into your layout. Some even build it up and use it for mountains.


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## Dream (Jan 5, 2009)

NIMT said:


> The pick foam is a easy way to help add sound insulation and also gives you the ability to be able to carve out rivers, streams, and contours.
> You will need to "glue" (I use Latex caulk) the cork and rails to the foam as nails are useless.
> The thicker you go on the foam the more depth you can put into your layout. Some even build it up and use it for mountains.


Thanks, but does it matter which number I buy? Like I said it comes FOAMULAR® rigid foam 150, FOAMULAR® rigid foam 200 etc.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Foamular is one of the many Owens-Corning rigid insulation "pink stuff" foam. The difference is density and compressive strength ... 150 has a 15 psi compressive strength, 250 has a 25 psi compressive strength, etc.

Either type will work ... lighter stuff (150) will be easier to carve, but might dent if you lean on it; 250 will be somewhat harder to carve, but a bit more strong and durable.

TJ


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## Dream (Jan 5, 2009)

tjcruiser said:


> Foamular is one of the many Owens-Corning rigid insulation "pink stuff" foam. The difference is density and compressive strength ... 150 has a 15 psi compressive strength, 250 has a 25 psi compressive strength, etc.
> 
> Either type will work ... lighter stuff (150) will be easier to carve, but might dent if you lean on it; 250 will be somewhat harder to carve, but a bit more strong and durable.
> 
> TJ


ok, got it, thank you.


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

The lighter stuff gets used in garage doors, etc. The denser stuff is load bearing (My friend used a bunch of it in the floor of his shop where he installed in-floor heating) He needed the heavier stuff to handle the weight of the concrete/vehicles driving on it.

I'd go with the lightweight. Look for culls (broken 4x8's) They'll typically mark them down 80-90%.


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

sstlaure said:


> The lighter stuff gets used in garage doors, etc. The denser stuff is load bearing (My friend used a bunch of it in the floor of his shop where he installed in-floor heating) He needed the heavier stuff to handle the weight of the concrete/vehicles driving on it.
> 
> I'd go with the lightweight. Look for culls (broken 4x8's) They'll typically mark them down 80-90%.




Dream,

The advice about asking for culls (damaged sheets) is good advice and can save you a lot of money. The cheaper, low-density sheet is the way to go, IMHO. Also, keep in mind the pink stuff is petroleum-soluble: this means read the labels on things you envision using. Paints that are oil-based, toluene-based, etc. will dissolve your pink stuff into a flowing river of pink snot. There are plenty of good non oil-based paints that work just fine. 

I like to use clear silicone caulking to glue the stacked sheet sections together to create ridges and hills. I use an electic sander to taper the edges and then use spackle to complete the taper to ground level and fill in cuts, gouges, etc. My cutter of choice is a razor knife; others like electric turkey-carving type knives, hot knives, and so on.


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Dream, 

I thought you might like to see pink foam in action. After moving, I'm rebuilding (and modifying) a layout I'd previously started. You'll see I've raised the terrain on the back edge by siliconing a second layer of foam, then used spackling to smooth out the contour. The white spackling is dried and ready to sand; the pink spackling is still damp. The green surface was grass on a previous layout, and the hole is where the (mirror) lake goes for the ice skaters. The new layout will be winter.


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## Massey (Apr 16, 2011)

I helped a guy from my old train club build an entire layout on one sheet of pink foam. It was a full 4x8 sheet and we used a few wood parts for bracing underneath and to trim the edges to prevent damage. He wanted a light weight portable layout that he could load and unload by himself into his trailer for shows and what not. It worked out pretty good all and all.

Massey


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## Dream (Jan 5, 2009)

So I have the foam now. Do you paint it in an earth color before laying the road bed? If so which paint works on foam? Can I buy online in small quantity?

I considered using a grass mat but then again its going to be a waste as I have to glue the roadbed or risers.


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

Just use a latex interior wall paint. Look at HD or Lowes in the Oops section for the best deals. The color doesn't matter too much as once you add ground cover (grass, etc) it is only there to camoflage the bare spots.

If you're modelling a particular area use a color consistent with the soil in that area (Oklahoma for instance has a red clay soil.)


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## raleets (Jan 2, 2011)

Dream,
Welcome to the world of model trains. I was a raw rookie in January of this year and had the exact same questions about foamboard. I bought 1" thick stuff at HD and painted it with cheap interior latex "grass green" (two coats) via a roller.
You can view some pics of my layout, and get an idea of how it turned out, by typing "finally picture time" in the search icon.
The pics were posted 4-5-11 and there are several different views.
Good luck and have fun with your layout!
Bob


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Dream, they're all giving you good advice. If you want to, you can go to this down in the S scale section http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=3893 and see (in boring detail!) pics as I did my first layout, then had to tear it down and build a new one. Just go into Lowes or Home Depot and tell them you need a non oil-based latex; I found one quart would cover an entire 5' x 12' layout. You don't need some fancy, expensive paint: just make sure words like toluene, petroleum distillates, etc. are not on the label! You can test it on a scrap and if the scrap did not melt into muck in 15 minutes, it should be good to go.
As to color, just pick whatever color you want to see on most of the layout. If it's rural Kentucky, it's gonna be green with black roads and brown fields. Wyoming would be brown everything, with patches of green and white. It's a lot easier to paint the whole thing one base color and then add a second layer in places to represent things that differ from the norm. 

Best wishes,


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Hey Reck ...

How come the grass is so green and vibrant in Kentucky, and basically brown and bland here in Rhode Island? Are you mixin' a nip of bourbon in with the fertilizer?!? 

TJ


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## Dream (Jan 5, 2009)

Thanks for the tips. I'm not modeling any paticular geographical area as of now. So I think I'll go with a light brown/tan shade.


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## Gansett (Apr 8, 2011)

I went for "mung" as my base color. They didn't have anything even close on the Ooops shelf. The asst manager saw me leaving Lowe's empty handed and asked why? I have spent a lot of $$ in that store over the past several years so we went back and he had them mix me up a quart of mistake, a perfect shade of "mung", a brownish greeny shade of awful. Perfect. $2 a quart


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

tjcruiser said:


> Hey Reck ...
> 
> How come the grass is so green and vibrant in Kentucky, and basically brown and bland here in Rhode Island? Are you mixin' a nip of bourbon in with the fertilizer?!?
> 
> TJ




Teej,
It's just the nature of the place. Kentucky is the only place in the world where a phone call to God has no long-distance charges: it's a local call.


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## Dream (Jan 5, 2009)

Reckers,
I'm still going through your thread, amazing!! I love the lake and wondering whether I can acheive something similar for a river, not a lake. Did you cut the glass to the shape you liked? or you picked up a random shape?

Also can textured paint be used on foam like you did? Love the sand color you got.


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Dream, thank you---that was very kind of you. It would be pretty hard to do a river unless you can break it into a series of lengths. Using bridges would enable you to do that,as would fallen trees, etc. As for your paint question, any paint that is not oil-based should work fine; the petroleum distillates like toluene will dissolve your foam. That said, you can use those oil-based paints to your advantage: if you were trying to create a lava flow or similar rough texture, a careful,very light spray of oil-based paint would begin to dissolve your surface and then run out of gas, leaving you with a hard, pitted surface. Best test that on scrap to get the hang of it first, though!


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Oh,and cutting the glass? What I did was draw the hole on the foam sheet, use a razor knife to cut it out down to the wooden table top, and then slide the sheet of glass under the foam. I used a Sharpie pen to trace the outline of the hole on the glass, then pulled the sheet of glass out and cut away the excess to leave the lake shape.


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## Dream (Jan 5, 2009)

There's a spray paint that's safe on foam, called Krylon. Not the ideal shade I would have liked as I really love the shade of yours.

http://www.krylon.com/products/make_it_stone_textured_paints/


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Reckers,
I like how your lakes and ponds turned out! Excellent work!:thumbsup:
The rest is looking grand too!
I have seen your mirror lake done once before in an old M.R. mag.
Instead of cutting the glass to shape they cut the lake shore to shape and just put a square under it. They did the river the same way with cuts in the falls, with the edges ground down and roughed up over them.
They did note that you needed to paint the mirror under the shore line with black paint because you could see up under the shore line edge threw the mirror.


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## raleets (Jan 2, 2011)

Jack C,
Since I'm pretty much limited in my train hobby during the late fall/winter seasons in Michigan, I prefer looking at a GREEN layout  :thumbsup: :laugh: so that I can forget about the lousy cold and snow outside of my garage.
Having "mung" just wouldn't make me feel too warm and cozy  
Anywho, can't wait to get back to some serious layout building during the next month.
Bob


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Dream said:


> There's a spray paint that's safe on foam, called Krylon. Not the ideal shade I would have liked as I really love the shade of yours.
> 
> http://www.krylon.com/products/make_it_stone_textured_paints/


Well, I'm glad you like it, and it's just something I picked out at Walmart. *L* They don't have a wide range of colors to choose from, so you won't have any trouble identifying it. As I recall, brown comes in light brown (mine) and dark brown.


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

NIMT said:


> Reckers,
> I like how your lakes and ponds turned out! Excellent work!:thumbsup:
> The rest is looking grand too!
> I have seen your mirror lake done once before in an old M.R. mag.
> ...


Thank you, Sean! I guess I just chose to cut out the shape because I used to work in stained glass as a hobby. I also wanted to have it just below ground level, and had I put it under the foam, it would have looked like a half-empty lake. This way, my girlfriend can put her ice skaters on it and anything else we run across like a hockey net or an ice boat. The more we put on the lake, the more it distracts the eye from the beams overhead: you focus on the skaters and their reflections instead of the darker floor joist reflections.


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