# Looking for foam base, will this do?



## deviltrigger529 (Jul 9, 2013)

Hey guys, I'm in the process of finally doing my "final" layout, so I tore down my layout entirely and am starting from scratch as I gather the rest of my track. My table is about 11ft x 9ft with a 3/4"(I think) plywood top and a 2x4 frame. Last time I used cotton and felt(not the best idea) and this time I want to do foam. I went to my local fabric store and they had different sizes but for 1 inch thick of how much I needed was going to be like $140...no way. So I have heard of people using insulation foam and I found this stuff at my Home Depot;

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Owens-Co...e-and-Groove-Foam-86BG/100320343#.UfqEhW0nx8E

I don't plan on carving into this much so 1 inch should be fine for me. I will probably end up stacking and carving that way. Does this stuff look like it should do the job? Or am I missing something? Thanks.

And then since its pink, what should I do about coloring it? Should I just paint it all 1 color and then blend from there?


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## BigAl56 (Dec 14, 2011)

Pink foamboard is what I use however I use a thinner sheet. The 1 inch T&G is expensive and a bit overkill. When you screw down the track make sure your screws go into the foam and not through to the table.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

deviltrigger529 said:


> Hey guys, I'm in the process of finally doing my "final" layout, so I tore down my layout entirely and am starting from scratch as I gather the rest of my track. My table is about 11ft x 9ft with a 3/4"(I think) plywood top and a 2x4 frame. Last time I used cotton and felt(not the best idea) and this time I want to do foam. I went to my local fabric store and they had different sizes but for 1 inch thick of how much I needed was going to be like $140...no way. So I have heard of people using insulation foam and I found this stuff at my Home Depot;
> 
> http://www.homedepot.com/p/Owens-Co...e-and-Groove-Foam-86BG/100320343#.UfqEhW0nx8E
> 
> ...


You could use that but it looks to be only 2' wide?
I thought that it came in 4' wide pieces too.

This is 4x8 but only 1/2" thick, I thought they sold this in 1" I know they do in 2" 4x8's sheets in this.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Super-TU...Foam-Insulation-268413/100322369#.UfqLh5LVBx4

It has been a while since I looked for this when I went to HD.

But either the pink or blue will work, the thickness is up to you. If your not going to carve I wonder if the 1/2" would be enough for you?


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## deviltrigger529 (Jul 9, 2013)

Ok at least I know I'm on the right track. The Super Tuff you linked to is sold out in all stores close to me, and I don't see anything smaller with what I linked in thickness. I did realize its 2 feet wide, I figured I'd need about 7 sheets so ~$75 instead of the $140.

EDIT: Started looking on Lowes instead, what about this?

http://www.lowes.com/pd_15358-46086...L=?Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=

Is sheathing basically the same thing?


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I'm guessing the stuff at lowes is a much lower density foam between two plastic layers. I'd stick with the pink or blue foam.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

deviltrigger529 said:


> Ok at least I know I'm on the right track. The Super Tuff you linked to is sold out in all stores close to me, and I don't see anything smaller with what I linked in thickness. I did realize its 2 feet wide, I figured I'd need about 7 sheets so ~$75 instead of the $140.
> 
> EDIT: Started looking on Lowes instead, what about this?
> 
> ...


I think that stuff would work if you don't want to carve anything, if you do carve unless I am mistaken that stuff would be very messy to carve out.
Plus that looks to be wrapped with a plastic covering, you would have to peel that off so that the paint would adhere to it.

I would say to stick with the pink or blue stuff.


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## Gansett (Apr 8, 2011)

Your best bet is to go to Lowes or HD and look. Not every item they stock is listed on their web pages. I know that's shocking to learn. But both carry the foam board in varying thickness
The major difference for our purpose between the blue and pink foam is the color

Lowe's now carry's a product that's the modern day equivalent of old fashioned homosote. It's lightweight, relatively cheap and will hold a screw.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Another thing to look for is the damaged panels, they'll typically sell them much cheaper. For what you're doing with them, that's really not an issue.


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## deviltrigger529 (Jul 9, 2013)

Alright thanks for the advice guys, I'll go out tomorrow and check out HD since its literally a mile away and see what they have.


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## Big Mike (Dec 2, 2011)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> I'm guessing the stuff at lowes is a much lower density foam between two plastic layers. I'd stick with the pink or blue foam.


 I've used the blue foam on many parts of my layout,it glues, stacks,carves and paints really easy,liquid nails for gluing and laytex based paint for color,............Mike


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I agree Mike, the pink and blue seem similar to me, though there must be a difference. Both are much higher in density than the common white stuff.


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## Patrick1544 (Apr 27, 2013)

JackC said:


> Your best bet is to go to Lowes or HD and look. Not every item they stock is listed on their web pages. I know that's shocking to learn. But both carry the foam board in varying thickness
> The major difference for our purpose between the blue and pink foam is the color
> 
> Lowe's now carry's a product that's the modern day equivalent of old fashioned homosote. It's lightweight, relatively cheap and will hold a screw.


Jack
Have you seen this new board at Lowe's? Like to find out what it is.


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## BENAKED1 (Apr 19, 2013)

i used the blue to build a small layout and it worked great. just watch because some of it has score marks on one side and it can make it weak if its not layered or braced properly.


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## Gansett (Apr 8, 2011)

Patrick1544 said:


> Jack
> Have you seen this new board at Lowe's? Like to find out what it is.


I first saw a comment about it on a YouTube video, thats where the guy used a small screw and picked up the corner of the sheet. Yes I did see it in my local Lowe's. I'll be heading over there sometime this weekend and get all the info.


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## cole226 (Feb 8, 2013)

lowes has a green extruded foam sheet (has their own name on it), i don't think u want to use the poly shield.
the extruded is very dense, already green and they have in different thickness. its similar to the dow blue or pink.
make sure u don't get a foil faced sheet like tuff R. they will screw up ur electronics


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## cole226 (Feb 8, 2013)

the homesote type board at lowes looks like the old homesote without the asphalt content.
it is fairly heavy. hard to work with if u do much cutting. it makes a good sound deadener base. if u want to build up ceilng tiles are similar, but not near as dense and easy to cut. make nice rock ledges.


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## deviltrigger529 (Jul 9, 2013)

Alright guys, I went out earlier and looked at HD and I ended up finding the 3/4 inch fanfold pink insulation, 4' x 50' for $35. The guys that said I wouldn't even need 1" or more were right, the 3/4" is perfect. Where it was folded has a crease but I'm not real into realism or detail so I'm not worried about it, and I can probably cover it easily.

So I saw some guys mentioning latex based paint, do you guys think I should paint it all a uniform color as a base, or just add scenery directly on top of the insulation?

Thanks for all the help guys and I'm glad there's a good discussion going on about this.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

deviltrigger529 said:


> Alright guys, I went out earlier and looked at HD and I ended up finding the 3/4 inch fanfold pink insulation, 4' x 50' for $35. The guys that said I wouldn't even need 1" or more were right, the 3/4" is perfect. Where it was folded has a crease but I'm not real into realism or detail so I'm not worried about it, and I can probably cover it easily.
> 
> So I saw some guys mentioning latex based paint, do you guys think I should paint it all a uniform color as a base, or just add scenery directly on top of the insulation?
> 
> Thanks for all the help guys and I'm glad there's a good discussion going on about this.



Fanfold? What is that? I searched and couldn't find it do you have a link? 
4' x 50' now that is a big sheet! 

I would paint it a base color, brown? Or even a green?

Get rid of the pink, it would be a lot easier to do it before you start building on it.
And whatever color you choose, you can always paint over it different colors in spots, once you start building.


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## rdmtgm (Nov 25, 2011)

I painted mine with a light tan latex house paint, (leftover from the kitchen walls) then while it is still wet you can add shake on grass or ground cover. When the paint dries it will it will hold the ground cover in place. Then you can just stick trees or other details right into the foam. My layout is almost all made from this type of foam and in various states of finish (mostly unfinished) I will post some pics this afternoon if it will help you get an idea of what you want to do.
Randy


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## deviltrigger529 (Jul 9, 2013)

big ed said:


> Fanfold? What is that? I searched and couldn't find it do you have a link?
> 4' x 50' now that is a big sheet!
> 
> I would paint it a base color, brown? Or even a green?
> ...


Since its a continuous sheet its just folded over and over, its called fanfold lol.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Owens-Co...t-x-50-ft-Fanfold-10UM/100320301#.Uf0zcm0nx8E

Thats the 1/4" though, I got 3/4" for about $35.

Alright it looks like I'll get a can of paint and paint over it first to make it blend easier.



rdmtgm said:


> I painted mine with a light tan latex house paint, (leftover from the kitchen walls) then while it is still wet you can add shake on grass or ground cover. When the paint dries it will it will hold the ground cover in place. Then you can just stick trees or other details right into the foam. My layout is almost all made from this type of foam and in various states of finish (mostly unfinished) I will post some pics this afternoon if it will help you get an idea of what you want to do.
> Randy


That would actually be a big help if you wouldn't mind. I'm trying to get any kind of help and insight I can to see what to do.


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## rdmtgm (Nov 25, 2011)

sorry, having trouble posting pics. hope to have success soon.


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## callmeIshmael2 (May 28, 2012)

Even though you say you don't want to get far into details and heavy-duty scenery, you'll be denying yourself a lot of pleasure by not checking out a bit of easy scenery-making. For starters, as people have suggested, paint a latex coat based on whatever time of year you'd like to envision your layout in. I'm doing an early winter scene, so I painted my pink 3/4" foam white. Early spring - light green, summer - darker green; reddish tones for fall, etc. Shades of brown/tan are great scenery bases for any time of year, too. Consider "Fusion Fiber", available thru Scenic Express (fast delivery). A twenty-dollar bag will add cool scenery, lots of it, for most average-size layouts. This stuff is very acceptable ground-cover and because it comes uncolored (white), you just color some warm water with cheap acrylic paints from a dollar store, then mix in the Fusion Fiber to get a consistency, then lay it down. Don't really like it? Put water on it and re-shape it as often as you'd like. It dries slowly, meaning you've got at least a day or two to shape it before it hardens, but you can still work with it months from now by putting water on it and letting it soften, then re-do. Great stuff, not messy, and you can learn scenery making as you go; so unlike plaster-type scenery solutions that are messy and have a tiny time window to work inside of. I'll be posting some pix in a few days showing a bit of what I've been able to do with this stuff. I'm not an expert modeler, but I've gotten some pretty good results with this stuff and a few hobby trees, shrubs, actual dirt, sand, and small broken branches (nuked a little to kill anything I wouldn't want crawling over my layout, then painted to look more realistic)...Not too hard for anyone to get nice results with some effort and it's a lot of fun.


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## Big Mike (Dec 2, 2011)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> I agree Mike, the pink and blue seem similar to me, though there must be a difference. Both are much higher in density than the common white stuff.


there proly is a difference, but for what we are using it for, I don't think it really matters, I do like the fact that it is a "closed cell" or as its called ,extruded type foam, unlike the old bead type you mentioned , makes it much easier to work with. .............Mike


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Cool, I never knew they had fanfold.

Looks like a good price too. :thumbsup:


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## rdmtgm (Nov 25, 2011)

finally got some pics. first pic is the yard on plain unfinished foam. second is a a mountain of stacked foam carved and with finished rocks, and third is a somewhat finished mountain with a small pond all of stacked and carved foam and finished with house paint and grass.


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## icolectto (Nov 28, 2012)

Looking real good !


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## BigAl56 (Dec 14, 2011)

Ditto!


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## eljefe (Jun 11, 2011)

Neat switch layout. Looks like you're running low on locomotives!


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Very nice progress, looks great! Looks like you ran out of bumpers for the string of locomotives.


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## Big Mike (Dec 2, 2011)

looks really good, I like the fact that you ballasted the old tube track, I often wondered how that would look,..I think if you painted the sides of the rails with a rust color paint ,it would look awsom............Mike


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## rdmtgm (Nov 25, 2011)

Thanks for all the nice comments on the layout so far. John I definitely need some more bumpers, among many other things.  Thanks for the comment on the ballast Mike, sure a lot more to do but it helps hide the lack of ties in the tubular track. I have a lot of ideas for details but I am still struggling to make it all run right. Using old stuff helps with the cash flow but sometimes it would be nice just to lay down some new track and be done with it. Deviltrigger, I hope this shows some use of foam board that may help you out with your layout. I find it is a lot of fun carving and shaping the mountains and different details. The nice thing is that you cant do it wrong as long as it looks good to you when your done.

Randy


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## deviltrigger529 (Jul 9, 2013)

The layout does look real nice, I actually do plan on getting some 2" or so foam to maybe make some mountains. I thought I posted progress pics but I guess that was in the other thread so I will post them here as well in case some people missed it. I did finish wiring it all up but I'm having problems controlling a conrail diesel with the DCS and my Lionel Big Boy won't respond to command mode at all.

Insulation on the table:









Test fitting what track I had and clearance:









Stripped down and painted a dark brown for a base of dirt:









And a couple setup shots with what I had to throw on there:


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Making lots of progress! Have you given any thought to how you reach stuff in the middle of the table?


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## deviltrigger529 (Jul 9, 2013)

I can actually reach almost all the way to the middle from the outside, I'm pretty tall with long arms, and if not I can poke up thru the gap in the middle.


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## eljefe (Jun 11, 2011)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> Have you given any thought to how you reach stuff in the middle of the table?


I'm envisioning Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible...


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Well, reaching is one thing, but actually working on stuff out there may be another. At least it's something to keep in mind.


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## deviltrigger529 (Jul 9, 2013)

Alright guys, its been awhile of not doing much with the layout till this weekend. I did end up getting $700 for my Conrail and Big Boy, and I used that to get an MTH GEVO Hybrid Diesel and the rest went down on an MTH Big Boy. 

I went to Home depot and got the 2" Owens corning and starting my cliff face for the sides of the raised seasonal platform. Picked up a hot wire cutter and stack it 3 pieces high and got to carving and here it is!



Now to my questions lol. I've been looking all over the place and theres so many different ways to paint and finish and for all different types of techniques. I figured I'd stop trying to figure it all out and ask you guys how I should go about it. All I know is I need to get some latex based paint of some earth colors. I'm guessing like a greyish or tan? And I can't seem to find which type of brush to use. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated!


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## rdmtgm (Nov 25, 2011)

For the flat surfaces I used regular latex house paint in tan, any brush or roller worked fine as I covered it immediately with scenic ground cover so that it imbedded in the wet paint. As for the rock faces I used simply acrylic craft paints that I bought at Walmart for 50 cents a bottle. I mixed several colors then used a very wet foam brush and let the paint run in to all the cracks and crevices . Then used lighter purer colors for the highlights and such.


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## rdmtgm (Nov 25, 2011)

You may want to take a piece of scrap foam and play with different techniques until you find something that looks good to you. I did a lot off experimenting before I started and still do things a little different each time I paint something.


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## mnp13 (Aug 22, 2013)

That looks GREAT!!! And I love the elevated rail....


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## deviltrigger529 (Jul 9, 2013)

Ok thats what I'll do, thanks for the tips. I'll make another smaller portion like what I've done already and grab some paints and do some experimenting before I touch the final cliff face.

Thanks mnp, I may do something similar and use foam to support most of the elevated rail and make it look like its on a hill, still contemplating.


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## Kenjuro4449 (Oct 14, 2013)

I am having a hard time getting the pink of blue foam.
for some reason they don't sell it in California.
What do you guys think about using Styrofoam? (The white stuff)


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Kenjuro4449 said:


> I am having a hard time getting the pink of blue foam.
> for some reason they don't sell it in California.
> What do you guys think about using Styrofoam? (The white stuff)


It is very messy if you plan on doing any carving.


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## raleets (Jan 2, 2011)

It's also not nearly as smooth as pink or blue foam. Not as dense either, which makes planting trees, signs, etc., much more difficult.
Cutting it is a MESS.


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## sjm9911 (Dec 20, 2012)

Also can't be painted directly, you need to plaster coat the top. But if you can stand Te mess and the plaster work it will work. Trees and stuff stay put a but better in this with a dab of white glue. I used some of this on my layout because it was in my garage gathering dust.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I'd avoid the white stuff if any other option is available. It has a fraction of the strength of the pink or blue.


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