Foam board for mountains

The pink or blue rigid foam insulation boards are what you want. It cuts clean and is easy to work with. What you DON'T want is the white styrofoam that looks like a bunch of tiny beads pressed together. That stuff gets really messy, really fast. For gluing I just use my hot glue gun if I need it held together immediately or whit glue if I have time to let it dry. There's also a foam specific Liquid Nails that works. When in doubt check the label. Some glues will eat away at the foam. 

I was sticker shocked- I was looking at the blue 2" board & it was $36 a sheet! I need almost $400 for my mountain!

Wow! More than I want to spend. May go with using plaster with cloth and newspaper .

rogerpete, your mountain doesn't have to be solid foam. Cut some pieces that you stand on edge to make the shape of your mountain. Drape the foam with screen and apply plaster cloth.

I found that if you have an 84 lumber yard in your area, they will gladly give you stringers which are suede tween the 4X8 sheets of foam.  They are approximately 6 inches wide, 4 inches high, and about 50 inches long.  They have to throw them in a dumpster and pay to have them processed so they will give you a truckload if you want.  Scenic Express sells a fantastic foam glue.  I also use drywall screws to join sheets, just monitor where you place them when you are going to carve the area.

Actually the blue foam goes ALONG way. I bought 2 4 x8 sheets of 1.5 inch extruded foam to do this front fascia cliff. I cut it length ways and it lasted quite a bit. the mountain behind it was made the same way... The sheets were 27 dollars a piece and I had a 4x4 piece left over.

 

 

 

 

 

Roger that's crazy.  I pay around $19.00 a sheet at the local building supply.  Sometimes even cheaper if the corners are damaged.  Check any construction sites in the area.  They throw tons of useable foam away.

wild mary, is someone actually building houses in MD? New building sites are still scarce in NC.

Keep an eye out for new construction in your area.  Usually you can find several scrap pieces in the dumpster.  I have used foam glue available in the glue section of Lowes or Home Depot.  I found some 4 inch thick pieces, but can't seem to find a source to buy any.  One thing about the foam board it some of it has a plastic coating you need to peal off in order to get the paint to stay put.  I found a roll of mesh that is sticky like the fiberglass drywall tape.  It's about 30" wide and I used it to cover the foam board and will put plaster over that.

 

The 2" 2' x 8' pink in HD is $18.00/sheet.

Bruce

I have used 10+ sheets, so I know the pain. If you want additional information , glues, useful tools, paints ect let me know. I spent many hours getting information from numerous very helpful members here when I started over a year ago rebuilding my layout. I MAY be about half way done.

Foam mountains don't have to be layers on top of layers like a cake. Mine are hollow...only the outside 2-4" are foam. Saves considerably on material and $.

I used chicken wire.

That's right, you don't have to use foam, I used a weave of card board some larger areas like this picture:

 

 

Although I did not appreciate the hot glue burning my fingers... so I used a stapler too.

 

specifically its called:

"Liquid nails for projects"

chck out construction sites in your area. They through away a bunch of that stuff.

make sure you ask first. and don't go into construction sites after hours.

That's right

any port in a storm.............

Construction is alive an well in the Baltimore area.  How else are we to keep our ever growing illegal alien population employed.

Guys, I nearly had mine built before I read about Brooks Stover doing his with cardboard shaping, paper grocery sacks staple in and plaster cloth on top of that.  Whew, run on sentence.
All that is generally free.
And...Michael's sells plaster cloth w/ coupon discount at about $6.
Same stuff (or better) than WS sells for $11.99 a roll at the LHS.

I keep hearinand reading about plaster and paper towels.  I would like to know more of the details on how it id done.  I get the part about dipping the paper towel in plaster, but I'm not sure what the consistency of the plaster mix should be and the technique of making it.  I have used pink and blue foam as my base and the white beaded foam for an elevated section.  I plan to cover everything with plaster cloth, but with a 400 sq ft area to cover thats a lot of rolls at $6.00 a pop.

 

I use paper bags since I get a lot of them thanks to where my son works.

 

Cut them up into strips and tack the ends into wherever I want them anchored with hot glue.  Weave a mesh then with more strips of brown paper that cna be anchored or not.  Instead of plaster cloth, I just put an old sheet that was destined for the trash can over the paper mesh - tack into place with hot glue or just staple it down at the edges. 

 

Plaster (hydrocal or whatever you prefer), mixed up in a plastic margarine tub from the dark ages.  Consistency is homogeneous thick soup.  I just pour that on the sheet and spread to whatever design I had in mind using a cheap old 2" brush that is past its prime and whatever else I'm using to shape thing.  If there's something to be embedded, now is the time.  Got to work fast since that consistency sets up fast, but limits drip through - just work on as much area at a time as comfortable.

 

Drop the brush in a soup can of water in between batches; flex the tub to crack out the dry plaster - toss it or use it as scenery itself.  After it's cured you can go directly to ground cover, trees, whatever...  You can paint it too if you want, but I've never seen the point.

Foam board and foam spray in a can the kind used for insulation...

2"x4'x8' is $36 in my area...same cost 

I have to use foam, as this layout is temporary & portable, so I need to be able to lift the mountain off & store it. Can't use plaster, wire or cardboard lattice. The Mountain also needs to be about 40" high (+or-) so even a hollow mountain is going to use a lot of foam sheets.

All my foam mountains are portable some on third layout, hot wire foam carving tools.

Everything carved and painted in garage, then put in basement in sections up to 8 feet long. All hollow one sheet goes a long way

Clem

UFO sightings!!!!!!!!!