Model Railroad Scenery using Extruded Foam: Part 1

[Marymichelemax]

Excellent info! I am getting ready to start a new layout and now I won't have to get bags of Hydrocal. This method looks much more desireable.

[SteveSabbai]

...people would appreciate this Tutorial better if the video had 480p or better quality...

[thebige61]

@SteveSabbai I'll reply in a message...

[MrThomo36]

the white foam at 3:19 is god for the base put 3 layers works best

[ducker1942]

THANKS FOR YOUR VIDEO!

[waldenhouse]

Thanks to all who responded. I'll be going down to our local B&Q to have a look. 

[spitfirecaptain]

@waldenhouse this is available from builders merchants in the UK. usually sold in 8 x 4 foot sheets and is fairly cheap. one sheet is probobly all you need for life.

[waldenhouse]

Is this the same as Expanded Polystyrene - widely available in the UK??

[thebige61]

@waldenhouse I don't know.

[HellvisNotDead]

@thebige61 the good foam he used its the foam use for house-foundation! if you have house in UK u can find some ! :P

[jirizlamal69]

@waldenhouse: this is most probably an "XPS" - Extruded Polystyrene" (styrofoam) - it has much smaller "bubbles" than the widely used "EPS" (expanded) one and is harder. But this XPS is usually available in DIY stores as well.

[SandyRiver24]

@waldenhouse Hi. This stuff is sold in Australia as insulation foam. That might help. Also expanded polystyrene is the white stuff which goes everywhere and there is also the yellow stuff that you use to stuff cushions. If you are having trouble getting it try an insulation place eg a place that makes commercial refrigerators etc. Try the yellow pages under insulation might help.

[Mr508films]

@waldenhouse yes it is

[MrThomo36]

@waldenhouse yes

[jonathanbigbrowning]

@waldenhouse No it's not, this is actually called "Extruded Polystyrene".

[alzeNL]

@waldenhouse no, polysteryne wil not have the same effect, it will bead and break. you need foam !

[carlanton593]

this is great work dude you are awesome at teaching! thanks for all your help!

[dingo8880]

can u use a hot knif /gas buner

[p42Amtrak83]

Cool!

[Oldcrotch]

Everett, keep these incredible instructional videos coming, and THANK YOU for sharing your skills and efforts with everybody.

[hollywdd]

As i am into model diorama's, and not really railroad's. your tutorials really helped me get a grip on how this type of work is done.. AAAA+++++ on your work. one of the best vids i've seen yet

[wesap1]

Very interesting video....How did yoy lay your track thru the mountainsL Wood base, or did you lay it on the foam? Ho gauge

[legofriek98]

hi evert iwas wondering if i should model hills instead of mountains because i live in southwestern ohio close to the indiana-ohio border and i think hmplantman should shut up

[thebige61]

I think hills would be the way to go for that area.

E

[sacbob2006]

Thanks for the information I live in the boonies and finding the information locally is hard this way it gives me something to refer to thanks again

[acastrellon]

First of all great work!! At the end of this video you show a sample piece you made to practice the coloring of the washes, I see you also had a nice thick spot of grass. How did you get it to be so thick and natural, is it just a lot of layers? what type of grass was it, weeds fine turf?

[mneal713]

What is the name of the third carving tool you named (yellow handle)?

[thebige61]

It's a surform rasp.

[raulamx]

hi thks so much for this tutorials, a rookie question, do you lay roadbed/track over the foam?

or it's no a good idea?

[panzermyer]

well done man , thanks for taking the time to show us all your tricks and skills , great help for anyone looking to build a good layout , well done

[blake1388]

i couldent understand you in the supplies if you can email me back with the lis of supplies you use

[hotdogcib]

Hi Everett, your videos are very informative,and you seem very knowledgeable in this hobby. I had h.o. scale when I was a child. I am going to follow all of your videos as a bible. You said you changed to the "N" scale. Why ?? I wish to know so when I start this hobby next month I can buy the scale that has the best options in that scale, and you would know best . You made a change to invest all of your time in this scale there must be a few good reasons. Thanks again..I am eager to start !!

[thebige61]

I wanted to do mountain railroading and had a limited amount of space to do what I wanted. If I were to do that section you see in the beginning in HO It would be 23 feet wide and 5 feet deep. In addition my layout goes around the family room walls so I need to design it so it would take up as little space as possible yet give me plenty of space to do the things I wanted. N scale worked perfectly for me.

[hotdogcib]

Wow, I just spent hours on your web site, following your progress from Sept 03 to March 09. Amazing, what a craftsman.I did smile when I saw the hot water tank,after replacing two of my three, I wouldn't be that eager to do a swap out on that one.

[thebige61]

I designed the suspended yard so that it's removable. It takes about 10 minutes to take the whole thing down.

[hotdogcib]

well , I should of known that you would have a back up plan for the hot water heater r&r, based on the craftsmanship of your project,well done ! I was wondering if you could tell me the (pro's & con's ) between the h.o. scale and the n scale. I see your response posted on why you changed over, but I still don't know which of the 2 scales that I should go with and why. It looks like h.o.has more detail .

[brycat36]

Very good videos.. Keep them coming

[LNERMallard]

Is N scale cheaper than HO scale? I want to build an N scale version of my HO scale layout, but I want to know how much dough I would be buring.

[thebige61]

HO and N scale cost about the same.

[newyorkcentrury]

where are u from

[SouthDakotaBoys]

now I have some blue polystyrene, Will that work as well as that pink stuff you got?

[thebige61]

I'm thinking it will if it's the kind of foam I'm picturing in my mind. you can experiment on a small piece to see how well it carves.

[SouthDakotaBoys]

Thanks

[andrzejowiec]

i use gorilla glue too glue the foam. works great!

[ECWnWWF]

is n scale better than HO scale? Does it look as realistic as HO scale? I guess for smaller space n scale is better. I'm used to HO and O scale (O scale is way too big).

[thebige61]

It isn't really an issue of one being "better" than the other. Each scale has it's advantages/disadvantages. I guess it depends on what you want to do. N scale is great if you have limited space and/or you want to have a high proportion of scenry to track. Min situation was a little of both; I wanted to have mountains and I had limited amount of space to do what I wanted. The main mountain scene that I did would have taken up about 22 feet of space if I did it in HO.

E

[disturbedrocker1]

hey thebige61 its me agin i was wondering if there was any other type of foam that u could use to get the same effect... thx aj, ilove ur n scale layout i am starting my first n scale layout..thx 4 ur help

[thebige61]

Not that I know of.

E

[lilemotom]

u can use styrofoam

[thebige61]

It won't work well for carving. Now what you could do(and I think this would work ok) is use the Styrofoam as a substrate for the mountain. So in other words you'd glue the Styrofoam in place and carve/cut it into roughly the shape you want and then cover the foam with rock castings.

E

[disturbedrocker1]

cuse i can only find bead board at home depot and lowes

[thebige61]

You should be able to get it at those stores. However I've been told that if you live in the southern US that the extruded foam is harder to get.

[disturbedrocker1]

were do u get extruded foam

[musicmnn]

Could you add a video with the paint washes thanks brad

[MCS4991]

Awesome!

[pricey151]

you actually can use white polystyrine for terrain making it is just a bit harder. You have to coat it with a mix of PVA a little bit of water possibly some polyfiller and sand. that should be enought to coat it.

[yortonjunction]

Hello Evert,

Howard Here,

I see you are also getting abuse from HMPLANTMAN

for your efforts,

Think a bit of jealousy, or perhaps boredom, creeping him from him.

dont be discouraged,

keep the series going,

YJ

[garage0racing]

This is great stuff!

[hotfuzz459]

lol when he is speaking at the start he sounds like he had just been running in a 5km marathon lol

[thebige61]

I wanted to have mountains and N scale allowed me to do what I wanted in the space that I had available.

E

[lwmlwm44]

Love all your videos.........very easy to follow and well done......you should be seeling these on line rather than giving them away......shouldn't say that this hobby is costing me enough the way it is. Have seen all these videos from 1 to 9 however video no. 7 is marked as no longer available....is it possible to repost it.......also are there anymore on extruded foam by you after No. 9 Again thanks every so much for all the great tips. Larry in St. Louis Mo

[thebige61]

Unfortunately the disappearing videos is a youtube issue. Other folks have been complaining about it in the forums. If it doesn't show up again soon I'll have to re-upload it.

E

[hmplantman]

Clever, American... that light, white stuff is called Polystyrene. In our next lesson, we're going to count to seven.

[thebige61]

>Clever, American... that light, white stuff >is called Polystyrene

Actually it's pink and much denser than the white stuff you're probably thinking of.

>In our next lesson, we're going to count to >seven.

Oooh. You got me on that one. I can only count to five. Cheers from across the Pond!

E

[hmplantman]

Actually, I'm referring to 2:47. That isn't white is it? There is a different. Pink is different to white. Do... you... understand.....???

[fullglottalstop]

It is called "Styrofoam" in the states, hmplantman.

[usmusclecars]

go away

[yortonjunction]

Nice one Evert. you put him down very nicely,

YJ

[masterkiller49]

omfg, its fucking huge man, how many time you spare on it

[hondacb650c]

thats an awesome idea! heres a tip, if u need to fill in gaps or cover shallow walls, use "Great Stuff" expanding foam. we used it on ours and it looks amazing! just carve it after it hardens

[Chessie9009]

sry, i posted a comment using my other profile. i have vids on this one

[Csx1997]

sorry about making so many comments the stupid button wouldn't say "Comment Posted!"

[thebige61]

No Problem! No Problem! No Problem! No Problem! No Problem! No Problem! No Problem! No Problem! No Problem! No Problem! No Problem! E

[Csx1997]

sorry about making so many comments the stupid button wouldn't say "Comment Posted!"

[Csx1997]

how much is one inch foam in a 4 by 8 sheet?

[Csx1997]

how much is one inch foam in a 4 by 8 sheet?

[Csx1997]

how much is one inch foam in a 4 by 8 sheet?

[Csx1997]

how much is one inch foam in a 4 by 8 sheet

[thebige61]

I think I remember paying about $18.00 for the 2 inch foam but that was a couple of years ago.

[Csx1997]

yea now it's like 30 bucks here in lewistown!!!

[creativeactionfigure]

These videos are extremely interesting, but dude, they need editing and you need to have a script or something! Watching these are shear torture. But I'm interested enough to endure it.

[ZennmasterM]

How very non-constructive! Personally, thebige61 gets my serious thanks for sharing some GREAT information. As for the presentation, dude, I have been to live workshops that were WAAAYYYY worse! Feel free to drop the $40-$50 that the 'professional' DVDs go for, I'll take these for free. Oh, and by the way, I think you mean to say 'sheer' torture, unless you're talking about sheep... Thanks Big E!

[creativeactionfigure]

Bingo on shear/sheer, but non-constructive, hardly.  My comments on editing are very constructive, they were not meant as an insult. The time spent editing would be worth it's wait in gold. (wink)

[caelarent]

This is a very helpful series of instructional videos. Any chase you could do a series on ballasting track?

[thebige61]

Yes, at some point I will.

E

[davidallen1]

Thanks for the information about road beds and the inspirational videos. I'm 95% finished with my track layout and have just started cutting some foam to shape around a creek and bridge crossings. With the tight clearence of the bridge, I needed to shape and paint some of the foam before I set the bridges in place. My question: When layering the foam, do I need to peel off the plastic film before glueing together.

[thebige61]

Hmmm...the foam I got didn't have any plastic film on it, but yes definitely peel it off before gluing it.

[cockney1980]

where is part 8 ffs?

[thetreeregimovies]

wtf? go to his videos and ull see it

[draaks1]

another way to build scenery is to take cardboard and cover it in chicken wire and cover in plaster. after it dries carve out the mountain and add texture.

[gtc1961]

Yes, you can do that, that was the standard procedure in the 50's, 60's and 70's. The only problem was that is was so HEAVY! The last layout I built was of sculptamold with carboard supports, much lighter than plaster of paris. This methods looks best though, I'm going to try it onthe new layout I'm planning.

[b111791]

Strange thing about Liquid Nails' "Projects and Foamboard"...on the back of the tube it states..."will not adhere foamboard to foamboard". Apparently it does...right?

[thebige61]

Yeah. It seems to work OK for me. The key is not to use too much, weight it down properly and let it dry for about 48 hours.

E

[b111791]

Ok thanks, great videos.

[thetreeregimovies]

i actually used to literally dumpster dive. i would jump in the dumpster and 2 of my friend would be on the look out. i got caught so much but the workers didnt mind

[thetreeregimovies]

that doesnt mean you arent allowed to be smart

[ivegotanm4rifle]

i no but im i dont no r u british

[thetreeregimovies]

no im american

[ivegotanm4rifle]

great but im just gonna keep up i h8 the british sort of fing sorry keep up wat ever your doing in the us and hope to tlk to u again

[thetreeregimovies]

huh? does this mean were kinda friends?

[piracypunk]

wow, not many people talk about dumpster diving stuff, you can also dumpster dive thrift shops, where i found A LOT of trains and track in, and harbor freight tools loves to throw tools away.

[grandee1514]

Very informative video. Thanks for the effort.

[tracktionmonkey]

many thanks!

[BigTrainBuff]

This is a really great series. The best modeling tutorials I've seen. I've been using the techniques with success. Thanks so much.

[stationmaster12]

Thanks so much!!!I watched all your videos! Hope to see some trains running on your layout soon!!!!

[Oldcrotch]

You have done an incredible job and I would gladly pay for a DVD of this series to make it easier to work with by a layout.

You really did your homework, this is the best HOW-TO I've ever seen on the subject.

[kivew]

nice. thanks for doing this

[bisonridge]

Thanks for your effort. I'm ready to start, thanks to you!

[Batchelli]

Amazing scenery! Looks very nice!