Seaboard Central 2.0

[Ed Kapuscinski]

So... in my case, I don't sand foam. I spackle over it, and then sand that which introduces its own problems (it's not even dust, it's like, "vapor").

[davefoxx]

I get the foam thing for scenery- it is very handy and works great.

I don't get the sanding part.  Why would you sand foam?  The dust must be brutal, and it sounds like work!  Seriously, why not leave it irregular and rough?  That is the way most landscapes are and the surface treatments cover much of it anyway.

Reasons:
1) Speed (I can get the final form a lot quicker than hacking at it with dulling knife blades)
2) Safety (less chance of cutting myself with a snap blade knife)
3) Finesse (I can really sculpt the final shape desired, and I go through a lot less lightweight speckling to smooth it out)

Truthfully, the dust isn't that bad when controlled with the wet-dry vac.  If it was, I wouldn't use this method.  Plus, my surface treatment is often just a thin coating of lightweight spackling, if necessary, and a coat of paint under the ground foam. That's a very thin surface treatment, so I save a lot of expensive scenery materials.

DFF

[Scottl]

Fair enough.  I don't even use spackle except in deep crevices. 

Still, that foam dust is going to accumulate in the lungs like nothing else- low density, fine particles, and basically inert so it won't go away.  Probably the asbestos of the 22nd century 

[pedro]

Instead of sanding...Stanley Surform Shaver:

http://www.stanleytools.com/default.asp?CATEGORY=SURFORM+TOOLS+AND+BLADES&TYPE=PRODUCT&PARTNUMBER=21-115&SDesc=7%2D1%2F4%26%2334%3B+Surform%26%23174%3B+Shaver

It's as if it was made for this job. Still makes a mess, but crumbs instead of dust.

[Mike C]

Reasons:
1) Speed (I can get the final form a lot quicker than hacking at it with dulling knife blades)
2) Safety (less chance of cutting myself with a snap blade knife)
3) Finesse (I can really sculpt the final shape desired, and I go through a lot less lightweight speckling to smooth it out)

Truthfully, the dust isn't that bad when controlled with the wet-dry vac.  If it was, I wouldn't use this method.  Plus, my surface treatment is often just a thin coating of lightweight spackling, if necessary, and a coat of paint under the ground foam. That's a very thin surface treatment, so I save a lot of expensive scenery materials.

DFF

OK , have you ever tried a cheese grater file that is used for rough shaping auto body filler ?  It looks kind of like a wood plane and would probably make a bit larger particles that maybe wouldn't fly off as far .  Good idea on the shop vac though .

[davefoxx]

Yup, I got a Stanley Surfoam Plane.  I didn't like it, because it was slow and tore at the foam, rather than "grated" it.

I'm not trying to convince anyone else to use this method.  The aggressive grit (40) that I use is probably more like grinding than actually sanding.  I'm only finessing the final shape, as seen below.  The sander I have also lets me get into tight places that I couldn't with a plane.  The dust is easily controlled by the wet-dry vac.  I shaped all of the hills and dales on the first HCD portion of this layout (not to mention the Virginia Central), and it works for me.  I'm not kicking up so much dust that I'm breathing it; however, I wear a dust mask 'cause I'm not stupid.  I go slow, stop often, and suck up the stray dust with the vacuum as I go.  Yet, this is much faster than other methods that I've tried.  This works for me.  YMMV.

Before:


After:


As you can see, in the "after" picture, there is little more necessary than a mere skim coat of lightweight spackling to give a nice, smooth surface to apply the ground foam and static grass to.

DFF

[jpec]

Dave,

Realizing you're working on a decent sized area, you ever think of using plaster impregnated gauze? I'm sure you could get a much better price than the WS stuff if you got it from a medical supply house, which is probably what they do and repackage it. A little work with a wet finger will smooth it out pretty well...

Jeff

[Rich_S]

Dave, I've never used Spackling. Back in the good old days I used Hydocal over screen wire and hand carved rock formations. I then moved onto the Paper Mache method and plaster impregnated gauze. Now my covering material of choice is Scuptamold made by Amaco (American Art Clay Company) . You can even purchase this stuff at Wally World (Walmart) $9 for a 3 lbs. bag. It mixes up like plaster, but it's very light weight and very durable.

 

[hminky]

Sculptamold also can be mixed with latex paint without changing it's properties:





Great stuff

Harold

[davefoxx]

Dave, I've never used Spackling. Back in the good old days I used Hydocal over screen wire and hand carved rock formations. I then moved onto the Paper Mache method and plaster impregnated gauze. Now my covering material of choice is Scuptamold made by Amaco (American Art Clay Company) . You can even purchase this stuff at Wally World (Walmart) $9 for a 3 lbs. bag. It mixes up like plaster, but it's very light weight and very durable.

Lightweight spackling dries to the consistency of the foam, so it is easily carved and as light as foam.  That keeps the weight of these HCD sections down, as compared to the use of any plaster product.  Not to mention that the spackling is merely a swipe of a putty knife, so it's easily controlled with almost no mess.  It's good for filling the cracks between foam pieces, and, because it's not joint compound, it will not crack if you lay it on thick.

I have to admit that the Sculptamold for hminky's dirt road crossing looks pretty good, but, again, I don't want to have to be mixing up buckets and buckets of some sort of messy plaster to smooth the scenic forms over the whole layout.  Weight, as mentioned above, is a concern.

DFF

[Rich_S]

I have to admit that the Sculptamold for hminky's dirt road crossing looks pretty good, but, again, I don't want to have to be mixing up buckets and buckets of some sort of messy plaster to smooth the scenic forms over the whole layout.  Weight, as mentioned above, is a concern.

DFF

Dave,
   Although Sculptamold does contain some type of plaster (the label does not list it's contents) when you open the bag it looks more like a bag of lint. I use a old cool whip container and never mix more than a cup at a time. The Sculptamold is amazingly light weight, but dries rock hard. The thing I like about Sculptamold is, when it dries it has a nice texture, not smooth like plaster. Also of note, with Sculptamold it's a 1:1 ratio (water and product) so it kind of has the consistency of soft modeling clay, but more mold-able than clay. I've never tried Sculptamold in a rock casting, but according to the package it works just fine in rock castings. Again Dave, I'm not saying your method is wrong, just giving you a few ideas if you'd like to try something new.

 

 

[timgill]

+1 to the above. Sculptamold is extremely light, strong, carvable and sandable. It has a nice long "open" time so you can work it into the texture or shape you'd like. Also, the default texture has some bump and grit to it, so it works well to simulate ground texture.

Of course, a heavy helping of YMMV here.

[packers#1]

Allow me to play Devil's Advocate against Sculptamold. Yes, it has lots of working time and is actually pretty light, but for just smoothing over hills that will be covered in kudzu anyways, you don't really need the extra working time etc. Plus, for bare spots, I imagine that the texture of the spackling is going to give you a better beginning texture to lay sand/dirt more common to the sandhills versus sculptamold. Definitely consider it for building up scenic features, but at the price point and what you want to do, go for spackle.

[Scottl]

I agree with this point.  Spackle and sculptamold seem largely redundant when the ground cover is going to dominate.  It has it's place, but I'm an advocate for much more irregularity in model landscapes.  Most end up looking like manicured parks and I think these surface treatments can easily end up contributing to this issue.  When you look at landscapes closely, few are smooth and regular.

[davefoxx]

I'm really enjoying running trains on the expanded Seaboard Central.  I've done a little bit of roughing in of the scenic forms, but I'm really held up waiting for cork roadbed (to be delivered Monday- "Damn you, USPS!") and the seemingly vaporware Atlas Code 55 #5 turnouts.  I'm seriously considering just handlaying my own Code 55 turnouts.  I'll just have to learn how to build a turnout without a Fast Tracks jig.  However, I'll need to do that anyway for a curved turnout needed in Hamlet's yard limits.

Anyway, here's the fun I was having last night: An excursion train on the SBD, or, as I like to call it, "The Ed's Law Express." 

DFF