Pink Foam?

[bwings]

I am new at this and will be beginning my first layout soon but first have been doing some reading and research. I am sure I will have a lot of questions as things progress. The first one concerns the pink foam. The nearest place in this part of the world that has it is about 100 miles away. Around here all I can find is the blue foam. Is there any difference besides color?

Thanks

 

[oplholik]

I am new at this and will be beginning my first layout soon but first have been doing some reading and research. I am sure I will have a lot of questions as things progress. The first one concerns the pink foam. The nearest place in this part of the world that has it is about 100 miles away. Around here all I can find is the blue foam. Is there any difference besides color?

Thanks

I think they are the same, just different manufactures. I got the blue, and it's good.

Paul O.

 

[drew1125]

Paul is right...they are exactly the same...

 

[Larry]

Pink, Blue & Green all the same. I found some yellow the other day on a building site & it is real hard like it has some kind of heavy fibers along the edge's. It's made by Tyvek, I think.
Tyvek makes chemical spray suits in white & grey.

 

[bwings]

Thanks for the replies. The fellow at the local hardware store said he thought it was the same except for the manufacturer but I wanted to be sure. Like I said I am new at this. I am doing this to help my grandson who is autistic but gets excited whenever he goes to a trainshow. We hope this will help him learn to reason better. He is real good at math and things that are set in stone but has difficulty comprehending. My background is in electronic engineering so I have a understanding of the electrical portion of this although I am sure I will have questions about this also. It is the scenery and lay out itself that is completely new. There will be questions in all areas.

Thanks for the help

 

[Beachbum]

One thing - some of the foam comes with a thin layer of clear plastic sheet on it. I always peel that off since glue, etc won't stick to the plastic.

I think I've also seen foam with a thin sheet of aluminum foil on one side - I would not buy that.

 

[ICG/SOU]

You want extruded styrene foam insulation board. Owens-Corning (carried by my local Home Depot) carries the 1" variety, tongue in groove, and is pink. Dow makes the blue stuff, and it comes in two varieties that I know of, Score Board and Square Edge. If you go to the manufactuer's websites, you can find information on both. The Square Edge and Score Board come in thicknesses from 1/2" to 3". They do not have the thin plastic film on them. Score Board is different from Square Edge in that Score Board has scoring marks every few inches, lengthwise, to make cutting quicker.

I've seen the green, but don't know who makes it.

If you can get a good price on it, I think the 1" is more versatile than the 2" because I've found with the 2" there are some differences in thickness between boards (1/16 to 1/8") which can cause some alignment problems that need to be dealt with. 1" is also quicker and easier to cut. Also, unless you're doing mountains, 2 or 3 plies of 1 inch foam equals roughly 14 to 21 scale feed (HO), which is a nice-sized ditch or ravine or hill.

 

[Beachbum]

I now buy 1-inch foam because it's very easy to score and snap with a utility knife in the parking lot of Home Depot (the stuff here is not T&G though). I have a 2-door coupe and short of getting a roofrack, I can't transport a 4X8 sheet of anything.

I use a drywall square to guide the cut (it's like a huge T-square).

 

[oplholik]

One thing - some of the foam comes with a thin layer of clear plastic sheet on it. I always peel that off since glue, etc won't stick to the plastic.

I think I've also seen foam with a thin sheet of aluminum foil on one side - I would not buy that.

I bought some of that stuff before I found some blue foam. Yeh, stay away from that if you can.

Paul O.