Foam
- Thread starter Muskieman
- Start date
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Hi Jim!
When I tried the paper towel method of plaster, oh, I thought I had fallen into hades! What a mess. I'm certain I did not have the right kind of towels, but all the ones I tried turned to goo and I cleaned splatters for ever!
But when I use WS plaster impregnated cloth, I find that I actually make less mess than with any other method. I use a paint roller tray and dip the pieces in and lay them up on the railroad. Nice and tidy, occassionally a drop of plaster juice here or there, but not bad from my experience. I also have had excellent results painting on drywall compound with a brush onto the screen wire with little to no mess.
I guess I just hate the feel of foam flummers on my skin. Gives me the willies!
I know, I know, I'm weird.
Best and warmest regards to all.
Joe Daddy!
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Not only is chipboard heavy but it is really bad about delaminating if it gets wet. The last thing I'd want to do is be adding plaster to chipboard base.
Joe, I agree with a lot of your thoughts about foam but, having worked with both traditional methods and foam for layouts, I'll say that foam has one huge advantage. If you're working in a finished space, like a carpeted basement, you can build a layout with minimum mess. My wife likes it.
Joe, I agree with a lot of your thoughts about foam but, having worked with both traditional methods and foam for layouts, I'll say that foam has one huge advantage. If you're working in a finished space, like a carpeted basement, you can build a layout with minimum mess. My wife likes it.
Joe,
While I tend to agree with many of your thoughts, I've used both traditional and foam layout contruction. Foam has a huge advantage if you're working in a finished space, like a basement with carpet. Way less mess than plaster and screen wire. My wife likes it a lot better.
Hi Jim!
When I tried the paper towel method of plaster, oh, I thought I had fallen into hades! What a mess. I'm certain I did not have the right kind of towels, but all the ones I tried turned to goo and I cleaned splatters for ever!
But when I use WS plaster impregnated cloth, I find that I actually make less mess than with any other method. I use a paint roller tray and dip the pieces in and lay them up on the railroad. Nice and tidy, occassionally a drop of plaster juice here or there, but not bad from my experience. I also have had excellent results painting on drywall compound with a brush onto the screen wire with little to no mess.
I guess I just hate the feel of foam flummers on my skin. Gives me the willies!
I know, I know, I'm weird.
Best and warmest regards to all.
Joe Daddy!
Joe,
I know what you mean about the feel of the stuff - I wear gloves cause it make me feel itchy - maybe a slight allergic reaction? In any event, another major advantage I forgot to mention is that you can build a whole mountain on your workbench and take it to the layout, use some latex caulk to hold it in place, and you're done. Even with the less mess of using plaster cloth, you still have to mask everything off in the vicinity of the work and I usually end up wrecking something in the process. On the workbench, I can make as a big a mess as I need to and the shop vac takes care of everything. I've built some pretty realistic mountains with foam. You still need to use patching plaster to fill in the layers and add texture but it's nice being able to sit at a workbench doing all this instead of hunched over my layout.
I know what you mean about the feel of the stuff - I wear gloves cause it make me feel itchy - maybe a slight allergic reaction? In any event, another major advantage I forgot to mention is that you can build a whole mountain on your workbench and take it to the layout, use some latex caulk to hold it in place, and you're done. Even with the less mess of using plaster cloth, you still have to mask everything off in the vicinity of the work and I usually end up wrecking something in the process. On the workbench, I can make as a big a mess as I need to and the shop vac takes care of everything. I've built some pretty realistic mountains with foam. You still need to use patching plaster to fill in the layers and add texture but it's nice being able to sit at a workbench doing all this instead of hunched over my layout.
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a commision from some of the links and ads shown on this website (Learn More Here)