Foam Core buildings

O

Old Tom

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Whilst browsing around Hobbycraft, I saw they were selling A1 sized sheets of 'foam core' board for £4.99 for 2 (it's the stuff that 3-D jigsaws are made from) . I thought to myself that a) it's easy to cut and that b) it might be made weatherproof with sufficient coats of masonary paint (a bit hopeful, I know, but we'll see...)
So I gave it a go and made a shop and a Pub.
With a fag-packet engineering drawing (you can see it in the first photo) and having it away with a scalpel, steel rule and some 'serious glue' I got nearly instant results:
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Adding 1:24 windows/doors from Hobbies and several coats of masonary paint followed by acrylics, job done!
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All-in cost was £4.99 for the board and £20 for the windows/doors. Adds up to a cheap High St. :thumbup:
 
:thumbup:brillent!
 
Very effective buildings. Do you need to fix them to the ground to prevent accidental remlocation by pets or gusts of wind? What is the "serious glue" that doesn't attack the inner core of foam?

I've used UHU in the past for my foamcore structures, and then reinforced the joints inside and out with strips of newspaper stuck on with more UHU, Makes them quite strong, but it's still easy to cut joints apart if a rebuild becomes necesssary. A great improvement over my earlier efforts where corners were glued and reinforced with household pins.
 
Using foam core board for modelling buildings has interested me, seeing some other efforts on this forum. A previous correspondent picked up free board left over from posters in a US election if I remember correctly .

Another free source I have found locally is cinema advertising. Check out your local movie venue. Get pally with the management. They threw out a large poster 6' x 4' which I grabbed, stored and forgot about. It wasn't obviously a good poster for collectors - it didn't advertise any of the blockbusters!

Thanks for rekindling the interest and to "C&S" for his tips on construction. And yes - what is the best glue to use?
Also where do you source windows and doors?
 
Great build, well done Tom . There is plastic faced foam board that is pretty weather proof but can cost a bit more than 4.99 for A1 !!
 
First of all that's a fantastic pub. Love your High street with church in background.

Is your foamboard this stuff - about 1/4" foam between cardboard? Your stuff looks a bit thinner on the roof.
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If it is, how do you do the corners? Are they mitred? Or just painted over?

As to how it will go outside - I built a wagon from it 4 years ago and decided to nail a small piece to the fence to test its outdoor qualities. Then forgot all about it till now even though I walk past it every day. As you can see, it has weathered better than the timber fence and rusty nail. It was unpainted.
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Thanks for the tip on the paper reinforcing. I bought some sheets of the plastic faced foamboard to try, at the same time as some pvc foam. I preferred the pvc foam, but now I've run out its time to try the foamboard. The board I got is called Duraplast and it is more expensive than the card faced stuff. I'll let you know how I get on....
 
Excellent job there Tom, foam core board is a great material to work in
 
Thanks everyone.
Answers time....
C&S - Both building have a 1/2 floor, so a handful or so of stone chippings keeps them from shifting too easily. Honestly, the glue is actually called 'Serious Glue' :bigsmile: It's made by EVO-STIK. It's excellent stuff - glues anything to anything (almost!), it will fill small gaps and is even waterproof.

Gregh - Yes, it's 5mm thick and I used a sort of plastic laminate for the roof. I tried to mitre the corners but it proved a bit difficult so I just did a butt joint and used filler to clean up the exposed edge. I was worried about it's longevity, so thanks for posting the photo and putting my mind at rest :thumbup:
 
Thanks for those answers, Tom. The buildings look right at home both in style and setting. Are you planning any more?
 
The buildings look very nice Tom. I use the same stuff in A3 for my trailer layout to cut down on the weight. Internally, I use wood to strengthen the corners, using superglue (does tend to melt the foam!). I know it comes in 3mm thickness as well - plus in black (and many other colours) but didn't consider it for outside use.
 
C&S said:
Thanks for those answers, Tom. The buildings look right at home both in style and setting. Are you planning any more?
Click to expand...
Cheers. I'm thinking of building a village workshop with the left over board. You know the sort of thing I mean - tatty and full of bits left over from earlier 'repairs'. :bigsmile: I've got a welder figure somewhere....
 
Hi Tom

Your buildings look superb. Did you need to add any form of water protection to prevent the cardboard from seperating from the foam core?

Cheers
 
Lowty1 said:
Hi Tom

Your buildings look superb. Did you need to add any form of water protection to prevent the cardboard from seperating from the foam core?

Cheers
Click to expand...
I'm relying on 4 thick coats of Homebase Weathercoat smooth masonary paint followed by 2 coloured acrylic coats to keep the rain out. I'm lucky enough to have a large shed close to the track so I have space to 'over winter' them if they start showing signs of deterioration in the next couple of months.
Cross fingers that I won't need to :bigsmile:
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You can see how thick the paint is in the photo. It even looks like real cement rendering! :thumbup:
 
Very impressive results. When you say "Masonry Paint" do you mean the paint that has "mineral sand" in it sort of like render? I would think that it may be best on porous material to apply a thinned first coat that would soak into the cardboard. Alternatley one could use "West System" marine finish which is an epoxy penetrating paint that is designed to soak into porous materials and would saturate the cardboard and create a fully weather proof outer coating.
Certainly a very versatile product and has given me ideas......
May I ask how you created the slates tiles on the roofs??
An Ebay search provided some good results if one wanted to buy in quantity in up to 12mm thickness.....
http://shop.ebay.com.au/i.html?_nkw...am+core&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313 < Link To http://shop.ebay.com.au/i...id=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

Likewise windows and doors;
http://shop.ebay.com.au/?_from=R40&...nkw=G+scale+windows&_sacat=See-All-Categories < Link To http://shop.ebay.com.au/?...cat=See-All-Categories
 
Great buildings. I like the painting too, breaks up the large surfaces and looks like the real render.
 
Masonary paint is really only slightly thicker emulsion paint. A decorator mate only uses emulsion on outside render etc., says as long as you give it an extra coat and give it plenty of drying time it'll be fine. It's much cheaper. It certainly has lasted on mine for at least the last 5 yrs, I haven't even recoated it yet.

You could always add exterior grade P.V.A. glue to it to stiffen the mix a bit.

Trev I'm sure Tom means the one without the sand in, but why not? It'll add another texture.
 
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