Foam Core buildings

Thanks for the post Tom, the buildings look great. I had been trying to find some foamboard for ages but could only find some A4 & A5 sizes. I had tried the Hobbycraft website but they list it as foam core board, so when I entered 'foamboard' it came back as a negative. I am also looking for some of the 60" x 40" boards which are produced by Rowney. Unfortunately all the stockists I have found so far will only special order it by the box and I only want three or four sheets. Anyone know of a source for single sheets of this stuff? (local cinemas & DIY stores already noted and tried without success) One more point Tom, like the photo of the buildings by the roadside - what material do you use to make the road? it really is effective.
 
Thanks everyone. I'm so 'chuffed' that you liked my efforts - I really enjoyed making them. :bigsmile:


Submariner said:
One more point Tom, like the photo of the buildings by the roadside - what material do you use to make the road? it really is effective.
Click to expand...
It's the very cheapest Homebase roofing felt Sub. I think it was about £7.00 for a 5m roll. I will do a bit of levelling when I come to place the buildings on a more permanent footing and complete the rest of the landscaping. I'll post picks when it's all done.

Thanks again :thumbup:
 
Thanks for that Tom, much obliged - off to Homebase tomorrow.

Regards.

Thanks everyone. I'm so 'chuffed' that you liked my efforts - I really enjoyed making them. :bigsmile:


Submariner said:
One more point Tom, like the photo of the buildings by the roadside - what material do you use to make the road? it really is effective.
Click to expand...
It's the very cheapest Homebase roofing felt Sub. I think it was about £7.00 for a 5m roll. I will do a bit of levelling when I come to place the buildings on a more permanent footing and complete the rest of the landscaping. I'll post picks when it's all done.

Thanks again :thumbup:
[/quote]
 
It's a case of 'I wish I'd have bought more foam core board when it was cheap. I could have built a whole town!' :bigsmile:

Got down to designing and building the village forge/garage and these are the results up to now:

Forge003resize.jpg


The doors are from a barn I made several years ago and the roof is going to be corrugated iron (thanks to Greg for his very useful thread on how to produce a corrugated effect :thumbup:
http://www.gscalecentral.net/tm?m=81149&high=corrugated ) and will have clear 'skylight' areas. The walls will be finished in a 'distressed' wood plank effect, which I hope will give a nice village atmosphere.
A few old signs etc. and I think it might look the biz... :D
 
Old Tom said:
It's a case of 'I wish I'd have bought more foam core board when it was cheap. I could have built a whole town!' :bigsmile:

Have you checked out Ebay?? its available there in bulk at sensible prices....
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Foam-Cor...484?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5ade68a88c < Link To http://www.ebay.com.au/it...mp;hash=item5ade68a88c

Your building looks great.....


Forge003resize.jpg


The doors are from a barn I made several years ago and the roof is going to be corrugated iron (thanks to Greg for his very useful thread on how to produce a corrugated effect :thumbup:
http://www.gscalecentral.net/tm?m=81149&high=corrugated ) and will have clear 'skylight' areas. The walls will be finished in a 'distressed' wood plank effect, which I hope will give a nice village atmosphere.
A few old signs etc. and I think it might look the biz... :D
Click to expand...
 
Re: joining walls made of foamboard. I've tended to use UHU, and put a glued fold of newspaper on the inside and outside of the join. This makes them solid but able to be cut apart if you ever need to modify the design, Alternative is to use dress-making pins to secure the corners, but this causes damage if you need to take the walls apart later. UHU melts the styrene core a little, but not too much if used sparingly. The glued paper is what gives the strength, plus as has been suggested a coat of resin or varnish to weather-proof everything.
 
I'd show you how my building was getting on, but it blew away last week :crying:
I used the plastic coated stuff (Duraplast I think) but pinned rather than 'taped' the corners. The building was quite big, but very light, so even though I has screwed the floor down the wind just blew the walls away. Also as the building was a cable car station it was open fronted, and like a wally I had glued the roof on about a month ago. Prior to that I took the roof off after each session and it was fine.

Having said that, its a very easy material to work with and I made most of the panels on the kitchen table. Next time I'll try taping the joints, and find a way of introducing some 'heft' to the building.
 
I'm thinking one of these may be a sensible investment and mitre the corners that way no exposed edges..... http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Logan-11...rt_Supplies&hash=item27bfe985ef#ht_1528wt_700
I'd also assemble using small internal glue blocks in the internal corners. Maybe over engineering, but would make for robust construction.
I second Ross. Paint the surface with resin and let it soak in to weatherproof the card covered board.
 
I have used quite a lot of the card covered foam board for my trailer layout and they do get wet quite often. They have been coated with a spray varnish and have not suffered but I don't think they would survive long-term in the garden.

I always mitre the corners and use pins and balsa blocks (internally). The buildings are renarkably strong.

My Freight Depot is coffee stirrer clad in part and I used PVA for that part of the exercise. The only problem I encountered was the platform - framed with foam board and clad with the stirrers. I used doublesided carpet tape to stick the wood. When they got soaked, they expanded and buckled. Permanent glueing was the answer.

159e9e7e0750468eb68337aa3890dc03.jpg


b4cd803b20fe4656987be0854d0b867b.jpg


34b40f165c044cf9ac1573291cb44d55.jpg


71f662a8d1694466a5e17663eaac7c8a.jpg
 
tramcar trev said:
I'm thinking one of these may be a sensible investment and mitre the corners that way no exposed edges..... http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Logan-11...rt_Supplies&hash=item27bfe985ef#ht_1528wt_700
I'd also assemble using small internal glue blocks in the internal corners. Maybe over engineering, but would make for robust construction.
I second Ross. Paint the surface with resin and let it soak in to weatherproof the card covered board.
Click to expand...

I tried one of these but found it quite difficult to use on the plastic coated stuff. I bought one that came with a guide rail, but that made it difficult to make multiple passes and I ended up tearing the foam interior. In the end I used a sharp craft knife to make the cut, and used the widget to create the mitre. I have some offcuts of the board covered stuff, so I might try it on that.
 
I don't know what the foam core board is like in the UK, but over it will not hold up well outdoors. It warps badly, and eventually the paper delaminates.
 
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