Expermenting with foam...

[Doom!]

Ok, I too, like @WickedFog am itching to make a crawler course for my Axial SCX24's. Unfortunately it's still to hot for me to work in the garage very long. It's about 108 in there and after 15 minutes I was drenched. Anyway, I did a small test cut on some foam today to try out my new foam cutter I picked up on Amazon. Looks pretty promising. This was just a quick down and dirty test, but I can't wait for it to cool down enough to get started.

 

[Greywolf74]

Thats cool man...looks good!

 

[Tunedfrog]

Foam is pretty awesome to work with. I have a ton of N scale and HO scale trains and I used to use foam to build up my mountains on the lay out.
That's going to look pretty cool @Doom!

 

[WickedFog]

That looks great man! I have some stones made, and I almost started cutting some foam for some hills, but I know if I do it will get damaged before my tables get here. But I have a LOT of foam ready to go...

Here are a few rocks. Everything will get covered with plaster

 

[Pat_ranch]

Speaking of foam, run your fronts without foams. You'll thank me

 

[WickedFog]

I did a small test cut on some foam today to try out my new foam cutter I picked up on Amazon. Looks pretty promising. This was just a quick down and dirty test, but I can't wait for it to cool down enough to get started.

What are you using to glue your foam together? I found some tack glue that works ok. The wire will cut through it, but it slows it down a little bit when you do hit the glue.

 

[Doom!]

I've been trying to decide If I want to try the plaster cloth or not. It's on my list of things to experiment with. Either way I think the top coat will be latex paint mixed with sand.
@WickedFog right now I'm using two sided tape, but I will probably use the Aleen's Tacky Glue when I get to the bigger pieces. I have a couple of bottles, I use to use it to glue foam together to make airplane parts.

 

[WickedFog]

I've been trying to decide If I want to try the plaster cloth or not. It's on my list of things to experiment with. Either way I think the top coat will be latex paint mixed with sand.

I am going with homemade sculptamold made with ground paper pulp and plaster of paris. It's a lot nicer than plastercloth because you can sculpt it as it dries.

Here is the pulp I am going to use.
And here is the plaster.

 

[STONER RC]

Ok, I too, like @WickedFog am itching to make a crawler course for my Axial SCX24's. Unfortunately it's still to hot for me to work in the garage very long. It's about 108 in there and after 15 minutes I was drenched. Anyway, I did a small test cut on some foam today to try out my new foam cutter I picked up on Amazon. Looks pretty promising. This was just a quick down and dirty test, but I can't wait for it to cool down enough to get started.

View attachment 131746

Dude that looks awesome bud well done.. that's going to look so cool and realistic..after you paint them.. and it's all together...

Speaking of foam, run your fronts without foams. You'll thank me

It's like letting air out of your 1.1 crawler.. that's a fantastic idea man nice

 

[WickedFog]

Dude that looks awesome bud well done.. that's going to look so cool and realistic..after you paint them.. and it's all together...

They are just a few boulders I will be tossing around at the base of some cliffs, like fallen rocks.

 

[STONER RC]

Wow you two are very inspiring to the rc crawlers...these courses are going to be awesome... WELL DONE GENTS

They are just a few boulders I will be tossing around at the base of some cliffs, like fallen rocks.

Wickedfog and Doom. ROCK!!! that's some good thinking. It will look awesome for sure..Can't wait to see both your courses

 

[Doom!]

@WickedFog that looks like a cool idea, look forward to seeing how it works. I'm always open to new things.

 

[WickedFog]

If you look about 20 minutes in on this vid he uses sculptamold. It is awesome stuff for covering large areas. And if you get some small spatulas you can shape it into rocks really easily. Or use rock molds and set into it like he does. I plan to add a grayish brown pigment to my sculptamold so if the sculptamold gets chipped, you won't see white spots.

 

[WickedFog]

@WickedFog that looks like a cool idea, look forward to seeing how it works. I'm always open to new things.

If you want to make sculptamold you can just use regular paper, toilet paper, paper towels, or anything that will break down in water. Here is what you do...

Put the paper in water and slosh it around with a paint stick until you get it broken into tiny bits. Drain the water using a fine mesh strainer. Put it back into a vessel and add about the same amount of plaster. Stir and keep adding water til you get the consistency of cottage cheese. Then cover your terrain with it and shape it as you please.

If you want to keep from seeing white specks wenever you wreck and things get chipped, add some earth tone pigmet to your plaster

There are also rock molds you can buy. If you want to go that route buy a bag of lightweight hydrocal. That stuff is super hard when it sets up, and will make for awesome crawling surfaces.

 

[Doom!]

I guess the first step should be cleaning off the workbench I'm going to build it on.

 

[STONER RC]

That would be a good start

 

[Xraycer]

I guess the first step should be cleaning off the workbench I'm going to build it on.

No, don't do it! Just make everything on that workbench terrain. Sculptamold everything!