The pandemic has resulted in 2+ solid years of terrain building (mostly) with foam.
I thought this would be a good place to collect my thoughts about the expereince.
Things I wish I knew/had from the start.
- A small chisel or similar tool like for clay or delicate woodwork
- While I have plenty with a combination of utility and other knives, having a few good tools to cut fine gouges out of material would have saved a lot of time.
- Matte Mod Podge
- I make use of a base coat of black paint and Mod Podge (popularized by Black Magic Craft) I found I much prefer the results using the slightly more expensive matte as opposed to the standard finish I bought initially
- Rough Sand Paper and woodblock
- I came across these as a solution to some of the "skin" issues I discuss below (though not a total solution) and rough sandpaper used in one direction is a hand way to put "woodgrain" into foam.
Poster Board Foam
This is probably the material that is easiest to get and has the lowest initial entry cost. Most folks say to use "dollar store" foam board. I can't speak to that, but I can say "standard" foam board can be damn near impossible to peel.
I happened to get my supply free from work, there are often events with printed poster boards. I don't know if it is the printing process, or the printers also buy the cheap stuff, but it peels great.
In practice, I find that while it is a usable material for crafting, it is best for things with a cobble texture. It is hard to describe, but the foam sheets have a sort of "skin" on them that makes for good rounded stone, etc. To get good brick, stone block, or wood/beams you really need to get in there and cut it (and or sand it). Even then the difference in texture between the "skins" and the interior is often noticeable on the finished project.
Construction Foam
Sold in all different sizes and "colors" in the Unites States, I have access to 3 sorts. "Pink", "Green", and "Blue". All of these ended up sourced from a nearby construction project. Since these were off-cuts, I do not have the specs for each substance. However, even these few off-cuts allowed me to craft a bunch of stuff.
"Pink" is my favorite. The "Blue" is a bit too soft, and the "Green" has a noticeable inner structure that often shows in the finished product. "Pink" just has a nice interior structure and firmness that takes carving and decoration well. (Though I am envious of the foam they have in Europe and the UK. The white-ish European foam seems to have a firmer structure that takes sculpting very well, and they seem to have grey stuff in the UK that would save sooo much time in decoration phase vs the neon/pastel options we have here.
Tools
I got a proxxon hot wire table (as a gift) about a year into things. I always found its $100- 120 price tag just high enough of a cost to question if it is needed. It would be one more thing to store, and why not just spend that money of terrain?
At the start i was happy to make do and got a lot done with just some utility knives and an old kitchen knife. With a nice metal ruler, you can make good cuts in foam board, and after making a rough cut with construction foam, you can use the kitchen knife to slice it down to the proportions you need.
That said, the wire cutter did make some tasks quicker and easier, such as making bricks and cuts in general. There are a few projects that were, if not impossible without the proxxon, would have been impractical; things like curved cut walls and long thin sections of material (to replace foam board).
Tacky Glue! This is the happy medium between hot glue (which may melt foam, and requires quick work) and white glue, that takes forever. The tacky glue gives you some freedom, but cures up (at least well enough) to let you keep working quickly.
Mixed Media: Sounds silly to say, but you don't have to do everything in foam.
Resources
Edit: Special shout out to the Terraino guy. Not a system I would use (since I am already heavily invested in Dwarven Forge) but you can't fault the amount of thought he has put into the system.
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