1/35 Stone House: another insufoam build

I am growing more and more fond of insulation foam as a building material for a multitude of modelling purposes. Mainly though: buildings. It is incredibly easy to carve, shape, glue, paint, weather, etc. And no less important, it is dirt cheap!!! In fact, I am so fond of it that I decided to scrap the idea of using MINIART buildings on the layout, and scratchbuild everything from foam.

Over the last month or so I have put together this background flat for my 1/35 tram layout. All in all it did not take too many hours to complete, and is the most satisfactory one I’ve built out of foam to date. Therefore I decided to write up its construction process for anyone to reference if you choose to try this great modeling media.

1) I laid the dimencions of the future structure out on a piece of foam, including all the window and door openings, and carefully cut it out using a #11 xacto blade. I find that the best way to make the cuts is to go multiple times, but light at constant depth with your cut rather than trying to go deeper or zig zaging up and down. This way the cuts turn out fairly  straight and even.

2) Next came the most time consuming part: the actual carving. The stones are more or less random sizes, so no ruler was requires, however if I was to carve a brick structure, the process would easily double in time required. I carved each stone in a way that it was separated from the next by a thin strip of “mortar”. (IE Carved one, shifted over 1-2mm and carved the next instead of carving one on to p of another) This way the mortar lines appear thicker, as opposed to stones being simply piled on top of one another. At this point I also cut out and carved the under roof pieces, as well as the far side of the wall and the smoke stack piece. (the building is not exactly a flat, but will stand at an angle to the viewer)

3)Next I glued the pieces together. I used PVA type glue, and reinforced the joints by inserting toothpick pieces into the joint, also set on glue. (FYI any solvent based glue might melt the foam, therefore I would avoid using these all together)4) Next I started on the painting process. By first applying a basecoat of tan acrylic paint both on the outside and the inside of the walls. I made sure it was a thick and even coat, so that in case I was to add lights inside the building there would be no thin spots that would let the light through.   (FYI, just like the glue, any solvent based paint might melt the foam, therefore, the safe bet is to stay with acrylics only)

From here I went on to apply a number of aclylic washes of black, brown, yellow, etc nature until I felt I have achieved the look I was after. Once all that has dried I dabbed on white paint in a dry brushing manner to capitalize on the weathered effect.

As you may see, I tried to apply cut out rectangles of tape midway through the weathering/washing process to represent the places where signs once used to be, but the washes sipped under the tape anyways and that idea did not really work out.

5) Next came the roofing part. The base was simply cut out from cardstock, covered with 2 sided tape, followed by a layer of shingles, made of strips of black poster board with grey, white, etc streaks of acrylic painted on. I will not go into the details of the method, since it is not of my own invention, and was actually described by Troels Kirk on RRLine forums here: . The author’s shingles turned out way better than mine, but this was my first attempt, and I know what to improve on.

  

6) Windows came next. They were scratchbuilt from stripwood, finished with AI mix and dry brushed with white acrylic paint. I used no jigs, to put these together, but simply put them together piece by piece on top of a pre-cut to size piece of acetate.

7) Some detailing to bring the structure to life includes scratch built mailbox, door handle, flag pole support base, smoke stack pipes and the centerpiece of the building, old-style lamp. The lamp is a etched brass kit acquired off eBay by a company named “ET-Etch” I believe, and is designed to be used to improve the bulky appearance of Miniart lamps that are included in their building kits, and does a good job at it for that matter. The base and roof of the lamp are still plastic pieces from the original kit, but the “ironwork” is brass etchings. I inserted a light bulb into it with the intent of lighting it up one day , whenever that comes with my snail’s pace of progress.

8)Next I printed up some graphics on an color inkjet printer to finish off the appearance, and here is what the house looks like in the end.

Thanks for looking

Happy modeling

Alex

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~ by thenarrowgaugeshops on October 21, 2011.