Figure 2
Retaining Walls from Pink Foam by Rick Wade
R
igid extruded foam is common on model railroads. However, carving details into it, such as the stonework on this retaining wall into it, is something I just discovered. I needed a curved retaining wall for my HO layout and didn’t want to pay premium prices for commercial castings. I also didn’t like the idea of making my terrain fit the wall – I wanted the wall
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to fit the terrain. I like having something that is one of a kind, so making the wall out of pink foam was appealing, inexpensive and easy! First, I used my hot-wire cutter cut a piece of 2” thick foam approximately 4” by 13” long (figure 2). I sanded the piece to the desired curve and height with a drywall sanding block. I finished sanding using the rougher side of the block, giving a gritty texture. I wanted a wall with columns, so I cut some 1/2” foam into 3/8” x 3/8” x 4” pieces using my fine tooth saw. The next step was making the mortar lines. I “eyeballed” these, using a pizza cutter to ‘roll’ the horizontal lines first. I pressed a small screwdriver into the foam for the vertical mortar lines. I
offset them in adjacent rows to get a random stone look. After the mortar lines were complete, I hot glued the vertical columns on the wall using foam-safe glue and then scored lines on them with the back side of a hobby knife to match the wall (figures 3 and 4). I brushed Apple Barrel #2620 Pewter Gray over the entire wall (Apple Barrel is a brand of water based paints available at Michael’s or the Hobby Lobby, but any water based paint will work). I thinned the paint - 1 part water to 3 parts paint. It’s very important to make sure that you use foam-safe paint, NOT SOLVENT BASED, and that there is
Figure 1: The finished retaining wall installed on the author’s layout.
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figures 2, 3, 4, 5: The stages of wall construction: raw bits and pieces, carved and assembled, and after initial coats of paint. Note the lip at the top, most of the wall is thick for strength, only the top is ‘wall-thickness’.
Figure 5
Figure 1 Page 43 • Issue 7 • May/Jun 2010 • The Scenery Scene - Pink Retaining Walls, page 1
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