This is the method I used to make my backdrop on the Ringbalin Light Railway HO division. As I do not have easy access to a hobby shop I have had to improvise and make things myself. Making mountains and cliffs out of foam rubber using the ‘Soft Rock’ method 1. Get some old sponge rubber or rubber foam (I used and old mattress). 2. Shape foam to make rock faces by tearing out big pieces length ways and plucking out smaller pieces to give the texture you want (the removed pieces can be used for making foam foliage). 3. Buy cheap acrylic house paint the colour you want your rocks to be, look for mis-tints going cheap at the local paint store 4. Pour some of the paint onto a flat tray and push the foam rock face into it to wet the foam. 5. Get some fine sand either brickies or fine sandpit sand will do and spread it out on another flat tray and press the wet foam paint side down into it so it sticks to the foam. 6. Shake /scrape of any excess paint soaked sand into a container for use later and allow it to dry; it will dry to a hard crust. The saved excess sand can be used as a gap filler to fill in any joints and to blend around the base of the rocks where the scenery glues to the baseboard. Mix the excess paint soaked sand in a sealable container (I used an old ice cream tub) with some acrylic gap filler ( mine comes from from a $2 shop) and PVA glue, both diluted with water, to form a paste and keep it moist. If it dries out and goes hard it will be no good but if still mouldable then adding water will improve its work ability. Below are some pictures of my old HO layout showing cliffs that I made using this method. Cheap foam foliage for model trains 1. Using the saved foam from the soft rock, break the foam into real small pieces (good therapy in front of TV) or alternatively break foam into slightly larger pieces and put through and old meat mincer, electric or hand (got one from a garage/car boot sale). I have heard suggestions of using an old food processor but have not used one. 2. Put foam pieces into an old blender (again got mine from a garage/car boot sale). 3. Add some diluted acrylic artists or craft paint the colour you want the foam to be (I got mine from a $2 shop). 4. Blend them together till the foam is chopped up (the longer the time the finer it gets so length of time depends on how fine or coarse you want it) 5. Empty blended foam and paint mix into a sieve and drain of any excess paint into a container (this can be used for the next batch) 6. Spread the wet foam thinly onto a piece of plastic and let it dry (it will dry all caked together by the paint) 7. Put the dried foam back into the blender with no liquid to fluff up the foam, again the longer it is in the blender the finer it will be. 8. One blender full will make about half a big clip lock bag of foam at a fraction of the cost.
