How to Make Ground Foam Scenery Material

Model train enthusiasts and other hobbyists, such as war games players, make landscapes for trains and dioramas out of a polystyrene foam board base. The mountains, rollling grasslands, and forests of the landscapes are created with shaved foam or paper mache and are covered with a ground foam material. The ground foam is made by shaving the polystyrene foam into fine pieces that are colored with craft paint. Once the paint is dry, the ground foam scenery material is then glued onto the scenery of the model landscape for realistic looking finishing touches.

Things You'll Need

• Polystyrene foam pad, 16-by-15-inch, 1-inch thick
• Heavy-duty shears
• Polystyrene foam shaver tool
• Plastic container
• 2 oz. bottle, foam-grade green craft paint
• Wooden paint stir stick

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Instructions

1. • 1

     Cut the polystyrene foam pad in half for ease of handling with heavy-duty shears.

   • 2

     Place a plastic container on your workspace. Hold one half of the polystyrene foam pad over the container so the shaved pieces will fall into it. Use the polystyrene foam shaver tool to shave the polystyrene foam pad into small fine pieces.

   • 3

     Add 1 tablespoon of the foam grade green craft paint to the container and stir with a wooden paint stick until all of the shavings are a uniform color.