Homemade Foam Foliage

Homemade 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.