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| Foam glued in place on the Slide and Mallary Complex Building modules. |
With the trackwork installed, it was time to get back to completing all of the landforms on the remaining three sections of the layout. (The Memorial Avenue and MOW sections had the landforms completed over the last couple of months.) The process was fairly simple. First, I added some wood strips for profile boards around the edge of each sections. I prefer have something protect the foam on the sides of the module. Layouts I have seen which simply use the foam as the edge of the module tend to show wear and tear a lot faster as the foam scratches and dents easily.
The next step was to glue foam insulation in place. This was done with both carpenters glue and hot glue. The hot glue acts as a temporary clamps so work on shaping the foam can happen quickly. The carpenters glue takes a few days to dry but creates a strong bond. I've tried hot glue on its own but found that over time (usually several years), the foam will delaminate - not ideal for a modular layout.
The final step was to shape the foam to the desired contours. I used several tools like a back saw, key hole saw, and various surform tools to complete the job.
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| Shaping the foam with a surform tool. |
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| The final contours on the module. |
