First try at sculpting urethane foam
Text and photos by Rob Norton
My intention in writing this article is to illustrate the experience of a first-time, completely-novice user of urethane foam. I was determined to use only tools and materials I already had, waiting to buy anything special until after the first attempt. I also wanted my first project to be simple, both because I was unsure of how easy it would be and because I did not want an overly ambitious design to get in the way of my sculpting attempt.
The foam block is something relatively new being offered by Monroe Perdu Studios.
First and foremost, pay attention to what the instructions say about wearing a filter mask and only work on the foam in an area where the mess doesn’t matter. The dust REALLY does get everywhere. I worked outside and carefully cleaned myself off to come inside. This worked well for me but I did not think of the dust when I was photographing and nearly ruined my camera before I realized what was happening. Read the directions.
I selected the Italieri kit of the Italian Sahariana which I had built months ago as the model for my sculpted base. I wanted to try sculpting a simple desert scene with a slight wave-like dune and, as I never had a base for the finished kit, that became my centerpiece. I wish now I had built the kit with wheels turned a bit and had included a driver at the least, but I can look for a crew now that the base is done. I cut a piece of the foam block using a T-square as a guide and made my first mistake. I did not have a cutting blade long enough to pass through the block entirely and now matter how careful I thought I was, I could not match up the top cut with the bottom cut. The first photo shows the kit on the block and the mismatched cuts. The error was easily fixed later but you can benefit from my cluelessness. You can also see the marks I made with pastel chalks to guide my initial carving. I found this vital to keep from carving too far.
I carved too deeply in one instance, carelessly cutting away from myself toward an open corner and you can see the results. You need to be very cautious when cutting away from yourself into an open edge or corner, especially when the foam gets thin. It was easily glued back on as you will see but don’t let this happen to you. I tacked this small piece on with white glue and it worked fine for this little repair.
Here is the block carved as close I dared with the tools at hand. More sophisticated equipment would have allowed me to carve more, but I felt it best to stop here and use sandpaper to have more control over what I was removing from this point forward. I was beginning to see that the foam is very forgiving and incredibly easy to sculpt and was feeling very good about the process by now. Maybe I could do this after all. Michelangelo or Rodin had nothing to worry about but perhaps sculpting was for me.
After I was done working with the various knives and cutting tools I had been using, I switched to sandpaper for more control. I used primarily a 50 grade, pretty heavy-duty paper to smooth out the rough cuts I had made and create some contours in the lower, flatter area of the base. Again, just as I had overestimated the difficulty of cutting the foam to a basic shape and went at it rather crudely at first, I again overestimated how much material the coarse sandpaper would remove. I accomplished what I had hoped to in no time and quickly realized this first grade of paper was way too much and switched to a finer grade. This piece was more pliable and allowed me much more control and also allowed me to make my sand dune “wave” with a nice undercut effect. (When I was finished with the project, I wish I had overdone this undercut a bit more than I did because it lost some of the impression of depth. I think it was the light color of the finished base that took away from the effect but in any case, I should have gone just bit deeper under the crest of my wave.)
The sanding is where the foam dust especially started flying and I will again remind you to use the dust mask. Even outdoors in a nice breeze there was no way to avoid breathing in the dust without mechanical help.
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