I've just completed my benchwork and put my foam board down. My question is, do I need to paint my foam board or, can I go ahead and put ground cover on the foam board? Thanks for your help.
It would be cheaper and look better to hit it with a little paint. The ground cover will stretch further and look better. And no worries; there are no dumb questions around here
Give it some elevation changes (cut in ditches and culverts, make some small hills) before you paint it. It will look more natural that way.
Paint any sub surface. I have seen the sub surface peek through ground cover before. Less touch up required lol If you check paint stores, they always have gallons of oops color mixes that people dont want. You can pick it up for 5 bucks. Then just add any dark color to make it look like an earth tone.
Here's one of several methods I use on foam board. I use a serrated steak knife to cut out low areas. I then use the cut out pieces, turned upside down, to create slight elevations using broken toothpicks to anchor the pieces down. Then I use Sculptamold to cover things up. I get an appropriate dirt color latex paint mixed at Walmart and I dilute it with water as I paint the ground surface. I use darker green ground foam in low laying areas and lighter on the high spots. Experiment and observe nature and photos. This is my favorite part of this hobby.
Like jpwisc said above, I was able to purchase a gallon of tan (dirt-colored) paint for next to nothing from the returned items at a paint store. When applying it to foam, I immediately sprinkle on my first layer of ground cover -- either ground foam or actual dirt -- while the paint is still wet. The paint holds the ground cover well, and you save a whole step in scenicking your layout. I found this video from Woodland Scenics to be helpful. It is not the only way to make realistic ground cover and may not be the best way, but as a scenery novice I sure found it easy. - Jeff
I Don't think that's a dumb question at all . Here's a dumb question : Should I use the soldering iron after 10 shots of Captain Morgan ? Randy
