Also, whatever you decide to cut with should be held as horizontally as possible. 5mm at 1:50 scale represents 25cm). I maintain an up-to-date record of the best or most convenient places to get these special materials in Updated sources/prices of specific materials which can be found in the Suppliers section. One tip is that if you want UHU to stick firmly more immediately .. almost as superglue does .. you have to apply the glue and position the piece down as you normally would, pressing firmly, but then lift it up again just a few millimetres. The designer may build a version earlier in the design process to test the design’s three-dimensionality ( to check general proportions, to better visualise filming possibilities etc.) It is often necessary to make parts of the model removable so that, especially, interiors can be better seen and to take better photos of these parts. Strong Pva (a.k.a wood glue, such as ‘Evo-stik wood’) invariably gives stronger and cleaner joins and a good quality Pva can be surprisingly quick. The best advice I can give (apart from the points above) is to spend a little time getting acquainted just with what it feels like to press the scalpel blade firmly against a metal edge and move along evenly. The following aims to serve as an introduction to the purposes of the so-called ‘white card model’ in film/tv design work, what it should include, and the materials one can choose to make it. One needs a balanced attitude with respect to all this .. on the one hand caring about one’s professional appearance but on the other accepting that in a heavily populated working environment one can’t remain too ‘precious’! As I explained earlier, the effect should be monotone, rather than particularly white. If gluing becomes necessary i.e. Hogwarts was a very clever, highly complex and meticulously planned creation which brought together CGI, real locations, realistic physical models and full-size builds. Gluing This rigid foam layer needs a minimum R-value of R-5, and that's impossible with 1/2 inch of foam. As with foamboard there are many similar brands of white card with a standard mountboard thickness (c. 1.4mm, or 1400microns as it’s sometimes written) and these will vary greatly in hardness and quality. Foam board insulation is often used in garages, work sheds, or other spaces that may not require interior finish or wall trim. A dull blade will make it impossible to cut without getting jagged edges since the tiniest variance in the blade can affect it. The thinnest gauge (1mm) is ideal for delicate cut-outs such as windows and railings. Brush on a liberal amount of water. Creating curved shapes with foam board. When the ceiling becomes a feature of the design it should definitely be included, but again detachable. I built it out of FFF (Dow PB III fanfold, about 1/4" thick) and the airframe was about 5 oz. This is a flexible foam (halfway between hard foam and ‘cushion’ foam) which is available in many thicknesses, densities and colours. often misunderstood) when it comes to the white card model. It may also help to say that the scalpel blade is ‘meant to’ bend a little with the pressure of being pushed against the ruler and that if it doesn’t its always liable to wander. What Is Foam Board? You should cut this kind of foam board with the ridges on the bottom. On the other hand the white card model works for a living .. it gets around, it’s handled and it gets worn at the edges .. so there’s no sense in getting too precious about it. This is generally much cleaner because any excess solvent will evaporate. For starters, it has one side that has ridges or bumps on one side of it, the other side being flat and smooth like a regular foam board. This may directly reflect how the set will be built for filming in which case the so-called ‘floating’ walls will be indicated on the groundplan. Foam boards that are designed for insulation have a different look to it than a regular sheet of foam board does. And put a pin on each end like this. If the foam edge is uneven this can be gently sanded using a sanding block. Coating any foam edges first with slightly diluted PVA will solve this and when dry, UHU or sprays can be used on these edges, but it is rather laborious to go to this trouble. Type above and press Enter to search. This may not always be visible or matter, but better right-angled edges are needed when gluing two pieces together to make a corner. This should remain within reason ..for example, it is easy enough to half-way cut through card to make a working door but it would be unreasonable to expect a working roller-blind! Take your time, and cut very slowly and acurately. This is the normal size sheet (20 inches by 30 inches and 5mm thick). The walls can be surfaced with paper to hide the grooves, but the curve must be secured (in the right curve) before this is done (if done before it will stop it from bending) and it’s better to use permanent spraymount otherwise a thin paper covering will buckle badly. All can be cut on a band saw, but failing this the best way to ensure a straight cut right through is (as with thick foamboard) to start cutting half way through on one side, take the line round and complete from the other side. Especially if two larger pieces are being laminated (i.e. Courtesy HBO ‘Boardwalk Empire: Designing an Empire’. The best option is undoubtedly a utility knife with an X-Acto knife being a close second. Less obvious, isn’t it? Superglue for example will ‘fog’ acetate around the area glued while both the ‘cement’ intended for plastics and UHU tend to be difficult to control. working or moving elements) such as doors, shutters or removable parts need to work in the model, or at least be clearly indicated as movable. Wrap a thin batting around the foam board frame. This is one of the most common problems people experience when cutting foam board. On the other hand, anything protruding 5cm or more should be given that physical thickness in the model! For example a thin modern radiator could be just drawn whereas an older, more ‘bulky’ type really needs to be represented more physically in 3D (at the very least as a separate cutout which is stuck at the correct distance from the wall to convey the object’s total depth). Doing so will make sure that the knife can reach all the way through at the angle you are cutting at with length to spare. For example here in Sacramento I can't find any blue foam (pink foam only in damaged 2x8 sheets), so I have to do with the 'inferior' white foam. One should never underestimate the importance of this! Foam boards are also known as foam core boards, the terms are usually interchangeable. It is therefore quite literally a three-dimensional ‘blueprint’ of the intended design. Heat a wire cutter to cut through the foam. Using ratchet straps tighten them down against the two pieces of wood. If you are in a hurry and do not care about the details, you can cut with the first thing you grab. Next to clamp the middle of the blank use two pieces of wood and place them on the top and bottom of the blank. Other methods include .. if the superior Kapa-line foamboard is used, the paper layer can be peeled off (either from one or both sides) making it much more bendable without having to score the surface. Although foamed Pvc sheet is not so easily obtainable (at least not from art shops) it has excellent properties, being somewhat easier to cut than even some forms of card while remaining much more durable and resistant to warping. Cutting Foam Board Insulation. Foam boards are frequently used by architects to make models of what they plan on building, to create signs or posters, as a form of insulation, or any number of other things, each of which needs the edges to have a sharp, clean finish. The Origins of Artistic Expression – Part 1 ‘Things looking like other things’, The Origins of Artistic Expression – Part 2 ‘The making of marks’, Full course description and daily schedule, Technical drawing for theatre, film or television designers, Introduction and provisional daily schedule, Figure modelling reference images – caryatids, atlantes and ‘hemis’, ‘quick view’ comparisons of casting materials, Using plaster as a filler in polyurethane resin, Filling polyurethane resin with used tea/coffee, ‘quick view’ comparisons of mould materials, Creating surfaces with Kapa-line foamboard, Making relief patterning tools using Sculpey, Printing patterns for scale wallpaper, curtains and carpets, Pressing decoration into foam, shaping and wire-brushing, Template drawings for furniture model-making, ‘Beginner’s Basics’ – mouldmaking and casting explained, Making a simple 2-piece silicone block mould for a puppet head, Making a small mould for a four-legged animal figure and casting in resin, Making a supported silicone mould for a life-size head and casting in fibreglass, Making hollow casts in open or ‘closed’ moulds, Updated sources/prices of specific materials, Some of the principles of technical drawing simply illustrated – Part 1, Some of the principles of technical drawing simply illustrated – Part 2, Advice for anyone interested in beachcombing or mudlarking the Thames Foreshore, ‘Thames Foreshore Collection’ project log, Deptford: Upper Watergate Stairs, St George’s Stairs, Surrey Docks: Trinity Wharf (Surrey Docks Farm), Horn Stairs, Pageant Stairs, Rotherhithe: Globe Stairs to Pageant Stairs, ‘Faim de siècle’ multiple series 1997-2003, Making ‘white card models’ for film or television design, expanded polystyrene v extruded polystyrene. cleaner cut is almost always achieved by starting carefully with a very light guiding cut and following through a few times, increasing the pressure gradually. Another example of the illustrative quality of white card models from Edwina Camm, also showing the importance of including the ceiling in this context. Strong Pva wood glue should work with all though takes a lot longer to set. For more information on working with Palight foamed Pvc together with illustrative examples click on ‘Palight’ brand foamed Pvc under ‘constructing’ in the Materials section. Take your sheet of foam board. This will ‘string’ the glue slightly, and when you press the piece down again the bond will already be much firmer and will not need supporting. You should also use an extra-long blade for this. There should be a unity .. or rather, the word is homogeneity .. of colour and treatment throughout the model. But it should show very clearly where the floor is ‘the set’ and where it is not, so sometimes it makes sense for the ‘offstage’ to be differently coloured. Perhaps an even easier alternative for achieving curving walls is to use a dense foam sheet such as Plastazote, which is spongy and very flexible, or a thin styrene plastic (see below). That’s the percentage reduction. The same is true generally of ‘greyboard’ or recycled grey or brown cardboard which is hard and full of gritty particles.  Most of the softer forms, such as the standard Daler-Rowney mountboard sold in A1 size sheets are fine for perhaps most of the work ..walls or simple cut-outs.. but unsuitable for more delicate structures such as railings for example, because they are too thick in scale and will break apart if cut too thin. Another form of glue which styrofoam seems to accept is spraymount, especially effective if sprayed lightly on both surfaces like a contact adhesive. One can’t mark on acetate with a normal pencil so either the shape to be cut needs to be drawn on paper and used as a template underneath or the surface covered with masking tape and lines marked out on that. And a terrific companion to my Roman Gladius sword project. Here is another curved foam board project. As a general rule when cutting anything by hand with a knife it is always better to take things carefully and slowly. the same should apply to the white card model. As before, the best way to cut foam board involves cutting at as much of an angle as possible, and you should also avoid sawing at the foam board. It is surprising how many people who might in other respects be very able with their hands find it quite difficult to cut a straight, clean line. From my experience of witnessing people trying to cut a straight line (must be easily in the thousands by now!) ‘Plastic Weld’ (as with other brands of dichloromethane solvent) works best on styrene plastics but in tests I found that it did work on the foamed Pvc though it took longer to set. Even though this foam is made from the same stuff, the inside is different. First of all, when trying to determine just how to cut foam board, you must have a nice sharp blade on the knife or whatever you will be using to cut your foam board. ‘Plastic Weld’ or ‘Extrufix’) which has to be brushed onto a joint from outside. these models, together with the thinner mountboard. However, if the radius is large enough, you may be able to skip this step. Foamcore is simply a sheet of fine-grade foam sandwiched between two sheets of thick paper, and moisture causes curling by weakening the paper layer and popping the air bubbles in the foam, causing distortion. 4. The section that sinks can be carefully cut out (a precision job with the scalpel), the paper can be peeled from the back of it and the foam sanded to make it thinner, and the section can then be glued back where it came from .. now a little sunk. The blade of a utility knife is easy to replace at the first sign of dullness, and it can be used for a multitude of other things. Both will allow a certain amount of bending. In the case of the floor, even differences under 5cm could have a huge physical impact in terms of moving things around, so it would make sense to emphasize these physically in the model. for attaching to the backs of window frames, small strips of double-sided tape are much cleaner than glue. 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