Like a Hot Knife Through Polystyrene

This morning I finally got up the nerve to try out my Hot Wire Foam Cutter. My cats have been incessantly trying to use them as part of their wrestling matches, and to be honest I got tired of hearing the screaming of cats mixed with the squeal of foam-on-foam action. So I fired up my knife, grabbed a section of my foam board, gritted my teeth, and set the blazing hot wire on the foam for the first time...

Except that I had assembled the foam cutter wrong, so the wire just kept tapping the foam impotently. Ten minutes later I was back on track and hearing that sweet, sweet sizzle of melting foam. Honestly, all I could picture while cutting foam was a cartoon character who was standing on hot sand and had just jumped in to a barrel of water.

I wasn't too sure what to do, but I had a 4'x8' board, so trial and error was going to be a dirt cheap adventure. I wanted to start with a vertical/stepped hill so I could get the full experience of flocking the top and dry-brushing the edges; I also wanted to see what I could accomplish with just the foam cutter, rather than using a regular blade alongside it (not a practice I'll likely continue). Some of my favorite vertical hills looked like a rock face around the edge, so that's what I went for. I started with a bunch of wavy cuts around the edge:




And then took my "world's worst puzzle piece" and did some chopping at various angles, trying to mimic what I think stone would look like. Clearly I don't know what stone looks like.



Whatever, it's my first time and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. If nothing else it can be used in tandem with another hill for a small trench. Wait, another hill you say? Well I couldn't just stop at one, right? I sizzled out another piece from my wall o' foam and tried move of an angled sloped, as well as cut up the top to give it some uneven geography.

Of course two pieces weren't a trifecta, so I decided to go all in and try for a larger piece. I did softer cuts on this one, and I think it turned out looking more subtle, natural look. I won't know until I get these things painted and flocked, but my thumb was hurting from pushing on the jagged foam cutter trigger, so I decided to call it a day.




I was pretty happy with what I saw, and I was going to just leave my foam cutter alone. But that sizzle... its siren call became too much to resist. When my wife saw me going at it again and likened me to a little kid playing with his new toy.... all I could do was grin and get back to covering the kitchen table in little pink slivers.



I'm excited to hit Walmart tomorrow and load up my cart with Folk Art paint. I revisited several sites and YouTube tutorials on making terrain, and I got so many ideas for what I can do once have have this basic stuff done. And since I have limited storage space, I bet I know a few readers who wouldn't mind taking a few pieces of terrain off my hands...


See you tomorrow!

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