Armed with a utility knife and a Stanley Surform, I hacked great swaths of Styrofoam away from the hills. It’s curious that so many modellers like this material. It’s messy and the dust sticks to everything. While easy enough to form it into hemispherical lumps, dips and bowls are difficult to form. Then, what if you take off too much?
Well, I had the material, so I’ve gone and shaped it. There are some bits where I dug too deep, which I will have to fill, and likely some other bits that I need to shave down further. However, I slapped a layer of paint on and dropped the scene in place for a couple of weeks to see how it sits.
Pembroke:87 
its looking good!
Thanks Rob!
Looks good. What are you going to cover it with?
Messy as it is, foam is the easiest, most accurate way to maintain tight elevation profiles near roads, foundations, etc. I’d love to ditch it on health grounds but getting the same accuracy out of skimmed wood takes for ever and strip and cloth is hit and miss.
Thanks, Andrew. Yeah, you’re probably right: the one good thing about foam is that it’s slow, which gives you time to think.
I’ll be covering it with a variety of materials from Silflor to static grass to ground foam.
Sometimes I wish there was a reverse styrofoam product. I find it easier to embrace adding material and forming it into a final shape than seeing something hidden inside a block that I’m trying to release by carving away what I don’t need. “what if you take off too much?” very yes.
I am, as always, enjoying watching as this scene unfolds.
Chris
You could always use spray on foam. Joel Bragdon of weathering powder fame used to have a system that involved spraying foam and bubble wrap. The only problem I have with spray foam (other than the environmental impact) is cleaning the tube so you don’t have to blow the whole can in one go.