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First Try at Sculpting Urethane Foam

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.