I wanted to try to make some coal loads for my Aristo 100 ton hopper cars. I used 1 3/4" blue styrafoam board. I cut this to 18 3/8" length by 3 11/16" wide. Then set this into car and marked the four corners where top of car is on foam. Put a mark on end 1 3/8" up from bottom of foam. Set blade about 1 3/4" high to tip of teeth and set blade at just under a 26 degree angle. Cut sides and ends of foam. USE CAUTION AS BLADE IS HIGH AND DANGEROUS!!! KEEP FINGERS AND HANDS CLEAR OF BLADE. then set blade at 90 degrees and 1 1/4" from fence and cut point off foam. I then painted this with 2 coats of latex black paint.
I built a jig to hold foam then applied liquid nails construction adhesive to 3 sides, smoothed out alittle with a putty knife and coated with some small rock I found between the rails at Iowa Falls about 5 years ago. Press rock into adhesive. Turn foam around in jig and do the same to the last side. Dump off excess rock and reapply more to touch up and dump excess off again. I then spray painted it black with Rust-oleum semi-gloss enamel. After that dried I painted it with 2 coats of Krylon indoor/outdoor flat black and let dry.
The rock I used was a redish color and varied in diameter from less than 1/16" to 5/16". Most was 3/16" and less.
here are some pictures:
I built a jig to hold foam then applied liquid nails construction adhesive to 3 sides, smoothed out alittle with a putty knife and coated with some small rock I found between the rails at Iowa Falls about 5 years ago. Press rock into adhesive. Turn foam around in jig and do the same to the last side. Dump off excess rock and reapply more to touch up and dump excess off again. I then spray painted it black with Rust-oleum semi-gloss enamel. After that dried I painted it with 2 coats of Krylon indoor/outdoor flat black and let dry.
The rock I used was a redish color and varied in diameter from less than 1/16" to 5/16". Most was 3/16" and less.
here are some pictures:

