Ideas for crawler courses.
 

I have been searching around for ideas and materials for making scale courses and just thought Id throw em out there for all to see. Share some info.

Im not a fan of great stuff foam. Super expensive and doesnt cover much. So i found this. A/B expandable urethane foam...also known as pourable foam. Its basically the same stuff as great stuff but it looks like you get a bit more out of it. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...=pourable+foam

heres a video of what it is and what it does. Notice how much of this stuff they use.
Mix and Pour Foam Demonstration - YouTube

Heres a link to a guy that makes landscapes for his terrarium (reptile tank). This dude is really dry and just keep in mind that you can make a crawler course with what hes explaing.
His method is simple and relatively inexpensive. I got a car full of free styrofoam off craigslist from a furnature store, some grout from home depot and some concrete stain. Covered with 3 -4 layers of grout and painted. Came out really nice! Lizard care, and fake rock wall landscapes
...and a simple demo video. there are a few more complex ones. Take note of the one that is a four piece modular piece.
Fake rock wall Video for beginners

This is a link to a company that sells shaping tools(hot wires, knives, whole kits) and a treatment/final coating product that will take care of durability concerns you may have.
I think one of this companys employees is an RCC member btw..
Hot Wire Foam Factory - Foam Outdoor Waterfalls
Hot Wire Foam Factory

These are just a few ideas of methods I have found. I really like to build scale courses but so far have only been experiment stage. Now that I have a place to build maybe Ill finish that scaler I have been building and get on a course to play on.

enjoy. Ill be adding more just for fun..

Re: Ideas for crawler courses.
 

The Great Stuff foam is only $3 per can at Wal-Mart...

Re: Ideas for crawler courses.
 

The problem with the pourable foam is you would need to make a mold of your course to get the right shape. That stuff just expands like a balloon (as seen in the video) and if you don't contain it with something to get terrain, it will just be a big blob. Also when that stuff dries it is super heavy. The canned foam is very porous so it is very light. The 2-part foams tend to be dense and heavy (some car guys use that stuff to stiffen their frames a bit. You can pour it in the frame rails and it will stiffen the chassis a noticable amount), so if you have to move your course, you will need a few friends. The density is why it is more expensive than the canned foam. It will also harden in a mold because it does not need air to react, unlike the canned foams.

I've gone to find piles of rocks in my town and that has worked brilliantly. I've found nature produces some of the gnarliest stuff you can imagine and it's free. Yeah you may have to walk a bit to find it, but hey walking never hurt anybody.

Re: Ideas for crawler courses.
 

All good points. 3 bucks at Walmart seems inexpensive but you dont get much out of it and you have a lot of cans to dispose of afterwards and when I throw stuff like that away I feel like Im stabbing a penguin right in the heart.

I wish I could get to a nice rock pile in my area but Im in Dallas Tx. There are no crawl areas around here that I have found. ...and I have been looking. The best looking places I have seen have been in other peoples yards and I think they would look at me funny if I were to start wheelin around thier flower beds.

Ty for comments. Keep em coming plz. Different opinions and thoughts give me more ideas...and thats what its all about.

Re: Ideas for crawler courses.
 

For a Losi Micro Crawler, I have a 2x2.5' course that I made out of old styrofoam pieces (like packing materials) and 1 (one) can of great stuff. I did it all on cardboard and painted it black/brown. The most expensive part was the paint cans! I love the course I made so much that I'm going to build one that is bigger. Yes, you can have fun on a super small course. I don't see how anyone, wisely using odd free pieces of styrofoam or cardboard, would use more than 2 cans of Great Stuff.

Re: Ideas for crawler courses.
 

Here is a video from the Hot Wire Foam Factory website.

RC Rock Crawler Terrain Making - YouTube

Re: Ideas for crawler courses.
 

are you the member that works there?

Re: Ideas for crawler courses.
 

No sir. I'm the guy making a huge indoor course. The main course will be 3' x 12'. I've been collecting supplies waiting for my new workshop to be finished. I just received 44 spruce trees 4" to 10" for the scenery. I will be taking a lot of clear high resolution pictures. :)

I have a lot of scalers in the woks as well. A '63 Chevy Fleetside, A Jeep, 34 Ford truck, old Beetle.

It should all be coming together this fall! 8)

Re: Ideas for crawler courses.
 

I have seen in scale railroad forums that they make trees by twisting pieces of wire together with green (looks like push broom bristles) stuff together and then trimming.

i would certainly be interested in seeing your course. "thumbsup" fun stuff!

Re: Ideas for crawler courses.
 

The nice thing about McRCs is that you don't need a lot to have fun. Even a pile of desert rocks will do. I've found a couple simple spots on campus I like to hit up.

Re: Ideas for crawler courses.
 

I fix MINI coopers for a living. I have taken my crawler to work and crawled thru an engine bay before. and up the windshield.

Re: Ideas for crawler courses.
 

LInk or pics??????

Re: Ideas for crawler courses.
 

Lowes has a rock wall for kids jungle gyms would make good addition..."thumbsup"

Re: Ideas for crawler courses.
 

I went with the ole great stuff foam,stone spray paint, and sand on top of boxes that were hotglued and taped down to peices of 3/4 mdf. one way I found to really increase grip is while the great stuff foam is wet sprinkle some dry sand on it. Then sprinkle more afte ryou lay downa couple of coats of paint. Makes it feel jsut like sand stone.If I can get the area cleaned up some this weekend I will take some pics and post up here.

Re: Ideas for crawler courses.
 

do it! im gonna try and start a build asap.....damn foam hot knives are crazy expensive!

Re: Ideas for crawler courses.
 

It's been said up top, but the expandable foam is probably ur best bet, while its stil curing throw in some rocks, sticks, gravel, some moss for that scale mini trail look. Hope it helps.

Re: Ideas for crawler courses.
 

Soon... :)

Re: Ideas for crawler courses.
 

You should talk to Jetboat, he has headed up the construction of the indoor courses that were used for iHobby for the last few years.Those chunks of landscape are not at a LHS and still in use.

He DID NOT use expandable foam. Way to expensive in any form. Wood under structor, Chicken wire forms covered in burlap with cement I believe to provide the texture and strength. I know you can pick up broken bags of cement at just about any Big Box hardware store/lumber yard for pennies on the dollar.

As far as foam, probably be OK for MRCs but would never hold up to a 1/10th, 1/8th or 1/6th scaler under full power. They will shred the foam.

I cant even count how many porta course sections I have built now. We built them for Ihobby, rcx and 2 lhs. The absolute cheapest and easiest method is chicken wire.

Start with a base and a rough in support structure out of wood. Cover that with chicken wire to get your general shape. Remember to make everything bigger than you think it should be. Cover the chicken wire with burlap. Use staples to hold the wire/burlap to the wood. Heres the trick... get the burlap soaking wet before you put on the crete. You want the concrete to be fairly thin. Cover the whole piece with crete and then mist with water every 30 min for about 3 hrs. This will keep the crete from setting to fast. The next day you can add a topcoat to finish things off. In the topcoat I like to add some dye and mold in rocks. Ive also played with different additives but found that good old portland cement and sand mixed 1 part portland to 4 parts sand gives a good sand stone like texture without giving insane grip. You can add sand for grip or portland for slickness. We have pieces that are 8'x6' on wheels, 2 people can easily wheel them around. Some of the pieces have spent literally 1000 miles on a trailer on the highway with almost no cracking. I can walk all over the pieces and not be afraid to hurt them and if you do, repairs are easy. When they get dusty and loose grip, just hose them off.

I tried the foam with the hardcoat from hotwire foam... even 1.9 tires would shred it.

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Re: Ideas for crawler courses.
 

Thanks for all the warnings of monster crawlers shredding foam coarses... But this is the micro crawler section of the forum... "thumbsup"