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Ive just started out making scenery with foam board and its going pretty well but i have a question. What is the best way to cover exposed edges? Ive been cutting a 5mm strip and trying to glue it, but i think superglue will melt the foam and pva takes and age to dry and what if I'm trying to follow a curve etc? Am i missing something or am i just not using the correct medium? Any other tips for working with foam board will be gratefully retrieved. Cheers.

Watered down PVA glue will seal it.
You need a lot of knife blades as foamcore blunts them very quickly.
Use a steel ruler with finger guard and rubber slip-resistant base.
Stand over the card when cutting to make sure you get a 90 degree (vertical) cut.
You can get foam core cutters but I've not had any experience with them.
Use cocktail sticks to strengthen joints.
Use masking tape to hold things toegther when drying.
Use texture paint after as it's not a great surface to paint.
Make sure you turn your cutting matt occaisionally to avoid your blade following an exisitng cut in the matt.

Thanks for the tips! So if I apply watered down pva to the foam it will create a seal that I will be able to apply superglue to without melting the foam?

You could just buy foam safe super glue. Less hassle that way

You can also use Gesso on those exposed edges. It will make it so you can paint it, sand it, glue it (even with superglue). You can get it at any art store that has canvas materials and you just paint it on thick or thin let it dry and your good.

I didn't know there was such a thing as foam safe super glue. Thanks for the tip.. Also, i may have to pick up some of that Gesso. Seems like it could come in usefull for quite a few things. Cheers guys.

If you want to get a little fancier with your edges, you can cut a 5mm rabbit into one sheet, leaving the extra paper to cover the foam core of the abutting sheet. There are relatively inexpensive cutters (Foamwerks, X-Acto) that can do it for you with minimal fuss, or you can do it by hand with a bit of extra effort.

For exposed edges that won't be joined, PVA will seal the foam, as mentioned, but I've found that it can take quite a few layers to smooth out the foam's texture. If I need a really clean finish, I give the edges a light smear of spackle (drywall filler) to even the texture (sanding flat, if necessary), then slap on a quick coat of watery PVA to effectively plasticize the surface, strengthening the coating and keeping it from soaking up all my paint. Sounds like a bit of work, but both the application and drying go rather quickly.

yeah, I bought the X-Acto foam cutter after advice i got here. It makes rabbit cuts real easy. Thanks for tip too, gives me plenty of options. I think I have some poly-filler around here somewhere....cheers.

The exacto foam cutters work well. If you really want 90 degree angles that fit together anyway. If you want to get really fancy, you could get an artist mat cutter (they're for cutting mats for frames). My brother is an artist and his mat cutter is what I missed most about him when he got married and moved away. Well, it's true.

I use my wife's hot glue gun on the inside corner that doesn't show and I cut triangular braces to not only strengthen the join, but make sure I don't accidentally glue them cock-eyed as the glue gun glue sets immediately after it cools. Not very forgiving. But the models are quite sturdy. If that interior corner is going to show, then you can't use this method as it would be ugly as sin...