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I live in Australia and have noticed that Extruded Polystyrene is the holy grail of terrain making materials in America. I asked where to get it and people from America said they get it from packaging and hardware shops (pretty cheaply), but here in Australia I have never seen it. I asked at every hardware shop in my area and no one had even heard of the stuff let alone stock it. After a substantial amount of searching I found a few sites for places in Australia that sell it but it was about $120 for 20ish 25mm x 300mm x 300mm sheets, (I don't really want to buy that much). So what I wanted to know was why is it not as popular in Australia as America, cause I don't want to pay GW heaps of money for not so much terrain.

Also known as polystyrene insulation foam, I know that's what it's called over here, maybe it's the same for you Aussie types?

Mate i've had the same problem as you. I cannot find that pink and blue polystyrene anywhere. Even my beloved Bunnings, which is my fallback for anything of this nature doesn't carry it.

I will suggest that you try Masters. Its a new hardware place thats just opened a few stores. I've also been lead to believe that its an American chain as well so maybe they will carry it?

Yea Masters is the name Lowe's operates under in Australia

but shouldnt any rigid insulation foam work as well

because the pink is a brand called Foamular there is also PLASTISPAN ( here in Canada at least)

OWENS CORNING is the company that makes the pink stuff here, maybe that'll help

Check this thread over at wargamerau, I didn't know about it until just now when I googled it...

http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=89273

Personally I bought some from Foamex in Bayswater, Melbourne.

I used to work on a race team and we made carbon fibre wings with a foam core. We had sponsorship from Foamex, they'd wire cut our wings from extruded polystyrene so we could use it as a core and also for making moulds (they have gigantic hot wire cutters that can cut the 1400mm blocks in one go). A block that big (I think it was 1.4 meters by 1.4 meters by 0.6m, so basically a giant cube) was a few hundred dollars, but you can probably get something smaller for cheaper, and that might have been the cut cost I don't remember. Like I said, we had sponsorship, so we got it all free

Thanks for that link Skink. I've filed that one away for later use.

and you ought to be looking for EXPANDED polystyrene. That's the foamed stuff.

Extruded is the stuff like round and square pipe that EMA sells.

trust me, I've researched this a bit Im pretty sure Im looking for Extruded, also I have seen that link before but there are only 2 places for Melbourne, one shut down its shop and I E-mailed the other, now waiting for a reply. Does anyone know how much I should be paying for it?

i was bored .....

http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t89273.html

thread about finding Blue / Pink / Yellow Extruded Polystyrene Foam in Australia found it with a simple google search

Conrad Turner wrote:and you ought to be looking for EXPANDED polystyrene. That's the foamed stuff.

Extruded is the stuff like round and square pipe that EMA sells.

Nah, extruded and expanded are pretty similar, both are foams, expanded is the one that consists of heaps of little balls, extruded is more consistent rather than little balls so it's easier to model without the little balls creating a headache.

I don't know what the pipe is that EMA sells? Maybe you're mistaking it for molded polystyrene? That's the stuff that actual plastic miniatures are made from (hence why the glue for plastic models is called "polystyrene cement").

K-ROD wrote:i was bored .....

http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t89273.html

thread about finding Blue / Pink / Yellow Extruded Polystyrene Foam in Australia found it with a simple google search

Yep, that's the exact link I posted above, lol

Yeah, extruded is what you want. It's a little more expensive but you won't drive yourself nuts with it. Unfortunately for me no stores carry it in stock in my area.

I work at a lowes and I've been trying to circumvent paying the stupid delivery fee for like a week now.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

Conrad Turner wrote:and you ought to be looking for EXPANDED polystyrene. That's the foamed stuff.

Extruded is the stuff like round and square pipe that EMA sells.

Nah, extruded and expanded are pretty similar, both are foams, expanded is the one that consists of heaps of little balls, extruded is more consistent rather than little balls so it's easier to model without the little balls creating a headache.

I don't know what the pipe is that EMA sells? Maybe you're mistaking it for molded polystyrene? That's the stuff that actual plastic miniatures are made from (hence why the glue for plastic models is called "polystyrene cement").

While chemically the same - I wouldn't call them similar. Chemically - Expanded (EPS) and Extruded (XPS) are very close to the plastic (HIPS) used to make the GW models themselves...

If you had no choice at all, Expanded Foam would work. In the US, we generally refer to that as bead board - in reference to all the little white foam beads that it is made up of. Very similar to the foam which you find in packing boxes for electronics and what not. Extruded Foam is a uniform material and doesn't have the small beads which break away when you attempt to cut or shape it. It is stronger and much easier to work.

I know when we needed to pick up some for an equipment install years ago (many, many years ago now I guess) - we used Foamular from I believe a company called Austech. A lot of the times we here in the US refer to hardware stores rather generically to include DIY or Builder's Supply stores like Home Depot or Lowes. A regular hardware store won't normally carry the foam insulation sheets - but your builder's stores will generally have it. One which actually supplies contractors definitely will as it is a fairly standard material now for new construction and retrofits.

If you find a place that has more than one variety of it - the color is generally irrelevant and used mainly for branding purposes. XPS foam does come in a lot of different densities though. The more dense it is, the heavier it will be obviously - but also it tends to be stronger. I know I managed to source some stuff which was strong enough to let me walk across it without breaking. The downside though is that some of the more dense material doesn't really allow you to cut with normal hand tools and you either need to use woodworking tools or work exclusively with hot wire cutters.

Foam is the key word when you want to differentiate the insulation from the other extruded polystyrene products.

Extruded polystyrene(without the foam descriptor) is the structural plastic used in scale model making most commonly found on model rail road websites. Its great for highly detailed work since it comes it so many sizes of rod, tube, I-beam, angle, textured sheets etc etc.