Back to D56 Gallery Ski Village By Kevin & Vickie Beers Scroll Down To See All Six Pictures of this Winter Wonderland Here goes on explaining how we built our Department 56 North Pole display. We could not have done it without the Hot Wire Foam Factory. I had tried using various other methods to work with Styrofoam and none of them worked well. I made a custom tip for my soldering iron, but it was too hot. Someone told me to use a Roto-zip but it makes such a mess and is difficult to control. I bit the bullet and purchased the Pro Kit with all the accessories and there isn't anything I can't do with Styrofoam. The only other tool I use is a scroll saw with a knife blade to make long straight cuts (up to 8 feet) in 2 inch foam. You can buy the knife blades at Sears. By the way, the video that comes with the pro kit is very helpful in teaching you the possibilities of all the hot wire tools. Our scene was four feet deep by twenty feet long and had several levels as well as a cave for "Elf Land." All the foam used in the display was 2 inches thick and glued together with white glue. The hot wire tools go thru the white glue so hitting glue spots wasn't a problem. The blue mountains in the background are made of 2 inch sheets standing on edge. I took a marker to outline the peaks and then used the hot knife to cut them out. Mountains aren't perfect in real life so I wasn't to concerned about the shapes, I just wanted a variety of shapes and heights. The texturing on the front of the mountains was done with the sculpting tool. The nice thing about the sculpting tool is you can bend the wire before you use it on the foam to give you many different results. Also you can move the sculpting tool straight in a line or move side to side thru the foam to vary the finish. After we finished the texturing, we used an air brush to color the mountains, leaving the higher peaks white to represent snow. We wanted the mountains to give depth to the scene, so behind the mountains was dark blue material with blue twinkling lights under it for stars. Before I forget, the hot knife is excellent for hiding the electrical wires going to each lit piece. Once you determine where a piece is going to be and have routed the plug to your power source, use the hot knife to slice into the foam next to the cord. Be careful not to hit the cord and make sure you have unplugged the cord while your cutting next to it. Once your done with the hot knife, stuff the cord into the slice you made and cover it with snow or canned insulation. I suggest slicing the foam at a 45 degree angle so the wire doesn't pop back out of the slice so easy. In picture number 6 you see the left end of the display and our favorite part, Elf Land. If you look closely you'll see a cutout in the foam face. This is the only way to view elf land. We built the cave (it's four feet deep and two feet wide) and once we were done with everything inside we had to close the opening. I glued together a block of foam that would just fit into the opening. Once I got it the correct size, I used the sculpting tool to shape the inside of the piece so when you looked into the cutout the inside would be curved like a cave would be. Then I shaped the outside to blend into the surrounding area. Mother nature doesn't make too many flat surfaces so I made sure I cut all surfaces in the display. The final touch for the elf land cave was to put in a "viewing window." The hot knife worked great for this. I pushed it thru the foam and worked it around until I had completed the circle. I wanted it to look like a piece of the mountain had been torn away so you could peak inside, and it came out great! Down at the other end of the scene was our recreation area. The mountain you see in picture one is actually two animated D56 pieces with a piece of foam carved with the sculpting tool to fill in the middle. Once I got the pieces to fit snugly against the foam, I sculpted the top to match and put in a little ski run. Pictures two and three show the gondola stations. These units have to been mounted securely so you can tension the lines between the lower and upper stations. The lower station is actually mounted on a plywood base. To disguise it, I used the scroll table to cut 1/4 inch thick sheets of foam. I used the engraving tool to add a brick finish and then pinned them to the plywood. I didn't quite get my measurements correct so the gondola was stopping off the ground. No problem, I just cut a couple of thin sheets on the scroll table, added the brick finish with the engraving tool and that was it. The upper station was a challenge, getting the angle right for the car to clear was tuff. I ended up moving the car until it touched the foam, stopping it and used the sculpting tool to carve clearance for the car. I'd move the car another inch and carve again until I got it to the top. I made a top piece for the landing so the "people" getting out of the gondola would have something to step onto. The stairs carved into the side of the upper station were made freehand with the hot knife. When your freehanding like that, turn your temperature down a little so it doesn't cut thru the foam quite so easy. It gives you better control. One last thing is the D56 electric train that circles thru the scene. The train goes under about 6 feet of mountain before it comes back out. We laid the tracks where we wanted them and then pressed down on the track with our mountain. This gave me the track impression on the bottom of the mountain range. I used the sculpting tool to carve out the tunnel for the train. Kevin & Vickie Beers