Spray painting pink foam without melting it

By arnoldrew, in Terrain Building

If I cover pink foam in mod podge, Elmer's glue, or Gesso, can I then spray paint it?

Elmer's Glue will work, though you may have to apply several coats. I've used it successfully to cover the edges of Foamcore before spraypainting. Many craft stores sell purpose-made products for this, but they're often more expensive than the options you've listed.

How big a piece are we talking about here?

7 hours ago, SFC Snuffy said:

Elmer's Glue will work, though you may have to apply several coats. I've used it successfully to cover the edges of Foamcore before spraypainting. Many craft stores sell purpose-made products for this, but they're often more expensive than the options you've listed.

How big a piece are we talking about here?

It's a number of pieces of various sizes. The largest is probably 12x14 inches, but some of that is covered by spackle.

Gesso works well

11 minutes ago, KommanderKeldoth said:

Gesso works well

That's good to hear given that I've been trying Elmer's glue and it seems to have a bad habit of beading up and not covering very well. I'll try it tonight.

On 2019年2月20日 at 5:24 AM, arnoldrew said:

If I cover pink foam in mod podge, Elmer's glue, or Gesso, can I then spray paint it?

It may seem a bit tedious but I use a brush on enamel paint on foam and or cardboard. You can see where you may have missed and it also works as a primer or undercoat. I especially recommend it if anyone works with cardboard or any paper based material as it seriously helps avoid warping and you can use any type paint or texuring material when dry.

I usually use MagiCoat, which you can get at craft stores. It is a plaster like substance that you paint on foam to stiffen and protect it. It is a little pricier though.

Gesso has started to become my go to primer though. A massive tub is very cheap and it dries very thin to capture every detail.

Gesso is more effective an prolly cheaper...

For durability and coverage I do a mix of:

  • PVA
  • Wood Glue
  • Some cheap Latex paint from the hardware store (you can get incorrectly mixed stuff super cheap)
  • Joint Compound

Mix it all up. You can sort of play with the ratios based on how thick you want it, etc. It's EXTREMELY durable.

You need any type of "non-acetone" spray paint. It's the Acetone that melts it. Home Depot or a similar type of large scale hardware store should have it.

I’ve heard there are spray paints that are designed for foam but I haven’t found em yet.

Ive just used Modge Podge first on Pink Foam and then been fine spray painting over that. Some people suggest adding a little black paint to the Modge Podge to help see where you’ve already painted!

You can apparently spray paint foam as long as you do it from a reasonable distance and do it in light coats. The TerrainTutor has a youtube video on this where he shows how to spray without melting and also a few things you can coat the material with first to give yourself even more room to avoid melting.