How to plastic coat foam costume pieces

Christopher said:

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For those of us making N7 armor, has anyone tried using this on the top pattern side of the foam? Im not sure how well it will adhere to it, or whether it would fill in the pattern which would defeat the purpose of using it in the first place.

When I did my small tests on the various foams I was using on my Heimdall armor, I tried putting 64D directly on all the foam I was going to use (no glue or sealer of any kind) - craft foam, Harbor Freight floor mats, the smooth side, textured side, and the textured side with the texture sanded off.

It bonds to craft foam (the cheap stuff from Michael's art store) like glue.

It sticks to the smooth side of the floor mats about as well as PVA does if you do it badly - it's possible to tear it off, but it makes a bit of a mess.

It bonds to the sanded EVA nearly as well as craft foam - chunks of foam come off if you rip it out.

It doesn't stick to the textured side AT ALL - comes off like it was poured over wax.

That said, it MIGHT work a lot better with glue down first. But I suspect the textured side is the more treated, resistant side - it seems less porous if you really look. Probably to make it easier to clean spills and resist wear in your garage or whatever (that IS what those mats are actually for). So I'm not sure how well glue would soak in for bonding purposes.

Of course, you'll loose SOME detail - you're spreading another layer on top! But the texture doesn't disappear entirely, each little raised "island" just gets rounded out.

So guys here is my cyborg armor I made for SDCC using this method. Honestly after making a full set of armor out of it I don't know if 65D is the best material for the plastic coating. And before people get ready to flame-on, I think xrobots is onto a great idea on how to get foam to look a lot better . I just think the 65D might not be the best plastic resin.

Here are a few reasons why
1) The cure time is so fast that it makes it really heard to cover larger pieces. And even if you work in small batches it still creates an unevenness over the entire piece. That requires a lot of extra work to try and get even with body filler.

2) I tried both methods of adding another layer before it fully cures (extreme loss of details and sometimes creates an odd texture) and sanding it before adding another layer. And both had flaking problems and neither produced the results i really wanted.

now i'm sure someone is getting ready to say they had it work with no problems. Whichi I'm sure is possible I just don't think this is the best medium for less experienced people or those that don't love sanding and remaking parts.

Like i said before i think x-robots has a great idea and i'm going to try to find another plastic resin to coat the foam with.

Sorry to jump in on this but. I have just combined the best of both worlds.
Take a pepped piece. On the inside use some glue PVA is fine just use a tiny smear, place cut-to-size fibreglass TISSUE on the inside and cover with polyurethane liquid plastic.
This mainly for card pep's but i don't see why it would not work for foam.
XRobots you are many shades of awesome.

lokey69666 said:

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Sorry to jump in on this but. I have just combined the best of both worlds.
Take a pepped piece. On the inside use some glue PVA is fine just use a tiny smear, place cut-to-size fibreglass TISSUE on the inside and cover with polyurethane liquid plastic.
This mainly for card pep's but i don't see why it would not work for foam.
XRobots you are many shades of awesome.

Did you cover the inside and the outside with Polyurethane?. I found that the PVA made the piece a lot more rigid anyway, although I guess fiberglass tissue might give you something more sturdy to glue/attach the armour pieces to.

Domo arigato for posting your findings MrRoboto. I've found a similar effect when painting the pva onto the textured side of the foam. Using a mix of 1:1 water: pva it all just runs off. And pure pva doesn't quite spread properly.

I think for the purposes of what I'm doing I might just leave it as is. As far as I know you can spray paint on to the stuff without sealing since its already sealed really.

Well tuch wood i have tryed it on the arms useing the methrod seems to be ok so far for me, I am makeing the ironman mk6 was just going to use the resin on the arms legs back and chest and leave the rest foam, might look odd but i want to beabel to move a bit.

7sinzz said:

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There are options with a slightly longer curing times. While looking through the website where i bought my 65d, I found a few things that would seem to be more appropriate for curing time. Particularly: *Smooth cast 305* has a 7 minute pot life (65d is only 2.5 minutes). 305 total cure time is half an hour (65d is 15 mins). Both are same rigidity. Just needs someone to get out there and try them. I don't have the funding for experimenting so I have to wait for others to try stuff. Although I might buy the 305 once 65d has ran out.

Hmm that's a good suggestion. I might get a trial pack of the 305. I'm going to try out a few options before I begin putting it on my iron man build.

Christopher said:

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I think for the purposes of what I'm doing I might just leave it as is. As far as I know you can spray paint on to the stuff without sealing since its already sealed really.

Or there's always Plasti Dip, if necessary.

If anybody actually tries some of the longer pot life stuff, I'd be very interested to see how that comes out!

Does the PVA make the piece rigid or it is still completely bendable without cracking or leaving marks?

BladeRunner said:

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Does the PVA make the piece rigid or it is still completely bendable without cracking or leaving marks?

It makes it more rigid, the PVA will crack if you bend it enough.

XRobots said:

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It makes it more rigid, the PVA will crack if you bend it enough.

But once the 65D is applied, will it still crack or wrinkle?

Randavian said:

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But once the 65D is applied, will it still crack or wrinkle?

The idea is that it's a rigid coating, so it won't bend that easily. You'll need to treat it like rigid armour, 65D is a rigid plastic resin.

XRobots said:

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The idea is that it's a rigid coating, so it won't bend that easily. You'll need to treat it like rigid armour, 65D is a rigid plastic resin.

That is what I was thinking, but I seem to recall someone saying that if you used just a couple thin coats of the 65d that the foam would still be flexible. I'm good with rigid, though. Would rather my suit last at least a few wearings. lol.

It will be partially flexible, but not bendy like foam anymore.

Hey James, been thinking more and more about your plastic coating process, and i was wondering if you or anyone else knew if the Polytek Easyflo resins was the same as the 65D? maybe the Easyflo 60, or 95? or if its not the same kind of thing, what other alternative would you reccomend from the UK without spending a fortune on Smooth On?

Thanks

StarksWarehouse said:

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Hey James, been thinking more and more about your plastic coating process, and i was wondering if you or anyone else knew if the Polytek Easyflo resins was the same as the 65D? maybe the Easyflo 60, or 95? or if its not the same kind of thing, what other alternative would you reccomend from the UK without spending a fortune on Smooth On?

Thanks

I've never tried anything else. It's Polyurethane so it will probably be ok but you will have to try a sample. As I've said before the 65D is a specific rotocast resin which sets gradually so you can get a smooth finish as you rotate the piece. Other Polyurethanes generally suddenly turn solid so you may get lumps.

The 65D works out at £16.23 a Kg based on a 7kg kit:
Smooth-Cast 65D (Roto) (7Kg) - Curetime

The other one works out at £15.55 per Kg based on a 10Kg kit:
Polytek EasyFlo 120 Polyurethane Liquid Plastic Rotocast Resin - mbfg.co.uk

...so there's not that much in it anyway.

When you put it like that its not worth NOT getting smooth on. I could have sworn when I compared prices a while back there was a significant difference. Must be my math

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StarksWarehouse said:

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When you put it like that its not worth NOT getting smooth on. I could have sworn when I compared prices a while back there was a significant difference. Must be my math

I did the exact same thing when I first got started with this stuff! Found a local supplier who seemed so CHEAP!

Then I figured out they just described volumes differently, and they had nearly identical prices to Smooth-On! Never went back, except when I NEED something asap.

My friends who still use local brands complain about how "resin sucks" all the time... I thought that, too, until I switched to Smooth-On's stuff. They're the gold standard for a reason!

I can't thank you enough for this tutorial! I plan on doing this to all my foam builds for a more professional finish.

Thanks again for sharing!

finally what i am looking for

I'd like to announce my own progress with 65d.

Using a syringe I added exactly 10ml of part A and 10ml of part B, mixed for than 10 seconds then coated half of my mk7 chest. Moved it around for about 2 minutes until first half was tacky then repeated on the other half. I waited 15 minutes then did some light sanding to create a key and repeated the process again. After the third coat I was happy with the coverage and I'm ready to body fill the low spots. I'll upload some pictures in a bit.

I would not advise using any more than 10ml of each at a time.

7sinzz said:

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I'd like to announce my own progress with 65d.

Using a syringe I added exactly 10ml of part A and 10ml of part B, mixed for than 10 seconds then coated half of my mk7 chest. Moved it around for about 2 minutes until first half was tacky then repeated on the other half. I waited 15 minutes then did some light sanding to create a key and repeated the process again. After the third coat I was happy with the coverage and I'm ready to body fill the low spots. I'll upload some pictures in a bit.

I would not advise using any more than 10ml of each at a time.

Did you ever try using Smooth-On 305? I'm going to the store today to buy some and try it out. I think the Longer pot life might help. I'm curious if moving it around actually does anything since it isn't really being used in a mold where you pour it in to fill in all the gaps.

Most likely moving the part keeps the 65D from pooling in low poilts/crevices and aids in the self leveling.