Pink insulation foam experts, I need your help
- Thread starter darthgordon
- Start date
sithlordharley
Member
ah ha i found it thanks much im guna give this a go still thinking about what to build 
propologist
Sr Member
Yeah it's 28.00 a sheet at Home Depot. Out low's doesn't have the 2" stuff here. It very a very good thing to work with. You imagination is the only holdback
CGClone
Sr Member
I too have built many a thing out of the pink 4x8 insulation poly extruded foam sheets from the big box home improvement stores.
The sword in these pics was made with pink foam and then covered with fiberglass using epoxy resin, not polyester resin (the stinky standard will eat thru the foam stuff)
The wings here were pink foam covered with Krylon H20 paint as a sealant before the gold was applied.
Moving on to StyroSpray for the next project now.
That Yoda rocks man!
The sword in these pics was made with pink foam and then covered with fiberglass using epoxy resin, not polyester resin (the stinky standard will eat thru the foam stuff)
The wings here were pink foam covered with Krylon H20 paint as a sealant before the gold was applied.
Moving on to StyroSpray for the next project now.
That Yoda rocks man!
clonesix
Master Member
I haven't read all the responses, so forgive me if this has been mentioned.
You can coat pink foam with epoxy, or urethane resin, and they will give you a hard shell coating that can be sanded and painted. There is also a commercial product called Vanillcryl that produces a hard paintable surface.
You can coat pink foam with epoxy, or urethane resin, and they will give you a hard shell coating that can be sanded and painted. There is also a commercial product called Vanillcryl that produces a hard paintable surface.
Createaline
New Member
So is Plasti Dip a good match for sealing pink foam? I am looking for something for outdoors. Might try kilz, but is it water based like Plasti dip?
Running Wolf
New Member
Construction adhesive will eat the insulation foam. Tested it out on a small bit of scrap before one of my builds.
Running Wolf
New Member
So far for me (just starting out) a fresh razor blade/box cutter or hacksaw works. Have to go back and sand it.
For me the stuff needs to be sanded anyway so its no big deal.... can just be a pain in the butt getting all the way through.
Half temped to get some E strings and build one of the foam cutters I saw on instructables .com
nathancarter
New Member
Bumping an old thread to add my two cents. I haven't used Kilz but it sounds like a great solution, and somewhat inexpensive.
In my experience, Plasti-Dip will work - even the spray-can stuff, just make sure your first couple coats are very light so the propellant doesn't get at the foam. Plasti-Dip adds a lot of volume and a moderate amount of weight, so it will hide minor imperfections but also obscure any fine detail. You can use just about any paint on top of the Plasti-Dip, including other spray paints. It's somewhat expensive from a spray can.
Strongman weights constructed from blue foam, PVC pipe, and styrofoam:
A few coats of spray-on Plasti-Dip, pardon the terrible picture of my lovely wife who just woke up from a nap on the couch.
After this I sprayed with a cheap flat black to get rid of the powdery look from the bottom of the can of Plastic-Dip, then added numbers with silver sharpie and acrylic. Finished product with our strongwoman, pardon the lousy image quality that's been downloaded from Facebook and re-uploaded to Photobucket.
Lots of visible imperfections still, this was a super quick build, I didn't have time for any proper patching of those scuffs and marks. But as you can see, careful application of the spray-can Plasti-Dip didn't eat the foam.
Latex house paint from the "oops" bin at the hardware store is a good solution too. However, in my experience, even after the paint has dried and cured, your painted parts will stick to other painted parts even after a short time being stored together (a couple hours!), and the paint will peel off when you separate the parts. A happy side effect of this is that you can use the latex paint as a glue of sorts, to glue layers together.
Blue foam "mountains" and thorns for Maleficent's castle for a stage production, five panels that attach with hinges that I made from Sintra, using pencils as hinge pins. The dark gray is the color of the house paint I got; the green and gold are the latex paint then cheap acrylics. The castle is cut from plastic foamcore (not Sintra, I can't remember what it's called) that I scavenged from old retail signage that was headed for a dumpster; paint job on the castle is not complete in this pic.
In my experience, Plasti-Dip will work - even the spray-can stuff, just make sure your first couple coats are very light so the propellant doesn't get at the foam. Plasti-Dip adds a lot of volume and a moderate amount of weight, so it will hide minor imperfections but also obscure any fine detail. You can use just about any paint on top of the Plasti-Dip, including other spray paints. It's somewhat expensive from a spray can.
Strongman weights constructed from blue foam, PVC pipe, and styrofoam:
A few coats of spray-on Plasti-Dip, pardon the terrible picture of my lovely wife who just woke up from a nap on the couch.
After this I sprayed with a cheap flat black to get rid of the powdery look from the bottom of the can of Plastic-Dip, then added numbers with silver sharpie and acrylic. Finished product with our strongwoman, pardon the lousy image quality that's been downloaded from Facebook and re-uploaded to Photobucket.
Lots of visible imperfections still, this was a super quick build, I didn't have time for any proper patching of those scuffs and marks. But as you can see, careful application of the spray-can Plasti-Dip didn't eat the foam.
Latex house paint from the "oops" bin at the hardware store is a good solution too. However, in my experience, even after the paint has dried and cured, your painted parts will stick to other painted parts even after a short time being stored together (a couple hours!), and the paint will peel off when you separate the parts. A happy side effect of this is that you can use the latex paint as a glue of sorts, to glue layers together.
Blue foam "mountains" and thorns for Maleficent's castle for a stage production, five panels that attach with hinges that I made from Sintra, using pencils as hinge pins. The dark gray is the color of the house paint I got; the green and gold are the latex paint then cheap acrylics. The castle is cut from plastic foamcore (not Sintra, I can't remember what it's called) that I scavenged from old retail signage that was headed for a dumpster; paint job on the castle is not complete in this pic.
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