Better paint for craft foam/foamies?

[Egon Spengler]

I was wondering if theres a better type of paint to use for painting craft foam/ 'Foamies'
I'd liketo find a paint that bonds well to it and doesn't scrape off leaving faint marks and lines at the slightest bump.

Also and it's probably crazy, would that 'Anodizeit' paint by plasticoat hold onto it well or crack because foamies is flexable?

Probably crack but i figured I'd ask anyway..

 

[ObiWannabe]

I know someone who did jaw-droppingly awesome Nightmare armor from Soul Caliber 2, and she used high quality artist's acrylics on it without any problems. I marveled - i've used regular craft acrylics, but those also tend to flake and chip wherever the foam gets damaged or bent. But I'll have to ask her which kind of art acrylics specifically she used. I think she also mentioned Testors as an option, but I'd have to pick her brain to be sure.

The armor was amazing. If I hadn't been staying in her hotel room at ACen watching her paint it, I wouldn't have known it was craft foam.

 

[juno]

How about plastidip?

 

[Egon Spengler]

Originally posted by ObiWannabe+Mar 29 2006, 09:40 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ObiWannabe @ Mar 29 2006, 09:40 PM)</div>

I know someone who did jaw-droppingly awesome Nightmare armor from Soul Caliber 2, and she used high quality artist's acrylics on it without any problems. I marveled - i've used regular craft acrylics, but those also tend to flake and chip wherever the foam gets damaged or bent. But I'll have to ask her which kind of art acrylics specifically she used. I think she also mentioned Testors as an option, but I'd have to pick her brain to be sure.

The armor was amazing. If I hadn't been staying in her hotel room at ACen watching her paint it, I wouldn't have known it was craft foam.

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Thats pretty cool. If you could find out I'd really appreciate the help. Do you know where I can see a pic? I'm curious now

<!--QuoteBegin-juno@Mar 29 2006, 10:09 PM
How about plastidip?

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Do they have a chome/metal kind of plasti dip? If not, is it possible to find some sort of kylon fusion paint that comes in chome/metal that would work well? Hm...

I guess I could paint something chrome/metallic and then use clear plastidip over it... maybe... I wonder how well that would work..

 

[penwiper]

Have you tried adding fabric medium or fabric glue to your acylic paint? That really help it to flex instead of cracking.

 

[Egon Spengler]

I've been using spray paint.

 

[brin]

DLV,
You can Plasti-dip your Foamies, then dry brush acrylic over that.
Also, Duplicolor vinyl and fabric spray adheres well to Plasti-dip.
I have also seen other mask makers use acrylics to piant their masks, then seal the paint job with clear Plasti.
-Brin

 

[ObiWannabe]

penwiper - I have only just heard of fabric medium in the past week. Have you tried this on foamies, or was it something you heard about? I'd like to know what the results are, as it sounds like a stellar idea.

DarkLordVader - I'll hunt through my pictures, I know I have a picture of her SoulEdge but maybe not the costume, as I was elsewhere when she was in it. But I'm pretty sure they're up somewhere on cosplay.com, in Eurobeat King's official site pics from ACen 05 if nothing else.

 

[penwiper]

I have tried it, and it worked great. It helps the paint to stick better, and it flexes with the foam so that you don't get cracks. The only reason I went with Rub'n'buff for my elf armor instead of acrylic paint was because I couldn't figure out any way to get rid of the brush marks. It was two weeks before DragonCon and I didn't have too much time for experimentation at the time, but airbrushing or thinned-down multiple layers would probably fix the brush mark problem.

I definitely vetoed spray paint early on. No matter what I tried with spray paint, it never held up worth a flip.

http://entropyhouse.com/penwiper/costumes/helmsdeep.html if you want to see what I did.

 

[ObiWannabe]

aHA. Interesting. *gets evil ideas* Thanks.

Brush marks are always my issue...I may be an elitist, and thus on my pharaoh Atemu stuff I'm using plastic instead of foam because foam just doesn't look like gold metal AND you can spray paint it to take away brush marks. But I know there's a lot of folks out there, especially the up-and-coming kids, who can't afford sintra and styrene and loads of Krylon and thus have to use acrylics on foam to get the same effect. I shall certainly be passing on the concept to them.