Can spray paint destroy PVA/Foam/foamie costume stuff?

[hydin]

A friend of mine has a hat and some gloves he wants to paint (I think it's the V ones) and it's made out of some kind of black foam.

Is this stuff "reactive" to spray paint? I think it is, but I am not 100% sure.

Also, he has some other pieces that are made out of those "foamie" pieces of plastic. Are they reactive to spray paint at all?

He just doesn't want to melt his work, and frankly I have no idea if it will work, not work, melt it, or open up a wormhole to the LHC. I have never tried to paint this stuff.

Many thanks in advance for the help.
Chris

 

[division 6]

Depends on the type of paint and the what the foam is made of.
It would test it on a small piece to see what happens.

It would be best to just airbrush it with acrylic paint to be on the safe side.

D6

 

[Chiok]

I would be inclined to say avoid spray paint and foam most of the time. I think the acetone (?) or something which seals the spray paint dissolves or degrades most expanded foams. I made a prop with some foam sections and primed the whole thing with spray primer and the foam sections started to crinkle and shrink despite what I thought was a good barrier layer. The foam was from a pilates gym mat.

If in doubt, could always try a tiny bit, spray into a container and paint on the foam with a brush to see what happens. Airbrush acrylic is probably a much safer route.

 

[hydin]

I have some spare craft foamies here that we are going to try and spray paint. It might work, they might turn into goo, but either way it gives me an excuse to throw em in the trash.

He was going for a metallic look to the paint, so acrylic won't really work out very well. He may just end up having to pick up an extra pair of gloves and make em out of silver material or something instead...

Thanks for the advice guys!
Chris

 

[clonesix]

In my past experience, no it doesn't melt the foamie. Foamie absorbed the paint and it looked terrible. If you were to put enough paint onto it to make it turn that color, it would be a really thick coat of paint.

But give it a try on a scrap piece and let us know what happens.