Flexible lacquer/varnish for foam - Possible? Alternatives?

[YamTEKK]

Hi all,

I've been working on a costume (It's Iron Man so I've held of creating a thread for it ) and am coming to the final stages of painting. I'm trying to achieve a gloss finish, so naturally am looking towards lacquers or spray varnishes. I've also used some acrylic paint for weathering and detail, so it's important to protect this too!

I'm just curious, has anyone had any experience using varnishes or anything similar on something as flexible as foam? I would expect that any coat thick enough to give a decent gloss finish would crack under any stress; would I be correct? Can anyone offer any advice?

Many thanks in advance!

 

[Freya Willia]

I'm going to be painting foam glossy a few weeks from now. Planning on coating it in a clear acrylic gesso/primer, and either using epoxy resin or Golden brand self-leveling gel (something that is thicker than spraycans, and doesn't leave brush strokes).

I've had luck with epoxy not eating certain foams, but I haven't tried this out yet on the foam material I'm using for this occasion. I would test this first. A really solid coat of primer should protect it, but, testing is critical. Envirotex brand is very flexible, but the cons are it takes a long time to cure and easily bubbles, especially on porous surfaces.

Acrylic polymers are more flexible in my experience. It takes patience to layer them up to build the same kind of gloss you might get with other stuff.

 

[YamTEKK]

Thanks for your help, but I'm actually past the painting stage! Here's how the chest piece currently stands:

The issue I'm having now is how to protect the paintwork, not the foam itself.

 

[Uncle]

When I made my EVA Potato Head suits, I used Acrylic Kilz to prime, Acrylic paints of various manufacturers, and sealed the whole thing with Future Acrylic Floor Wax.

They ended up nice and shiny and are still in good shape almost 2 years later.

 

[Kolin86]

I personally had great luck using this:

Krylon: Products: Low Odor Clear Finish

Its flexible and gives a pretty nice gloss. The only downside it has....don't get caught out in the rain...

but you can see a pic of the gloss it gave my suit.