Painting/Sealing Help

Balderdinger

New Member
Hey all,

So I'm a first-timer working on making some foam weapons for my kids to whack each other with during their backyard adventures. I've been able to do a pretty good job (by my standards) with assembling and shaping them. But now it's time to paint.

So my question ultimately is this ... should I paint and then seal? Or seal and then paint? Or a mixture of the two?

For the most part, I'm just dealing with chrome, grays and other basic colors (one of the girls wants a rainbow cavalry saber). But I don't know if I'm supposed to seal the whole thing as is BEFORE applying paint. Or if one of the points of sealing the weapon is to help protect the paint.

It's almost all EVA foam. I'm either using chrome spray paint or basic acrylic paints for the paint. And I have a big container of Mod Podge for the sealant.

Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks, smiths!
 
Hi B,

To my knowledge,painting is usually done last,unless you're trying to seal with a rubber coating,where colour is then added in the liquid rubber mixture (see video PunishedProps on different sealing methods):
[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ug6Rs06FEpk[/video]

So: 1).Heat(shape/-seal) foam 2)glue pieces 3).Rubber-/plastic seal foam 4).Paint pieces

All of this can be done in an environment-friendly and perhaps cheap(er) way with acrylic sealer and paints:
[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=StDwK-tKUuo[/video]
I hope this info helps a bit ~ good luck & happy whacking !
 
Last edited:
There is a method I am hoping to try in the future. If you can afford it, get stuff called “urecoat” and color is with “so-strong”. It’ll be indestructible! It comes out shiney when you brush it on- but if you put powdered sugar on it when it’s still tacky but not cured- you’ll get a Matte finish.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Of course now that I go back and watch the video they Show the urecoat method :facepalm. I use Urecoat to make prop hoses for TFA xwing pilot costumes, and I spray them with plasti-dip and it seems to bond quite nicely :)
 
you can seal the Foam with a heat gun- then give it 3 to 6 coats of Flex Bond to seal it and then paint.

a good paint to use is Angelus Leather paints as they are made for leather shoes and have a good durability along with flex.

Also if you are making chrome swords to battle with - consider using aluminum tape as it looks the most like chrome - more durable than paint and if you do get damage - just add more tape,


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwQdZzPgMos
 
So I took some of this advice and approached my first set of weapons by sealing the foam with Mod Podge, then painting. The paint job looked good enough for my first time; my daughter was certainly happy.

However, within the first few minutes playing with them, I noticed that the paint had already started to scrape off a bit.

So with my next project -- a foam replica Master Sword for my son's Halloween costume -- I was thinking of applying a coat of sealer ... then a base coat of paint, then sealing it again after the paint dried.

Any thoughts?
 
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