Spraycoating styrofoam?

[Levdir]

Working on my entry for the Duel catagory in the Wyrd Painting Contest, and the diorama is built off a disc of insulation styrofoam about the diametre of a CD. What I want to know is, once I have all the terrain bits in place and whatnot, can I spraycoat it? I heard from a guy I don\'t totally trust that spraypaint eats styrofoam, but handbrushing is fairly impractical and I don\'t have access to an airbrush. Any thoughts?

 

[Shawn R. L.]

Something waterbased.

 

[airhead]

If you gave it a good coat of water based paint first and trust that ALL the surface was covered, then a light spray would be fine. Any gaps, cracks, seams though will be eroded by the solvents in the spray.

Another option is to browse the craft stores and find some foam safe sprays. I know that paints come that way, but not sure about clears. If you find some, test on another (scrap) piece first.

 

[Levdir]

Thanks, airhead. I wasn\'t aware such things existed, but I\'ll have to check my local Michael\'s now and see if they have any. I certainly have lots of scrap to test on...

 

[dauber22]

If you don\'t find it in the regular paint section in Michael\'s, try the floral section. I used to work at one of their competitors and that\'s where we kept the foam-safe stuff.

 

[Klute]

Watered down PVA glue will seal it nicely.

 

[Fizl]

Klute, your avatar is well dodgy!

Shaz

(And thanks for an informative thread peeps about polystyrene and spray paints - had to say something relevant!)

 

[WurzagUdUraZahuba]

When I first got into the hobby the first piece of terrain I made was a small ruined tower out of styrofoam. When I had finished constructing it, I took it out to the workshop, got an old can of grey Tremclad rust paint, and in my ignorance started to paint it. However, it did not melt as I later learned it should. It only melted when the tremclad ran out and I had to use another can of paint made by a different company. I haven\'t tried it since, but if you have an old can of Tremclad rust paint (depending on how much of a pack rat you are) you might want ot test it out.

 

[E-Arkham]

Try Model Master sprays. I\'ve used it on several types of foam directly without having the foam melt.

Test on a small piece to be sure.

Kep

 

[Levdir]

@E-Arkham: You know, I think I have a little can of Model Master Grey Primer about somewhere...I\'ll give it a shot.