Hey guys, I'm new to scratchbuilding. At the moment, I'm using a Smoothfoam sphere as the base for a spaceship found in the book, Out of the Silent Planet.
What would be a good, frugal epoxy/putty/coating that I can apply to the surface so that I can safely use spray paint and have a hard, smooth surface after I do some carving?
I did some searching and didn't find anything, so I apologize if this is redundant.
Working with Smoothfoam
Moderators: Joseph C. Brown, Moderators
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Joseph C. Brown
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There are several ways to go about working with foam - if I were doing the subject that you've selected on a low-cost approach, I would:
- make sure that any recesses / access holes were carved into the foam before doing anything else
- get a container of light-weight acrylic based spackle that is water-soluble
- work the spackle into the foam in small sections, allowing lots of drying time
- after the spackle has dried, gently sand the surface smooth - you can make the spackle smooth as it is drying with a moistened finger, but this comes from practice...
- when the entire surface is spackle-covered, lightly spray with primer. LIGHTLY!
- repeat that priming step several times until there is a decently thick primer coat
- apply finishing paint and weathering
Now, the above is *me* working to your stated goals. I personally dislike the type of foam you have selected, but I have worked with it (successfully) in the past, using the steps above.
Given that we are now in The Holiday Season, many, many stores have a crazy big selection of Christmas Ornaments and some of those can be rather large spheres. Just saying...
I've done a bit of work with foam in the past - I prefer the thicker sheet insulation foam, which can be coated. This creates a hard shell that is much more durable than just foam, and is also more expensive.
One of my build examples: Farscape One, foam covered with putty:
https://picasaweb.google.com/1067338929 ... ldingNotes
Here is a build that I am currently doing with foam, then covering with epoxy:
https://picasaweb.google.com/1067338929 ... ldsFor2012
And here are the class notes from the scratchbuilding with foam classes that I taught for several years at Wonderfest:
http://www.starshipmodeler.info/wfest2k ... ss2003.doc
- make sure that any recesses / access holes were carved into the foam before doing anything else
- get a container of light-weight acrylic based spackle that is water-soluble
- work the spackle into the foam in small sections, allowing lots of drying time
- after the spackle has dried, gently sand the surface smooth - you can make the spackle smooth as it is drying with a moistened finger, but this comes from practice...
- when the entire surface is spackle-covered, lightly spray with primer. LIGHTLY!
- repeat that priming step several times until there is a decently thick primer coat
- apply finishing paint and weathering
Now, the above is *me* working to your stated goals. I personally dislike the type of foam you have selected, but I have worked with it (successfully) in the past, using the steps above.
Given that we are now in The Holiday Season, many, many stores have a crazy big selection of Christmas Ornaments and some of those can be rather large spheres. Just saying...
I've done a bit of work with foam in the past - I prefer the thicker sheet insulation foam, which can be coated. This creates a hard shell that is much more durable than just foam, and is also more expensive.
One of my build examples: Farscape One, foam covered with putty:
https://picasaweb.google.com/1067338929 ... ldingNotes
Here is a build that I am currently doing with foam, then covering with epoxy:
https://picasaweb.google.com/1067338929 ... ldsFor2012
And here are the class notes from the scratchbuilding with foam classes that I taught for several years at Wonderfest:
http://www.starshipmodeler.info/wfest2k ... ss2003.doc
________
Joe Brown
Joe Brown