Does anyone know a good place to get this from at a decent price? And any advice for it’s use/colouration?
Roughly what sort of use are you thinking of?
Painting on, filling a mold, or dipping? Painting on is probably the easiest, but messes up your brushes and is hard to get smooth. Painting on requires somewhat thicker latex and dipping requires very thin (almost watery) latex. Liquid latex can be thinned with water. Don’t believe people who tell you to use ammonia.
Coloring is done by mixing paint into it, a few teaspoons of paint per cup of latex (depending on thickness, strength of color, etc). The latex starts opaque and dries translucent, so the colour enriches when it dries. Can test your colour by speed-drying the mixed latex, e.g rubbing it between your fingers. Have to be careful that metallic paints don’t have a copper base, as it apparently rots latex.
without wanting to give my secret project away, i’ll be using it to coat a weapon…
thanks for the info guys
Probably paint it with a medium to thick latex then. Some people recommend painting thinly with contact adhesive first, and painting over with latex when the glue is nearly dry to help the latex bond to the weapon. I’ve read guides in the UK that suggest painting weapons with as many as 12 thin layers, letting it dry between each one. Needless to say this takes a long time, several days generally. But if the coating is too thin it may peel off. You could do fewer, thicker layers. Sun drying isn’t much of an option this time of year, but I seem to recall that drying in front of flames or hot elements is unadvisable.
Top-coatings are the trickiest part. Latex on weapons needs to be coated somehow or it will stick to other latex. I think the latex weapons I bring in are coated with stuff that is apparently toxic to work with, clear roof sealer or something. At least, that’s what most latex weapon guides recommend. You can talcum powder it for an easy fix, but it mutes colour and I dunno how waterproof it is.
The DIY guide to larp has guides to topcoating in the “Latexing” section. They recommend brand names Flexithane (a paint that comes in a clear colour) or Isoflex Special Primer (the nasty roof sealant). It’s a UK guide, dunno if we have these brands in NZ.
wow that’s awesome thanks ryan! i get the sense you’ve done this before…
I have, with mixed success. I’m not particularly handy.
If you want to smooth out closed-cell foam or create curves on it, belt sanders work particularly well. Turn it upside down, clamp it down, lock it on, and watch the foam fly. Good way of getting rid of ugly knife-shaping marks prior to latexing. Latex reveals the foam shape much more than taping.
you can get liquid latex on trademe