Painting foam and fabric

I’m wanting to paint closed cell foam (campmat) and stretch cotton fabric for a costume. What’s the best way to do this so the colour stays on and won’t crack or rub off when wearing it?

Thanks :slight_smile:

Kara

The best way for it not to crack and not to come off is to not use camping mat foam. Or any foam for that matter…

But seriously, I don’t have any suggestions - i’ve been doing it for years and there is no real solution. You just have to get used to the idea of touching it up after each game.

Use a colour of foam that will look okay when it’s revealed. Grey is pretty neutral, and you can get camping mat in it.

Rubberised car underbelly spray, which you can get from car specialty shops, sticks slightly better than normal spray paint.

Unfortunately when something flexible like foam, meets something not so flexible like paint, they tend part ways and crack. Latex might work, but it is pretty expensive for a way to colour something really, and its time consuming. does it need to be flexible? the less flex you have the better the paint will stay crack free. Scott might be right in his statement about not using foam, it dosnt breath either, so sweat is something that will befall who ever wears the whatever it is.

R

thanks guys. the bits that i’m making with foam aren’t needing too much in the way of flex except for when putting on and taking off. They also aren’t right next to skin, thank goodness! I’ll use grey mat and spray paint and see how it goes.

I was thinking of latex Raoul, but if it’s really costly I’ll just try normal paint and cross fingers… and take paint with me for if it starts to come off.

Oh, Sridat has asked me to paint a rubber mask for him, but i’ve heard that ordinary face paints rot latex. Not having much luck finding the right kind of paint available in New Zealand. Any body else done this? Raoul? lol.

I’ve used ordinary green face paint to colour latex, don’t think it rotted it.

Copper-based paint is supposed to rot latex. Copper is in some metallic paints, sp it might be in some metallic face paints.

its also true of oil. this will eat latex pretty quickly. I beleave there might be a kind of metallic paints that you can get that don’t contain copper, but I wouldn’t know for sure, I have never actually needed to make metal as of yet, so have never done any experiments with it.

R

so if i stick with non-metallic makeup type face paint (Kryolan and Ben Nye) I should be ok? coz it would be cheaper if I didn’t have to buy new paints! It’s all “wash of with soap and water” type stuff.

Face paints aren’t usually oil based paints are they? Acrylic paint should be fine.
Incidentally sweat rots latex as well. :slight_smile: (yummy!)

Ryans right about using a neutral colour for the underlying foam, or at least one that is close to the colour you are painting it.
Also, another thing you could do would be to use Ados F2 to glue a cotton based material across the foam like a skin and then paint over that.
The paint will hold fairly well, with less cracking, but you get the texture of the material come through the paint so its not the best method for some applications.

thanks, i’ll talk to Sridat about just attacking the mask with ordinary face paints. even if it does rot it a bit, it won’t be like throwing acid on it… it’s not gonna happen immediately.

Damn, that’s the name of the glue stuff! I’ve been using ordinary PVA craft glue, which means it’s probably just all gonna fall apart. doh :frowning:

ah well, live and learn.

Yep, Ados F2 is the shizz…
If you only need a small amount, or after hours, you can get a very similar adhesive called KwikGrip from supermarkets.

Bunnings and Mitre 10 sell “Contact Adhesive” that is cheaper than Ados F2, and functions exactly the same.

[quote=“Scotty”]Yep, Ados F2 is the shizz…
If you only need a small amount, or after hours, you can get a very similar adhesive called KwikGrip from supermarkets.[/quote]

the Warehouse carries Bostik glue which is pretty much identical to ADOS F2 and half the price ($15/L not $30/L)