Plastic coating foam

[vargatom]

Here's another new trick I've found on the Replica Props forum (highly recommended to visit)

http://www.therpf.com/f24/how-plastic-coat-foam-costume-pieces-146539/
http://www.xrobots.co.uk/coating/

Looks like he pretty much found the Holy Grail for foam builders. No more seams, although you do have to sacrifice the flexibility as well - but hey, you can always skip this plastic coating on some parts.

I wonder about that smooth cast thing, not sure if it's easy to get.
Also, lack of respirators is probably a bad idea on his part...

 

[LoneHowler]

I wonder if that can be done with pepacura as well

 

[vargatom]

I'm sure it can be done somehow, but the entire point of the method is that you don't have to worry about cutting and gluing all those tiny tabs, and all that fiberglass. Using foam as the base material can cut the build time significantly and with this approach you can still use bondo and sanding to fine tune the shapes and get a nice smooth surface in the end.

Those of us who tried both the cardboard pep and the foam approach can tell you how much easier and convenient foam is. Yet this method allows the end results to stand up to pep and resin/bondo... which is why I've talked about the Holy Grail

 

[Drakon]

Here's another new trick I've found on the Replica Props forum (highly recommended to visit)

http://www.therpf.com/f24/how-plastic-coat-foam-costume-pieces-146539/
http://www.xrobots.co.uk/coating/

Looks like he pretty much found the Holy Grail for foam builders. No more seams, although you do have to sacrifice the flexibility as well - but hey, you can always skip this plastic coating on some parts.

I wonder about that smooth cast thing, not sure if it's easy to get.
Also, lack of respirators is probably a bad idea on his part...

Smooth Cast is very easy to get. I get mine from http://www.reynoldsam.com I have used it for a couple of years now on other prop projects. And it is very good stuff. As to not wearing a respirator. While there is a risk of it getting onto your bare skin as it heats up as it cures. The vapor content is virtually non-existant. Unlike fiberglass resin that does give off noxious fumes. Reynolds also provides MSDS sheets for all materials that they ship.

 

[usmccountryboy1]

thanks for the links should help me out

 

[XRobots]

Hello, it's James from XRobots.co.uk here, thanks for posting the links. Yes Polyurethane can be hazardous so I should probably have mentioned that I had the door and window open - although it doesn't smell that bad it's not great to breath in lots of the fumes.

You can get Smooth-on products from Curetime in the UK/Europe, which is part of Bentley Chemicals: http://shop.shopatcuretime.co.uk/

Other Polyurethane resins would probably work if you keep the coats thin, but you'd have to do some experiments. The 65D is specifically good because it's a rotocast resin which means it give a nice even coat if you keep the piece rotating as it sets.

I'm really looking forward to getting my next project underway when I've finished my Iron Man suit, haven't really decided what to do, but hopefully I'll get it finished a lot quicker next time: http://www.xrobots.co.uk/IM6/

 

[XxDrxNinjaxX]

Sweet! This should help out my build a lot! Thanks for posting these! Honestly I would've never even tried to look haha.