painting Foam Board Insulation

[thomas81z]

i want to spray my insulation a ground brown color  but i know some types "eat" the material sooo

can i find a compadible spray paint or do i have to do brush laytex ???

[jrbernier]

There are acrylic based camouflage brown and green rattle cans, but they are expensive. Normal lacquer based rattle cans will eat up your foam.
Latex house paint will work. It is inexpensive, comes in many flat colors and brushes on quite fast. Our club uses Dutch Boy 'potting soil' color for basic ground color.
Jim

[mlehman]

One option I use is to spary the foam first with Zinser 1-2-3 primer. It also comes in the standard 1 gallon can form, but we're in a hurry or we wouldn't be sparying, right?

I use this method to make shallow relief mountains and parts of liftouts. They're in the background here.

With a little practice, though, and the need for certain types of scenery, you can use the melting in your favor. In this one, I used the Zinser on the background mountains. The middleground and foreground were both sparyed carefully without primer after shaping. The middle ground tree-cover hilltops then had green foam/netting applied to represent vegetation. Closest and actually a little hard to see are the gully and wash effects, highlighted with additional painting with latex. Past a certain point, you don't want the melting to continue...

 EDIT: Realized I had a few recent shots that show decent angles to see the effectiveness of these thin, yet somewhat 3D mountains. It's done by quick, angled cuts that both give the sawtooth profile and add some texture near the top. You can layer them up with themselves...

Or with some more standard foam scenery in front as on the left side of this pic as the camera rotated to the left over the newly installed track at Black Cat Junction and the partially mocked up liftout that provides access by utilizing the light weight of foam.

Finally, a view above Summit Siding and Camp 13 showing the sawtooth profile backing up more conventional scenery.

BTW, most of all that scenery is also a lift-out for easy access.

 

[kasskaboose]

A cheap and easy way of painting insulation is visiting HD or Lowes' painting dept where they have unwanted interior house paint for cheap.  Then find any shade of brown.  You can mix n' match shades and while the paint is wet on the foam, sprinkle the ground cover.

Mlehman: Pls don't post any more photos of your layout--you make me jealous!

[mlehman]

kasskaboose

Mlehman: Pls don't post any more photos of your layout--you make me jealous!

Okey-dokey, this thread only

Thanks for the compliment

In my defense......I tend to use very simple and cheap techniques. For the most part, they're also very easy, as with the foamboard mountains. Simple, spray-painted sky on alumninum flashing. Lots of bumpy chenille trees (~7,500) supplemented by a few bigger RTR ones. Sculptamold over pink foam. In general, I've never been very artistic in the conventional sense, but guess I have a good eye for scenery.

Space can be a limit for anyone, but the scene with the caboose that looks like it goes on for miles? It's only 10" high.

[jfb]

i paint and repair car bodys for a living so here is some practical advice. pull the can or paint gun farther back so it goes on dry. i make sure that the paint though does have a thick body to it also the wetter solvents do sink in and of course more product has more solvents. I would look for paints made by dupont. I visited there factory in philly pa for a 2 week seminar and they have there act together.