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Post by jennifer on Feb 21, 2016 12:23:44 GMT
I was just wondering what would be the best method to make a dollar tree foam dungeon floor as hard as a rock. I love the ability to etch in texture, but I also want it to hold up and not deform. Not sure which glue if any would get absorbed by the foam before painting.
Or is there an outer coating I can put on it that is really tough and strengthens?
I want to make some cobblestone dungeon tiles for use with my modular walls I just made.
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Post by curufin on Feb 21, 2016 12:46:50 GMT
I bush on two coat of PVA (white) glue. I dont water it down, I just go full strength, right out of the bottle. I let the first coat completely dry before adding the second coat. It seem to make the foam pretty solid. If you also glue it to a sub-straight it should be quite durable.
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Post by baravakar on Feb 21, 2016 14:24:20 GMT
I would suggest watering the glue down a little and add 1 drop of shampoo. This will break the surface tension of the material and allow the glue to better settle into the cracks.
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Post by jennifer on Feb 21, 2016 16:27:39 GMT
I would suggest watering the glue down a little and add 1 drop of shampoo. This will break the surface tension of the material and allow the glue to better settle into the cracks. Thank you. Would head and shoulders work or dog shampoo? Knowing me I'd use the wrong shampoo and mess it up lol.
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Post by jennifer on Feb 21, 2016 16:27:58 GMT
I bush on two coat of PVA (white) glue. I dont water it down, I just go full strength, right out of the bottle. I let the first coat completely dry before adding the second coat. It seem to make the foam pretty solid. If you also glue it to a sub-straight it should be quite durable. That's really gorgeous curufin! AFter all the glue and paint and sealing, how much give would you say it has? Btw, how do you seal your terrain? scenic cement?
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Post by curufin on Feb 21, 2016 16:49:22 GMT
I bush on two coat of PVA (white) glue. I dont water it down, I just go full strength, right out of the bottle. I let the first coat completely dry before adding the second coat. It seem to make the foam pretty solid. If you also glue it to a sub-straight it should be quite durable. That's really gorgeous curufin! AFter all the glue and paint and sealing, how much give would you say it has? Btw, how do you seal your terrain? scenic cement? I could still dent the surface or squash it with my finger if I wanted to without too much trouble, but it is durable enough to withstand heavy gaming with pewter figures. I dont seal any terrain pieces I make, unless the act of sealing produces a desired effect (like using ModPodge/Polycrilic for a glossy water). I build stuff out of what ever I can find (cardboard, craftsticks, foamcore, etc), I spray paint black, and then paint with sponges or brushes.
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Post by baravakar on Feb 21, 2016 18:13:42 GMT
Would head and shoulders work or dog shampoo? Knowing me I'd use the wrong shampoo and mess it up lol. I just use what we have in the house. Any liquid soap would work.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 22, 2016 3:59:31 GMT
i use PVA glue as well, my pieces fell to the ground often and they have no dent at all. of course like curufin said, if you truly wanted to you could. nothing can becaome rock solid. but PVA works just fine. but i do use 50/50 glue on my pieces though. definitely should try with soap as well.
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Post by jennifer on Feb 22, 2016 4:03:34 GMT
i use PVA glue as well, my pieces fell to the ground often and they have no dent at all. of course like curufin said, if you truly wanted to you could. nothing can becaome rock solid. but PVA works just fine. but i do use 50/50 glue on my pieces though. definitely should try with soap as well. So you seal virtually all of your dungeon pieces with a 50/50 pva/water? I was thinking of sealing my walls with a 25/75 pva/water. I've sealed terrain with this before. But was worried of any moisture and them becoming tacky. Also would they attract dirt and look dingy over time vs a matte acrylic sealing?
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Post by adamsouza on Feb 22, 2016 13:07:54 GMT
50/50 is good, use it myself. Not sure why you want to use 25/75, as like you mentioned, that much moisture would seem to cause issues. Heck, I'd use straight PVA if I could get away with it, and sometimes do, but it is thick and difficult to push around.
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Post by jennifer on Feb 22, 2016 14:34:14 GMT
50/50 is good, use it myself. Not sure why you want to use 25/75, as like you mentioned, that much moisture would seem to cause issues. Heck, I'd use straight PVA if I could get away with it, and sometimes do, but it is thick and difficult to push around. I guess I am used to using a thinner amount because I spray it on and all the excess runs off.. then after a couple means I shake more excess off and/or use a compressor. This works great for trees and other terrain especially well. I guess I am just used to using it because of the trees. I've also used a brush on 50/50 pva/water sealer. So I could use that. I just brushed on 100% pva as curufin suggested. Trying that out.
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Post by jennifer on Feb 22, 2016 14:42:19 GMT
I bush on two coat of PVA (white) glue. I dont water it down, I just go full strength, right out of the bottle. I let the first coat completely dry before adding the second coat. It seem to make the foam pretty solid. If you also glue it to a sub-straight it should be quite durable. So do you texture all the detail into the dollar tree foam, then coat it with 100% pva before painting? Reason I ask is I was wondering if you lose a lot of detail you just etched in by applying the glue. And if so, do you find you can get the detail back with the layer of white glue on it (after it dries)
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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 22, 2016 15:29:14 GMT
of course you do otherwise the designing is gonna be a bitch to do. you should look at scotties videos about it, he explains it greatly.
and no if run the pva glue correctly you wont lose any details. this is why i use 50/50 instead of full, to make sure it gets into the detail. but using full strenght shouldn'T be a problem either.
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Post by curufin on Feb 22, 2016 15:48:44 GMT
Yeah, I texture with a rock first. I will often press the detail in to the limits of the foam, because the foam will want to spring back a little. I then coat with glue. PVA has a ton of water in it to begin with, so I dont usually water it down. Really good point about a drop of dish soap to kill surface tension though. Even if I completely filled one of the large cracks with PVA, by the time it cured the crack wouldn't even be half filled. All the original detail still appears to be there, and I am heavy handed with the glue...and it was two coats.
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Post by jennifer on Feb 22, 2016 17:36:35 GMT
of course you do otherwise the designing is gonna be a bitch to do. you should look at scotties videos about it, he explains it greatly. Sorry, I phrased my questioning wrong. I know one textures it first. All I really meant was how much detail got lost with the PVA. If you have read my crafting thread then you already know I know how to etch dollar tree foam board. e.g.:
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Post by Grey Tower Games on Feb 22, 2016 17:41:41 GMT
Just a general question/thought of using the PVA to seal the piece. I would have thought that the foam board would warp pretty easily if PVA was liberally applied to it. I have some larger sheets of 1/2 MDF that are 2 foot x 4 foot in size. Even that thickness of very hard MDF wanted to warp slightly. It warped substantially when I tried to use 1/4 MDF instead.
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Post by jennifer on Feb 22, 2016 17:44:43 GMT
Just a general question/thought of using the PVA to seal the piece. I would have thought that the foam board would warp pretty easily if PVA was liberally applied to it. I have some larger sheets of 1/2 MDF that are 2 foot x 4 foot in size. Even that thickness of very hard MDF wanted to warp slightly. It warped substantially when I tried to use 1/4 MDF instead. Maybe I should then coat the bottom of the foam board with pva first. let that dry and then adhere to mdf or chipboard or whatever.. then do the texturing. then coat with pva on the top. It should balance it self out? PUlling on each side.
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Post by Grey Tower Games on Feb 22, 2016 17:54:03 GMT
Just a general question/thought of using the PVA to seal the piece. I would have thought that the foam board would warp pretty easily if PVA was liberally applied to it. I have some larger sheets of 1/2 MDF that are 2 foot x 4 foot in size. Even that thickness of very hard MDF wanted to warp slightly. It warped substantially when I tried to use 1/4 MDF instead. Maybe I should then coat the bottom of the foam board with pva first. let that dry and then adhere to mdf or chipboard or whatever.. then do the texturing. then coat with pva on the top. It should balance it self out? PUlling on each side. If it was me, I would mount it on the mdf first and then seal the top (foamboard only). I sugest making yourself a little test sheet (maybe 6" x 6") and try it on there first. If all is well, go ahead and replicate the process on your work.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 22, 2016 18:24:45 GMT
i have had no warping on my foam board up to this point. i did stairs and they are pretty straight. i did tombs and they are fine. the thing is, foam absorbs water perfectly and unlike cardstock the foam acts as a sponge. sponges do not warp because of water.
at least thats what i think. i made a test piece with some noodle like foam, the pva didn't stick to it. but it was great to see what pva glue looks like once its dryed out cause i was able to pick it off without breaking it. think i'll show that in a video just for the sake of it. thanks to that i could see that pva glue really is like a layer of fiber like substance. was weird, and its really really thin. so i think the detail lost is pretty minimal.
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Post by jennifer on Feb 22, 2016 19:55:18 GMT
i have had no warping on my foam board up to this point. i did stairs and they are pretty straight. i did tombs and they are fine. the thing is, foam absorbs water perfectly and unlike cardstock the foam acts as a sponge. sponges do not warp because of water. at least thats what i think. i made a test piece with some noodle like foam, the pva didn't stick to it. but it was great to see what pva glue looks like once its dryed out cause i was able to pick it off without breaking it. think i'll show that in a video just for the sake of it. thanks to that i could see that pva glue really is like a layer of fiber like substance. was weird, and its really really thin. so i think the detail lost is pretty minimal. If the Dollar Tree really absorbed like a sponge then it wouldn't be squishy feeling after the PVA dried Ideally, the squishy foam would get totally absorbed by something that dries rock hard. But I guess this just isn't possible -- need to try the drop of dish soap.
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