Working With Solid Foam

[elmayerle]

I recently acquired a solid plasitc foam model of the "Tu-26 Backfire-B" from the, I'd guess, 1980s, based on the best available intelligence data of the time.  Ostensibly, it's in 1/126 scale, but that's close enough for me to use 1/144 weaposn to arm my Tu-26MP interceptor.  My question is in regards to the best paints to use for priming and painting when I get that far.  Mind you, some of the smaller details, like the inlets, seem to be missing, so I'm going to scratch some Tu-22Me style ones.

Thanks for any help.

[HOG]

Hiya,
Not knowing the type of foam you have ,I would suggest that you stick to waterbased paints, most acrylics, gouache etc at least for the first coat. Once given an overall coat you could experiment with enamels in a hidden area. I have painted polystyrene ceiling tiles in enamel after precoating with emulsion paint (like wot decorators use) but tyhis may be a bit heavy on a small scale model.
regards Gary
:DALEK:

[Mossie]

I'd go careful with the adhesive you use too, super glue should be okay as it's not particuraly reactive but try an area first.  All purpose adhesive can melt some foams, as I found out while trying to fix a display board at work.   Avoid polystyrene cement like the plague!!!  Especially if it's expanded polystyrene, but almost anything else, it will pit it, shrink it & generally turn it into a mess.  Scenery modelers use it in this way to make cliff & rock faces, looks very effective, but even Russian aircraft don't weather that badly!

[jcf]

Hi Evan,
assuming its the two-part expanding polyurethane foam (commonly used for flotation in boats) that was used in the other foam kits I've seen from the 1980s, I'd go for 5-minute epoxy as adhesive and spray on a coat of Krylon Fusion as a base primer.

If it is the polyurethane foam, polystyrene cement will not work as it will not melt the surface.

I've used the two-part stuff working on boats and have glassed over it with no problems with both polyester resin and epoxy.

Jon

[elmayerle]

Thanks, Jon. I appreciate the help, all, since I'm going to have to build-up my own intakes for this beastie and those, almost certainly, will be styrene and putty.  It should be a bit of a challenge, but it needs be done.  I envision the model being displayed in flight since no landing gear or gear-bay doors came with it, either.

[MartG]

White PVA glue also works well with foam, and being water based won't affect the foam in any way

[noxioux]

I used to work with a lot of the yellow urethane foam for signs.  We used "gorilla glue", which worked really well, but made a big mess--I wouldn't recommend it for something on this scale.  It would foam out on the edges.  But once you gorilla glued it, it was NOT coming apart short of total destruction.

We used a heavy high-hide acrylic primer to completely seal the foam.  I think any kind of heavy acrylic primer would work great, and then you could paint on top of that with whatever tickled your fancy.