Me thinketh that perhaps when the resin hits the surface of the foam it distributes the colour evenly into the microscopic voids that exist on the surface.
As the paint is sprayed, it only covers the surface from the direction it has been sprayed in leaving finy voids untouched.
Geez I can’t wait to get my hands on the airbrush kit…
I think you need to seal it with something to prevent the colour from running.
Chipfish, It’s normal when you spray on the foam for the paint to lighten. Also, the white foam will show through if you look closely,because when the foam gets shaped, the bubbles of air in the foam get sliced making little craters that don’t take the paint as easily.
You can spray on more than two coats of paint to help with the problem, but be sure each coat is dry before you go on to the next coat. I use a blow dryer between coats, and it works great.
You stated that you are using acrylic out of spray cans. It’s probably acryic lacquer. Be careful with it. I know from experience that if you spray lacquer too thick, you’ll have problems with the lamination. It will pull away, leaving bubbles. Very frustrating.
My recommendation, after pulling my hair out because of problems with lacquer paints, is to use water-based acrylic. Less toxic. Easy clean up, and compatible with resin. Doug
For a change on my next board, I may go with a pigment on the foam with my ‘mal’ , then. [Maybe I could even try a ‘resin swirl’ on top of the pigment…with a different coloured pigment. Or, use a tint on top of the pigment…have many people done that ?]
If I use epoxy resin for this, will I need to allow ‘extra’ than I would if I was tinting a laminate ?
I realise I will still have to clear laminate a layer or two of cloth over the pigment , when it’s dried…I’m talking here of will the foam soak up the resin and pigment like a sponge ? [ie more than a laminating coat through say 2 layers of 6oz will ? ]
thanks for any help on this…
ben
I guess the ‘colour disappears’ question was more to do with, in effect, the sanding lightening the painted then laminated blank, after a fairly even and good looking spray job on the foam…
if you decide to use pigmented resin on foam , it will be lighter than you expect for sure…for example if you were to use red it might look dark like blood when you pour it on , and pink like girly when you pull out the excess…so on with other colors
Resinheads 10 cents, I use a HVLP sprayer when i paint foam, it’s kind of tricky because it sprays a lot of paint in a short period of time, but you never have to worry about blochy paint jobs…your talking about blochy paint jobs, because if you had an even coat of paint it wouldn’t go light on you. Loose the spray cans if you can afford a compressor and gun. A spray can will give you about 8 inches of consistent spray width, an HVLP will spray about 16 inches of width. So you only make 2 maybe three passes and your done. Remember to spray from the left side let it dry, and spray from the right side, that way you’ll get the foam bubbles craters covered.
Tint. The only problem with tint nowadays is that it doesn’t have all the wonderful lead and chemicals that make it so vibrant. Tints will start to fade in about 6 months of sun use. If you can get your hands on any old 60’s or 70’s tints, buy them all up. I bought a bunch from Polyester Pig, J Francisco a few years back, and i hoard them for my personal boards. The tints now I use on a regular basis, I’ll put about 2 oz of liquid tint per qt of resin, and sometimes this is too light, but blues, greens, purples will looks like black in the bucket, and reds, oranges look like browns in the bucket. It’s better too use way too much tint than too little. No one has ever said, hey that board looks too red, or hey that board looks too blue. But I have heard, hey nice girly Easter egg board.
if you decide to use pigmented resin on foam , it will be lighter than you expect for sure…for example if you were to use red it might look dark like blood when you pour it on , and pink like girly when you pull out the excess…so on with other colors