PlaymoFriends
Creative => How-To => Topic started by: Wolf Knight on December 05, 2010, 10:14:03
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Hi all,
Just wanted to share my experience on working my Cygnusdale diorama from my recent photostory project with PU foam!!!
So, first of all, take a board...and your kitty along if she is too curious and wants to see what will happen (attachment 1).
I just placed the major items on the board to see how they will look .... no Isis is not part of the diorama... but as always she was most curious to see what her master was up to... (attachment 2) ... and I drew some outlines with the pencil just to have an idea whereabouts would I be spraying the foam (attachment 3)... not an easy thing to do as I found out in the process...
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..I just hammered some nails on the board for stability of the foam, (attachment 1)
and sprayed, what I thought would be sufficient, the first can of PU foam... (attachment 2)
but since one was not enough I used three cans of PU foam...and the differnt colour at that (attachment 3)... still I did not what was expecting me...
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What happened next was the foam started to run outside the board...and of course some of it run on the balcony floor (attachment 1)... I tried to press and squeeze it back at its place a bit but most of it had already started to harden... so it was not easy to repair anything...the foam from the third can made things even worse, as not having gloves I touched the thing with bare hands to reshape it...foam stuck on my hands for a week or so....
The next day, I went back to cut the foam... and this was a complete disaster.... (attachment 2) the foam inside had not hardened... :o it was even stickier than the freshly sprayed foam... :o :o :o (attachment 3)
Needless to say, the knife, a cutter, couple of t-shirts, a towel and a pair of gloves ended up in the trash...I tried using acetone as a solvent to clean but somehow everthing was turning out wrong...
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I finally got rid of all the foam that had not solidify (attachment 1 and 2) and found out, dispite all the material disaster, that this is a good opportunity to use this as a cave, or lunar diorama!!!
But that is a thought for another time...I just went on painting the board sufrace and the mountain rock with hobby paint spray, water based... (attachment 3)
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I brought the board in the livingroom the third day and started placing the various items on it (attachment 1)...and then placed the motivo paper (attachment 2) which had too many clouds for my taste...but this was the best I could find... I also had difficulty keeping it in place as it was rather heavy and the different layers were overlaping, thus not making easy for the paper tape to hold it...
Despite all that, this was the result!!! (attachment 3)
I hope you found this useful and entertaining as I did!!! :)
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WOW what a lot of work went into this masterpiece! :o :o :o
I wondered how you did the hills :yup:
BTW, Isis is soooo cute :love: :love: :love:
Damo :rudy:
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What a wonderful and thoughtful job. Thank you so much for sharing the step by step plan and your triumphs and pitfalls. This is all great information and good of you to share.
I agree with Damo, Isis is a doll! :love:
Joe
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wow! thanx Panos.... that was very instructional! I'll think twice before using that foam, thought the result is great...and the caves would look amazing!! thanx for the ideas!!!! :)
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Thank you for the excellent instructions on this project :)9! I may use this procedure in the future for photo stories, too :camera:! Fantastic idea :yup:! Use of this new spray foam for landscaping is limitless :high5:!
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Thank you all for replies!!! :) :) :)
To Damo and Joe: see one more attached pic of her while I was thinking about how to place the various parts ;) She would just go back on the board every time to check whats new!!!
To Gaston and Bill: If I had let the first and second layer of foam to solidify properly this ''cave'' would not have happened! So the key here, if you use more than one can of foam is to spay, then leave it for a few hours and then spray again...Also remember, if you do something like that, you'll have to keep the can upside down and make backwards movement with it!
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Very interesting seeing how this is all done. What is PU foam and where do you get it? And your cat is so cute; typically nosy. ::) That's really cool how you ended up with the cave. That works out nicely.
Forgive, me for this, Panos, but I have to tell you I got kind of tickled. I was noticing the view from your balcony, the neighbors across the way with their beautiful potted plants and everything just so, and wondering what they must have thought of you out on your balcony with the spray foam going everywhere! Just a funny mental picture I had. :-[ :giggle:
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Very interesting seeing how this is all done. What is PU foam and where do you get it? And your cat is so cute; typically nosy. ::) That's really cool how you ended up with the cave. That works out nicely.
Forgive, me for this, Panos, but I have to tell you I got kind of tickled. I was noticing the view from your balcony, the neighbors across the way with their beautiful potted plants and everything just so, and wondering what they must have thought of you out on your balcony with the spray foam going everywhere! Just a funny mental picture I had. :-[ :giggle:
:lol: :lol: :lol: You should've seen the couple right across my balcony...they were taking turns, coming out on their balcony supposedly for various little tasks, trying to realise whaT the heck I was doing!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: Still, this was not the first time... they did the same when I was painting my cathedral and renovating the chrome armour of my Nuremburg Guards :lol: :lol:
PU foam is the polyurethane foam, used for insulation or filling gaps in construction, walls, doors etc When you spay it its thin, but slowly its increasing in size, solidifying and filling the space you need to insulate! You can get it at any store with building material! I think sweetking used it at his diorama with the pixies!
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Ok, thanks. I was noticing in a diorama from... somewhere with a house that was burning, and I thought it looked like that expanding foam, but didn't know what it was called. I suspected this was what you were talking about!
Sounds like you enjoy giving your neighbors something to talk about! :lol:
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thanks for the info. your layout looks great. 8-)
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That is a great layout Panos, :clap: I too had wondered what you had used.
If you had fastened some pieces of card along the edge, would that have stopped it from dripping off the end do you think, or would it not have been strong enough?
Isis is a beauty - is she in kitten? she doen't seem very big ??? I seem to remember you saying that her babies were due in December.
Elaine (http://www.anchoredbygrace.com/smileys/mgqueen.gif)
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That is a great layout Panos, :clap: I too had wondered what you had used.
If you had fastened some pieces of card along the edge, would that have stopped it from dripping off the end do you think, or would it not have been strong enough?
Isis is a beauty - is she in kitten? she doen't seem very big ??? I seem to remember you saying that her babies were due in December.
Elaine (http://www.anchoredbygrace.com/smileys/mgqueen.gif)
Isis is two years old now :love: :love: :love: ! But she is still behaving like a kitten :lol: :lol: :lol: (she is layed down on the keyboard as I try to type these words... ::) )I never gave her any vitamins so her build remained small, but she has an elegant figure, probably due to the special food for persian cats from Royal Canin! Unfortunatelly, the matting rituals that took place late August were not successful :(...but she is still young and she will have plenty of opportunities ;)
A card along the edges would be a good idea :!: ...maybe pieces made of wood nailed acctually and then removed... That would also save the cutting and the use of more foam!!! Thanks Elaine! A good thought to keep in mind for the next time I'll use this kind of foam... The foam is expanding but it is not able to knock down something that is good in its place...
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Thanks for the detailed guide, Panos, which will be very useful to me as I've been thinking of using this sort of foam in dioramas and suchlike.
I love Isis, a real supervisor cat! Unfortunately, Fluff our present cat has no interest in DIY, modelling or gardening. Our previous cats always have paid attention to what I was doing, but not Fluff.
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That's a superb diorama, Panos! I really like seeing how you created it! :)
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Thanks for the detailed guide, Panos, which will be very useful to me as I've been thinking of using this sort of foam in dioramas and suchlike.
I love Isis, a real supervisor cat! Unfortunately, Fluff our present cat has no interest in DIY, modelling or gardening. Our previous cats always have paid attention to what I was doing, but not Fluff.
Glad you liked this method Gordon! And it always helps to have a supervisor cat ;D!!!
That's a superb diorama, Panos! I really like seeing how you created it! :)
Glad you enjoyed it Justin!!! :wave:
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Thanks a lot for the step by step Sir Wolf. It will be a real help in the future for us I think...def need to look into trying that.
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Sir Wolf Knight, very awesome read! I was recently frustrated with the fact that my sys x 3268 castle had no proper environment besides the living room floor, and I wanted a mote around the castle as well. So I bought a large 2-inch-thick styrofoam to act as the base of the new castle grounds.
I also bought some of this insulation foam in a can (only one) with the idea that I would spray it along the base of the castle where it meets the ground to give it a more natural look (as oppossed to straight flat ground) as well as carve out a real mote that surrounds the castle.
My question to you:
will the insulation foam stick irrecoverably to the castle walls? Do you think I can mask the walls first? Or do you think it's a bad idea altogether? From what I gather, this foam is potent stuff and does not come off whatever it touches (including hands).
Also, I know you carved the edges off of your foam, but how easy would it be to carve the foam to a specific shape to fit the landscape? (in your case you just used the existing shape that resulted from you directly spraying the foam-- ridges and bubbles and all, from the looks of it.) Like, if I sprayed too much and the hill was bigger than I wanted, could it be carved down to my desired specs for slope and curvature? Or is it tough to carve? And is it filled with lots of bubbles?
Thanks in advance for your help!
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Ok Atto here's what you can do:
The foam is indeed too sticky and its better not to place it directly on a surface, unless you are absolutely sure you want it to stay there. So the idea of spraying it direclty on steck parts is out of the question. Even if you remove it, it will leave stains on the plastic...
I'd suggest, if you want to make a slope, hill or ridge, make sure you spray in layers and leave each layer to get crusty, but not too crusty, before you spray the next layer, just to avoid the slimy cave effect I got, which will reveal itself when cutting the foam, which btw is very easy to do so if the foam is dry solid...
Once you finish the spraying, and the foam is crusty but not too crusty, you can gently place the steck parts on the surface you want. It won't be solid yet, but it will be crusty thus not allowing it to stick on the plastic. The foam is elastic so it will just touch the steck parts and expands toward the other end, thus taking the shape of the part towards which is up ahead...
So, to sum up,
1. spray in layers, and leave each layer to dry a bit
2. dont let it get too crusty
3. it can be cut easily once it solidifies
4. before it solidifies its elastic and not sticky, so its easy to press something gently up against it
5. make sure you wear gloves
Hope this helps Atto! If you still have questions don't hesitate to ask. I am looking forward to your results! ;)
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just a piece of advice guys.... be carefull with spraying stuff on styrofoam. Some products with certains solvents "eat" and melt the styrofoam. try it first on a small area. ;)
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just a piece of advice guys.... be carefull with spraying stuff on styrofoam. Some products with certains solvents "eat" and melt the styrofoam. try it first on a small area. ;)
sound advice Gaston ;)
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HI
That is a very professional looking diorama you made there. It really looks like the ones playmobil used to make and have in shops.
thanks for sharing your pictures and techniques
Rasputin "The Mad Monk"