Hi there all.

So, a number of people have asked in my "it's not that easy being green" thread about how I achieved my results. I did say that I would do a tutorial a while back, but got really busy with my other project. Sorry. But I am a man of my word, so here goes.

Please note: I have seen much discussion, both here and on other forums lately on the subject of smoothing seams in foam; many have listed different ways of going about it and which stage is most important. understand, I'm not saying any particular way is right or wrong, I'm just sharing the way I've gone about it.
I hope it helps.

Ok, so first off, I'm showing examples with the backpack exhaust ball. this is the piece that most of the time is short-cut and traded out for a round stryofoam ball.
I'm using this piece for the tutorial just to show what results can be achieved with this method.

So, first off we start with a rough cut and glued foam piece.Nothing pretty. I cut all my pieces with a old pair of scissors. I'm not worried about perfect edges, as this is not the stage where the magic happens. ( You will notice that I pinch the glue before it dries, making removal easier.)

Then I break out the "mouse sander" with and very course grit (50) and rough sand all the seams and edges. This is also the point where you can begin to alter any corners/edges/ shapes that need altering. Here the seams begin to hide into the form.

Next I switch over to a much finer grit (220) and repeat. And in this second smotth sanding, the seams all but ment away.







Now, that last pick is getting a little ahead, but I didn't take any pics. of the backpack sealing stage.

Ok. Now that we have really smooth seams, we move on the sealing the foam. I use plastidip for this. Use as many layers as you can (several) as you'll watch each hide those smooth seams more and more.



Then comes the painting stage. I used krylon fusions and rustoleum outdoors paints, but the plastidip helps most any paint stick. Again, use several layers of paint as they help hide any imperfections.





And finally, use any of your remaining imperfections in your weathering paint scheme... that's battle damage baby!

In the end you should have something like this:



Now, stop listening to me and go back to building.
;)

Very handy mate.

Like it... how heavy is foam to the glass build??

Thank you, very nicely done.
Great results

Thank you very much for the tutorial.

Wow, I didn't know you could sand foam like that. Thanks for the info.

I love gator grit 50! It's great on my Rondo pieces too. I will ahve to take a few pads over my bolter and chewie feet and see what kind of results i can get.

Any chance we can get this stickied or put in a how to section, pretty useful I feel.

Well done. Never woulda thought the mouse sander approach would work.

So... how do you model the foam like that? By eye, or can you manage to pepakura it somehow?

Haha, dude! That is amazing. It's so much better than my half-assed Salamander build at the moment! My main problem is I'm way too lazy to get the shin guards and things like that perfectly rounded :C

No motivation!