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I'm using a mixture of water and acrylic paint to spray paint my extruded foam "rocks" using a spray bottle. I'm on my 5th coat and I can still see some pink showing through.
Should I have coated it with something first?
First, I would use full strength acylic paint with just a touch of alcohol to make it flow. You'll get better coverage since you don't have to worry about an even, smooth coat. Second, it's aways a good idea to brush paint the foam with some cheap brown latex paint first. You can then add highlight colors with the spray bottle and not worry about the pink showing through. The problem with spraying is that it's hard to get into the nooks and crannies of the "rock". A brush is much better for the first pass.
Yes you need a solid base coat then what we do is using the 3-4oz bottles of inexpensive acrylics is to shoot a bit out straight out of the bottle and using a brush and a spray bottle of water start working/blending it together.
Taking your time and seeing how the different colors flow together is the trick.
That was my plan "B" but I just wanted to confirm.
Wow... great looking rocks.
I pre-painted all my extruded foam board with full strength latex before fabbing it in to sub bed over the plywood. For the mountains, I left it unpainted as I found the P300 sticks best to the raw foam. When the final shaping is complete, then I will spray it with the latex base coat.
spraying is good for final coats as you can vary the tone and such, but as mentioned, the 1st coat needs to be fairly heavy and thick, much thicker than spraying will allow. I used an old hairspray pump bottle, it works great (gotta clean the tip!)
Agreed - by painting the raw sheets, I was able to use a roller and totally hide the pink.
Good ole cheap Lowes or Home Depot dirt brown paint (in your favorite flavor of dirt) Slather it on thick with a brush in 3 ft squares. The while it is still wet, toss the first layers of ground covering on it, them move on.
The paint acts like glue to the foam, saving a step later!
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