What spray paint to use on Dollar Tree foamboard?

Silvr Surfr

Junior Member
Hi everyone,

I was just wondering if anyone has advice on what is the best type of spray paint to use on Dollar Tree foamboard? I have tried a couple types, and some of them seem to loosen the bond between the paper and the foam. Any advice would be appreciated.

Surfr
 

KKArioKA

Epoxi Flyer
here is the method i use in depron, EPS and Elapor, not sure about DTF with paper coating.

1- use water based spray to preserve the foam
2- spray from a good distance at least 30 - 40 cm (1,5ft)
3- spray in multiple layers, dont soak the paper !
4- First LAYER is very important that you do only a very thin shadow, it will settle as the base for the rest of the coating.
5- use fast and linear movements to spray, like a old typewriter, release the spray button after each "line".

i hope it helps ! Welcome to the FORUM !
 

con244

Senior Member
Hi SilvrSurfr
I usually just use the rattle cans of spray enamel that you can get at hardware shops. The trick is to just put very light coats on, especially the first coat. I have managed to separate the paper and foam but that was by putting too much paint on per coat. By putting light coats on and waiting for it to dry properly you don't compromise the bond between paper and foam. The foam on the edges is also affected by the paint but after the first coat it generally is sealed and no longer affected.
Con
 

Silvr Surfr

Junior Member
Thanks for the replys. I'll give it another try with the enamel. I think I may have gone too heavy on the first coat.

Surfr
 

tramsgar

Senior Member
I you paint foam board with paper on both sides, I've noticed that it helps to paint both sides at same time. All previous advice still apply, of course.
 

hart

Aussie in Belfast
Plasti-koke worked well for me on foam board sourced here in the UK - not the same as your dollar-tree foam board, the paper on this stuff here was stuck down a lot harder than the dollar-tree - but still, you might have some success. Again, light coats, apply 3-4 coats for best finish.
 

aiidanwings

Senior Member
I use the .99 cent stuff from Walmart. Great color variety, and any paint will wrinkle the paper if it's applied too quickly. Get out of the wind, hold the can a foot and a half or so away and mist it slowly.
 

DumbAce

Junior Member
I Airbrush using a $21 airbrush from Harbor Frieght and I use Createx water based paint from Hobby Lobby WORKS GREAT ! ! !
 

solarflash

Junior Member
I remembered a build article by Larry Renger for foamboard 1/2a control line models that used Cox or Norvel glow engine. If Larry could make the foam board fuel proof for up to 15% nitro, it should work to seal out water from moisture from our electric craft. I was able to find the article, Flying Models- Jan 2002. Larry tapes the foam edges with Scotch tape and then sprays on urethane clear. "You can use tape, stickers, decals, Magic Marker, watercolors, or almost anything except Crayon to decorate your plane. (Urethane will bead up over wax)" When you are ready, spray a light coat of Urethane Spar Varnish over the entire model. Let it dry overnight, sand it very lightly with 600 grit paper to just kill any remaining fuzz, then give the plane a nice heavy coating with the spray varnish. Larry said he likes to put the model in a hot car trunk for a couple afternoons to set up the varnish nice and hard.
I will be trying this on a couple basic foamboard planes like the FT Flyer to see how it works out, but it seems like it will seal it up. Not sure how much weight will be added, but a heavy plane is better than mush........
 

jamesvok

Junior Member
I made a big mistake today. Painted the bottom of the fuse with water based paint through an airbrush... as it dried, it shrunk the paper and warped the tail pretty badly. Oddly enough I used enamel up top and it worked like a champ with no bending.

The warp is worse than it looks, and it is now flimsy back there too! Drat!

Now I guess my only alternative is to make a dollar tree run and get some board to make a new horizontal stab/elevator. Bummer! Will have to cut the rudder too in order to get it out, but I can patch that easily enough with epoxy and a few toothpicks I suppose.

photo.JPG
 

jamesvok

Junior Member
I made a big mistake today. Painted the bottom of the fuse with water based paint through an airbrush... as it dried, it shrunk the paper and warped the tail pretty badly. Oddly enough I used enamel up top and it worked like a champ with no bending.

The warp is worse than it looks, and it is now flimsy back there too! Drat!

Now I guess my only alternative is to make a dollar tree run and get some board to make a new horizontal stab/elevator. Bummer! Will have to cut the rudder too in order to get it out, but I can patch that easily enough with epoxy and a few toothpicks I suppose.

View attachment 9524
 

jhitesma

Some guy in the desert
Mentor
I just painted a baby blender with cheap rustoleum rattle cans. Just did LOTS of VERY light coats. I tested on some scrap first to make sure it would work well and had no problems. Well...I had a slight problem but that was due to a combination of wind, dust in the air and high temperatures that caused the paint to pretty much dry before it hit the plane leaving a very unsmooth finish :( But that was my own fault for not waiting for a calmer day to paint.

I've also had good luck letting my 2 year old daughter paint the board before I use it with her finger paints and water based acrylics...but I also had her destroy one board that way when she put the paint on too heavy - it didn't cause the paper to peel but it did cause the whole board to warp.

I also tried some water based acrylic in my airbrush and it worked wonderfully. But my airbrush is a pain to setup so I went with rattle cans instead - should have stuck with the airbrush though, the tests I did with it came out outstanding on both bare DTF and tape covered DTF.
 

Floatflyer

Junior Member
First post and on will just update this thread a bit. I just finished building an Avo Vulcan out of $Tree foam board. I am going to paint with a rattle can. The instructions that came with the plans said to put some Minwax Polyester on the paper and then wipe off with a paper towel before the Minwax dries. This is said to seal the paper and allow easy and warp free rattle can painting. I have applied the Minwax and will start painting tomorrow. I'll report in how this works. I have also put a small amount of epoxy on the cut sides of the foam to keep the paper from coming off the foam. I have pulled paper off of other foam planes and regretted losing the stiffness the paper provides. The epoxy does an ok job of sealing but is a bit messy. Looking for other options on this. Later, FF
 

ViperTech

Member
I use Krylon Fusion for plastics, light coats of course that is the real trick. This paint is fast drying, on a 80 deg. day 15 min. and it is dry. It holds masking tape well and peels off really easy for stripes and designs.
Here is an example, Old speedster base painted white then Red stripes.
View attachment 62677
 

ika

DTF nut
Jamesvok, I haven't tried this yet, but I have similar warping on the horizontal stab an older airframe that I was planning to fix. I am going to try & peel the bottom paper off the horiz stab and re-glue it with 3M77 spray glue, then pressing it flat & straight while drying. I was planning on using wax paper to prevent the paper from sticking on the wrong side :) Anyone else tried this?
 

jpot1

Elite member
I have had a lot of success by first sealing any exposed edges with a little hot glue. Just put it on and then with scrap DTFB wipe it off. Then using the oil based minwax, brushing it on and then wiping it off with a paper towel. At that point any type of spray paint is fine. As suggested above, a light first coat and you are good to go. It takes a little extra time but the hot glue helps seal the paper to the foam on the edges and the minwax makes it waterproof. This is important for me as I land on grass so typically do not use landing gear and any moisture on the grass getting on to the DTFB can cause the paper to delaminate. Picture below of my spitfire using this process. There are other articles on FT regarding the minwax.

image.jpeg
 

abieex

Member
Mentor
I still use the oilbased minwax as the first coat. Second coat is plain old Rustoleum gloss. It gives me a good finish and no issues with the paper.
 

Floatflyer

Junior Member
This is funny. I am building a replacement Avo Vulcan and shot a little Krylon onto the vertical stab and the paper started bubbling. I stopped and just Googled "How to paint DT foam board" and found this thread. As I read down it I found another Avo Vulcan being built/painted, it WAS ME from over 3 years ago!!! Anyway, I guess I put too much paint on too quickly, I will try the other side of the vertical stab and see how that goes. This is a great flying plane and my original was showing the wear and tear from abuse so the new one is almost ready to take over the skies.