A call for help with my wizards tower: update the tower has been saved

[Thoronde]

Dear friends, I come to you looking for help. I am building a wizards tower, the tower is a pringles can, sprayed black and coated with foam blocks. I used wood glue on the blocks to glue them in place. After this I coated the stones in artists-plaster and wiped it down with a watered brush to remove most of it. After this I started painting the tower but I noticed the paint wasn't holding well and the plaster was chipping. from light brushing. This is different from what I noticed during my last project where the plaster would hold paint really well. Do you guys have any tips to make the paint hold better on the plaster/foam stonework. Would applying a coat of pva or matte varnish help?

Thanks in advance.

[PhilB]

It's odd that the plaster is chipping so much, perhaps it is due to the "flex" or the foam bricks and pringles can base.

I would think you might want to use a more durable material in a future project, like patching plaster that one would normally use to fill holes in drywall.

This said, a coat of paint mixed with PVA might add a measure of stability to your current base, and help prevent future chipping issues. I recently carved a stone well out of high-density foam, and one of the first things I did was paint it with a mixture of craft paint and PVA, even though there was nothing to "chip" off.

[fastolfrus]

Any time I use plaster/filler I always try to pre-colour the stuff with inks or cheap hobby acrylic. Doesn't need a lot, just enough that if you get a chip it isn't white. Any colour would do, grey, green, brown, or a mix of colours.

[anton ryzbak]

I build a lot of stuff with blue insulation foam, normally  I just use latex housepaint right on the surface. At times I give it a coat of Titebond wood glue if there are parts that might work loose. After that it is cheap acrylic paints from Hobby Lobby. Confronted with flaky plaster I would certainly go with a coat of wood glue, if the plaster is really tender you might water the glue down so that it soaks in and binds the plaster internally before giving it a second coat.

[Thoronde]

Thanks for the help lads, after 2 layers of matt varnish the paint is sticking normally and the plaster is no longer cracking

[PhilB]

Looks good! Glad to hear the chipping issue has been solved.

Are the windows pre-fabs? Or did you make them too?

[Thoronde]

The windows are from warbases.

https://warbases.co.uk/product/hollow-windows/

[PhilB]

If this were my tower, I would put wood beams around that window.
This said, it's a fine window - I love the diamond panes. I bought some drywall tape with the intention of using it to make diamond panes like that, but it turned out to be too narrow, the distance between each strand was too small to make decent panes.

[gamer Mac]

Looks good