Is it safe to SPRAY SEAL painted hard-foam terrain?

[Mad Guru]

It's been more than a decade since the last time I painted a commercial hard-foam building. Back then it was a couple of Hudson & Allen castles. I think after I was done I sealed them with Testor's dullcote or Krylon matte finish, without inflicting any damage to the structure, but my age-addled memory is not sure.

The new terrain is a 13-piece Vauban fortress from Magister Militum. Most of the pieces were cast in a hard foam that seems very similar to Hudson & Allen buildings, and a few are brand new and were cast in resin or ceramic. I'm not worried about those, but I'm hesitant to spray-seal the foam pieces unless or until I get some more info on the results. I spent about 2 months painting them and don't want to see any of them dissolve away in the final step!

THANK YOU in advance for any and all info, which will be very much appreciated!

[Blackwolf]

Hello  Mad Guru,
I would spray them with an acrylic varnish first, just to be on the safe side. I'm also painting foam buildings (Ziterdes),and whilst I'm not using Dullcote I am using oil washes.
Hope that helps?
Guy

[Mad Guru]

Thanks, Blackwolf!  I got some more info, including this:

You can absolutely use a spray sealer on the Magister Militum hard foam models. They are cast in polyurethane foam. Only polystyrene foam(Depron, Styrofoam, XPS, blue foam and all it's other customary and trade names) will melt.

I tested it first on one end of the damaged wall section -- thinking if it were to suffer some damage it would be slightly less disastrous.  Happy to report it appeared to suffer no ill-effects of any kind.  Then I went ahead and spray-sealed about half the pieces of the recently-painted fort, only stopped there due to schedule conflict caused by real life commitments!  That was 6 hours ago and those pieces are all looking good, so I will try to spray the remaining six pieces early tomorrow.  Thank you again for offering some help, and best of luck with your Ziterdes foam buildings!

[Blackwolf]

Good news Mad Guru,and interesting to know

[6milPhil]

Wot no photos? 

[Mad Guru]

6milPhil,

As is usually the case with me, I have way, WAAAAAYYYYY TOO MANY photos!  I plan to organize them into a typically over-sized post for my blog, which I will then post about over on the "Pikes, Muskets and Flouncy Shirts" board.

But... since you asked, here's a taste -- some pics of all the pieces laid out in two batches for spray-sealing:










...And because I simply can't help myself, here's a handful of pics showing off the fort on my table, in some vaguely F&IW in Canada and SYW in the Caribbean or AWI in Florida settings:





















The fort is a classic old design, originally made by Ian Weekly, now available at the LINK below, from Magister Millitum:

https://www.magistermilitum.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=28mm+Vauban

[Marine0846]

Mad Guru,
Great photos.
Thanks for sharing.