Making things with Florist Foam - any tips?

[Sheerluck Holmes]

I am considering using some florist foam to make some scenery - cutting it into small blocks to make a dungeon for example.

Has anyone used florist foam and has any tips on how best to use it?  Does it soak up too much paint or is it paint friendly?

[zizi666]

I've got a block on my desk that I use to hold pencils, needle files and my X-axto knife and hand drill.
The material doesn't feel right to me to use for terrainbuilding.

[magokiron]

I don't use the material, because is extremely soft, and anything "dents" it, and/or "bites" out the material.

I recommend the blue or pink stuff.

Hope that helps.

[Sheerluck Holmes]

Thanks for the tip - unfortunately I can't find the blue or pink stuff here in Australia 

[Wirelizard]

I think it was here on LAF that someone was building Middle Eastern/Afgan style buildings with green floral foam and reported success with literally soaking the stuff in dilute white glue. He'd put the building in a pan of dilute glue, let it soak it all up, then leave it for days to dry! I'd search for it for you, but cut-and-paste on a smartphone is a nuisance...

[Hammers]

It's too brittle, IMO. There is some similar stuff with similar but more suitable properties *) which I have seen discussed elsewhere but it seems to be a rather specialized product and hard to find.

*) EDIT: what I mean is that styrene foam, as opposed to oasis (florist foam) is more viscous and flexible than oasis material. What one (well, *I*) would like is that rigid foamy texture of oasis material, but which is harder and more durable (and easy to get hold of. And cheap.)

[magokiron]

How about the "white stuff?

I know if of less quality, but at the same time is very strong. After all it's used for packing TVs, DVDs, etc.

And you can find it pretty much anywhere.

Tha main problem with that material are the REALLY BIG "balls" it is made from, but if you use the right tools, you can overcome that too.

Use always a fresh cutter, and as soon as it starts "tearing" instead of CUTTING the material, is time for a new blade.

Besides, if you get yourself an electric foam cutter and engraver, you can do pretty much anything you want.

These platforms were made with white styrofoam, and home made electric cutters and engravers:

http://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/t3206-boxes-and-furniture

http://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/t1553-magokiron-s-buildings

And they keep the shape pretty well.

The florits stuff is a no-no. Really, believe me.

Hope that helps.

[Hammers]

How about the "white stuff?

I know if of less quality, but at the same time is very strong. After all it's used for packing TVs, DVDs, etc.

And you can find it pretty much anywhere.

Tha main problem with that material are the REALLY BIG "balls" it is made from, but if you use the right tools, you can overcome that too.

Use always a fresh cutter, and as soon as it starts "tearing" instead of CUTTING the material, is time for a new blade.

Besides, if you get yourself an electric foam cutter and engraver, you can do pretty much anything you want.

These platforms were made with white styrofoam, and home made electric cutters and engravers:

http://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/t3206-boxes-and-furniture

http://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/t1553-magokiron-s-buildings

And they keep the shape pretty well.

The florits stuff is a no-no. Really, believe me.

Hope that helps.

I find that that expanded styrofoam ('white stuff', first time I've hear that term) is just horrible to wrok with. It gets in everywhere, like a star from Big Brother.

[Sheerluck Holmes]

I did find this where a bloke made a castle out of the florist foam: http://www.vexxarr.com/labels/castle.html

He used the green foam, but i have found some that is grey which is "dry" florist foam - having never used either I am not sure what the difference is between the two.

[Connectamabob]

The stuff carves beautifully, but as others have noted, It's much too fragile to use as a permanent material by itself.

I've tried saturating it with various things (superglue, PVA, liquid acrylic), but the stuff wicks up so much that you really have to soak it through and through to get a good result. You can seal it with a surface treatment, but not really strengthen it much.

It's possibly a good material for making resin casting masters IMO, but not for making anything table-ready.

[Ssendam]

I've just picked up 3 balls of this stuff to make planets out of for Full Thrust or the like. I was planning to seal it and make it tougher with PVA glue before painting. Perhaps just slapping some normal emulsion on would also do the trick?

[Connectamabob]

Well, there's different kinds of "floral foam". The sort we're talking about (I think) is the variety called "aqua foam" or some variant thereof. It's a crumbly fine textured open-celled foam, I dunno what plastic or resin it's made from. It's usually either dull green or brown, and comes almost exclusively in brick-shaped blocks.

There's also a rigid urethane foam, which has an irregular closed celled structure, and comes premolded in various shapes. Tori for making wreaths are the most common. This can be easily distinguished by the molded shapes having a smooth outer surface or "skin".

Most common though is extruded polystyrene. Yup, same as blue/pink foam, just with a much larger, coarser, more thick-walled (closed) cell structure. Comes in green and white, in big sheets of varying thicknesses, and blocks, cones, and spheres. This is probably what you've got. It takes paint fine, though with thicker paints you'll get lots of pinhole bubbles where surface tension has prevented the paint from filling or bridging the cells. Thin the paint a bit, or add a wetting agent, and you'll be fine.

IMO extruded polystyrene floral foam does often need a sealer, depending on what you're using it for. Not as a protectant, but to smooth/fill the coarse surface texture. Gesso works pretty well. The foam's natural texture works okay for things like sandstone or stucco, but for concrete or metal or anything else with a finer surface it looks wrong. Usually when people make planets with these they don't do this, and the texture IMO makes them look cheap and terrible no matter how good the paintwork is. Planets are for all intents and purposes completely smooth at that scale/distance: surface effects should be specular, not topographical.

Sometimes you'll find spheres made from expanded polystyrene (aka bead foam). This stuff also takes paint well, as long as it's a paint that can flex without cracking, as expanded polystyrene has a bit of spring to it.

[Christian]

You'll want to get foam that is dense enough so that when you draw on it then indentation stays there. It's basically the stuff that is also inside boogie/surfboards.

Holmes, hopefully this will be of some help. It is a list of suppliers of insulation foam in Victoria:

SOLID SOLUTIONS
19 Ardena Ct
Bentleigh East, VIC 3165
TELEPHONE:
03 9579 2044
FAX:
03 9579 0573
HOURS:
Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm
http://www.solidsolutions.com.au/index.php


Austech External Building Products (Victoria)
36 Isabella Street, Moorabbin VIC 3189
Phone: 03 9532 0131
Fax: 03 9532 1868
Contact: Alan Mooney
Email: sales-vic@austech.com.au
http://www.austech.com.au/Home.aspx


The Foamex Group:
31- 33 Gatwick Rd
Bayswater North
VIC, 3153
Australia
Ph: (03) 9720 4200
http://www.foamex.com.au/home


Foamular
Austech Building Products
36 Isabella Street
Moorabbin VIC 3189
Phone (03) 9532 0131
http://www.foamular.com.au/index.htm

[Sheerluck Holmes]

Awesome! Thank you very much Christian I will have to check these out.

Much appreciated.

[El Grego]

I think it was here on LAF that someone was building Middle Eastern/Afgan style buildings with green floral foam and reported success with literally soaking the stuff in dilute white glue. He'd put the building in a pan of dilute glue, let it soak it all up, then leave it for days to dry! I'd search for it for you, but cut-and-paste on a smartphone is a nuisance...

I believe you are thinking of this:

http://beimbach-schoenau.blogspot.com/2011/02/fort-kalypso-revisited.html

The end result is very nice but a bit of a mess to get there - I might yet try it out!