Foam attaches easily to any understructure of foam core, cardboard, plastic or shaped buckram. The adhesives that Ashton has used include:
Hot Glue | Low temperature is best. |
Styro-glue | A special glue for rigid styrofoam, from the white static pieces to the green floral foam. Extremely adhesive and long-lasting on styrofoam. Ashton has not tried it on foam latex. |
Spray Contact Adhesive | Use in a well-ventilated area. Ashton recommends the 3M brand 777. |
The process that Ashton recommends is: carve/shape, paint, glue, paint again.
Safety | During the glueing process it's pretty common to get bits of melted glue on the fingers. I still do all the time, and the high temp glue causes significant burns. The low temp, while uncomfortable, doesn't cause any burns that last unless a large amount falls on the skin. |
Time | The high temp glue takes longer to set up and harden, and you have to be compressing the pieces together until it is set. So the low temp cools much faster, is a lot quicker - especially when covering long areas. |
Rework | In the event of mistakes, a regular blow dryer can be used to soften the low-temp glue and get it to release (We discovered this when we had to deconstruct a costume to transport it.), whereas it doesn't work as well on the high-temp variety, and it takes more than twice as long. |
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