Adhesives

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.

Painting and Attaching

The process that Ashton recommends is: carve/shape, paint, glue, paint again.

  1. Paint parts separately before attaching.
  2. Let everything sit for an hour or so to dry.
  3. Hot glue the contact surfaces.
  4. Let it cool.
  5. Glue around the base.
    Note: A layer of glue may be built up for effect.
    Tip: You can use available colored or sparkly hot glues.
  6. Wait for this glue to cool.
  7. Paint again over the attachment area to make it all blend together.
    Note: Ashton considers this essential.

Advantages of Low Temperature Versus High Temperature Glues

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.
So, we stick to using the low temp glue for everything from thin to large pieces. Remember that when attaching large flat surfaces to create a large block, we recommend spray adhesive, such as the 3M 777.

Using Spray Adhesive

  1. In a well ventilated space or outdoors, evenly spray both pieces to be glued together.
    Note: Air flow is important because of noxious vapors.
  2. Let both pieces dry to a tacky state, usually 1 to 5 minutes.
  3. Carefully line up the sprayed pieces.
  4. Press sprayed sides together.
    Note: Don't do this on a really hot humid day, or it'll take longer for the sprayed surfaces to become adhesive.

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