A friend of mine has some foam latex puppet that he wants to use for animation. He tried airbrushing some paint he had but when he moved the figure it cracked. I figured someone here would know what kind of paint he needs for this. Thanks.
What kind of paint for a foam latex puppet?
Feb 04, 2004
5 Replies
We added Liquitex gel medium to our acrylic paint for models with a rigid urethane foam base, it will give some flexibility.
Mix some sort of acrylic, waterbased paint through clear latex emulsion, and apply in thin layers with a brush. Mix the paint to colour before adding it to the latex emulsion. Although the latex dries transparent, while wet it is white, and does horrible things to the colour. For example, medium brown look something horribly pinkish. Works for LRP weapons, should work for this.
Rob
Thurston James' propmaking book has a recipe for flexible paint. It's mainly about molding and casting (which is an excellent bunch of info to have, anyway), but since some props are flexible, he added the paint recipe. Wish I had my copy handy.
WinBear
Might be worth a try with plastidip that is used as a paint on insulation for electronics or for tool handles etc. Only comes in about four colours if thats a problem.
Other option may be to do the animation shots while the paint is wet and then you could use any slow drying paint you had. Of course this brings in other problems.....
Hope this helps, Peter
His book says to mix rubber cement, universal tinting colors, and naptha. The cement acts as a flexible binder and the naptha is the thinner. The colors can be bought at artist supply stores. No proportions given; just mix to get the desired color & consistency. Can be brushed or airbrushed.
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