Painting Foam Board

[Mr NCT]

There are as many posts about this as there are people building with FB.

I've finally found what works for me.



For brown FTFB - light sanding with 400 -600 grit and rattle cans. Binds well enough for fragile surface masking tape. Tried brush acrylic - too heavy; spray brush acrylic - orange peel finish.



For DTFB - minwax poly and let cure for a day. Without any other surface prep it seems to take anything. I found a cheap airbrush set at Harbor Freight for about $12. Walmart 50 cent acrylic cut 50% water works well. A sample size (about a pint) of paint at Lowes mixed to any color you want is about $5. I cut it 50% with water and the finish after 2 coats with 5 minutes between coats is beautiful.

[ratcheeroo]

I like that setup , thanks for posting that. It's gotta be way better than my little makeup/cake decorating airbrush. I would probably paint more of my planes with a setup like that.

[Mr NCT]

May 20, 2022 20:14:31 GMT ratcheeroo said:

I like that setup , thanks for posting that. It's gotta be way better than my little makeup/cake decorating airbrush. I would probably paint more of my planes with a setup like that.

It gives about the same coverage as spraying with a rattle can. And as a follow up after letting the paint dry for an hour I tested it with fragile surface masking tape, regular blue tape and green frog clean edge tape. No paint came up with any of the masking tapes. It’s back to DTFB for my good builds and I’ll use the flight test brown stuff for prototypes and beaters.

[Burkeomatic]

Awesome! I kind of use a similar set up. Brush acrylic can warp things if you aren't careful. I didn't even know HF had airbrushes. I have been using a mini HVLP gun I bought for my wheels and thinning the acrylic and shooting it on.

For whatever reason, I have great disdain for the brown DTFB. It is almost greasy. Plus, it costs triple. I could paint every plane with nice spray paint for that.

[Mr NCT]

Yup, that's my conclusion, too.