Sunday, October 19, 2008

mini series 2; supplies and facilities


...well, not quite yet. First and foremost, you need a good place to build all of this stuff. That means ventilation, and a place that is not going to interfere with other people. In my case, that happens to be my hall and my bedroom, haha.
Realize that the foam is going to get EVERYWHERE so have some sort of system of disposing of your carvings. in my case, i have one of those tables that expands from the middle, so i lined the gap with trash bags that connect to a bin under the table. that way i can brush all the extra stuff into the gap and it disappears!



SUPPLIES: I got all of this stuff can be bought at home depot.

base:
Your sets will need a firm base. I used a big peice of plywood maybe a half inch thick.

Foam: I bought some fancy blick carve foam, which makes it very easy to carve and has a sandy look, but insulation foam is just as good, much cheaper, and sold at HD.





Also, I found this blue foam in a dumpster. It is much more firm and will make good rock cliffs.



Gas masks: i have two, one light weight one for carving so that i do not inhale actual foam particles, and one more expensive one with carbon filters for when i am using chemicals. also have glasses and latex gloves.

ADHESIVES:
-contact cement or pva wood glue. this is used to glue the foam to the base and foam to foam. I used contact cement, which is the white tin can. this stuff is really toxic so make sure you do this in a ventilated room and give it time to dry.
- spray adhesive: usefull for adding sand and texture. i used the number 77, the second highest strength. next time i will get 90.

spray paint: get a couple colors, they are cheap and fun.

insulator spray: this "great stuff" is really great stuff. you spray it out of the can like cheese whizz and it hardens. you can spray paint it while it's still wet for a sort of sulfur type of look. i have yet to use it to its full potential but hopefully we will be talking more about it. thanks to alex for the tip.



TOOLS: a normal saw, hammer and screwdriver etc will come in handy. the stilletto thing i think is a plaster knife, and the cheese grater thing is a rasp. sandpaper is usefull too. other than that, most of these tools can be found in the ceramic area at pearl paint. that everything is covered with foam, this stuff really is messy.

ok, we're ready to begin, I hope...

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