Post #493193 by pdrake on Tue, Nov 10, 2009 10:04 PM

i've done this type of work before. you can get sheet foam and carve it. the best tool to do that would be a small wire brush and a thin blade utility knife. once it's carved you can coat it with a hard coat. you can get something at micheal's yourself, or have it done at a local foam architectural company. you can also have it done at a place that sprays on bedliners for pickups. any hard coat that wont eat the foam away will work. you'll need to apply the foam to a board as a substrate to keep it firm. you can use luan, it's pretty cheap and will work well. use 3M super 74 (i think, make sure it's the stuff made for foam as super 77 will dissolve the foam) or contact cement (water based).

use a sharpie to draw your pattern on it and have fun. you can make rocks, petroglyphs, transluscent areas with back lights (use rope light as it gives off no heat), hand prints, kids sigs and anything you can think of.

the more dense the foam you get the better it will carve. almost all foam will sand down pretty good. use a wood rasp and about 120 grit paper to get it to the point that it will look great. you'll figure out how to get the detail once you start to work with it.

it really does become fun and you get used to it pretty quick. it does make a mess. put down a cheapie plastic drop cloth to aide in cleanup or use the shop vac. if you do it outside, beware the wind. sometimes a dust mask is a good thing, too.

good luck.

(oh, put screw holes in inconspicuous places to screw it to the walls with sheet rock screws. it wont take many.)

most architectural foam places sell the sheets in different thicknesses pretty cheap. if you don't have a truck, no problem. get them 2' X 2' and reassemble when you get home with the spray mount or elmer's glue.

[ Edited by: pdrake 2009-11-10 22:05 ]

[ Edited by: pdrake 2009-11-10 22:10 ]