Painting scenery

[chetsvette]

I have a great way to paint foam made scenery,especially used for my homemade mountains. I didn't have any paint,but lots of oil stain.
   Using up to 1/2 " foam styrene,used in packing material- which I find lying around different places---I glue different pieces together, first contoured with a knife,cover with loose batting and then with a thin layer of styrene packing material--glued with white glue and pinned to hold until glue dries.The foam batting underneath allows for contouring---pushing the pins deeper in spots to form valleys and mounds.
  I stain with two or three different colors---walnuts and maples for example. The stain doesn't give a solid color--which is great since rocks and dirt aren't a solid color.Then dry and add grasses,bushes and trees.
   I FOUND OUT BY MISTAKE THAT THE STAIN BLEEDS RIGHT THROUGH THE FOAM LEAVING A PUDDLE OF STAIN UNDERNEATH....SO VERY IMPORTANT TO STAIN ON A MATTIMG THAT WILL ABSORB THE EXCESS STAIN.

  I can't get my pics to the allowed 128 kb....but will keep trying to add pics.

[Len]

You have to post pics to a photo hosting site, or FB, then link the pics here with [i m g] [/i m g] tags (without the spaces). You can't upload pics directly to the forums.

Len

[chetsvette]

Thanks Len,I a little computer savy,but dont understand what  the host site is...I dont use FB...or where to download my pics and how to transfer .them

[Len]

Host sites would be places like Flikr, Photobucket, etc.

Len

[chetsvette]

Thanks Len

[Terry Toenges]

Some years ago, I had issues with oil based paint "burning" through an extruded styrofoam diorama thing I made. I didn't know any better at the time. It didn't happen right away. It took a few days for it to start melting the stuff.
Also, I worked a novelty company once that made wooden plaques with sayings on them. It was a start-up small business and owner didn't really have any experience with doing these things. We had tanks with oil stain that we used for the plaques. We used sponges to wipe it on the plaques. We would leave the sponges in the tanks. After some days, the sponges started spontaneously combusting. It's a good thing it happen during the day while we were there and saw it. Had it happened at night when no one was there, the building would have burned up.
I guess I'm just trying to say be careful with oil based stuff and foam and sponge.

[chetsvette]

Wow,I would have thought that once the oil stained dried,any of those problems would be resolved. Mine have been dried for several days now,but I will certainly be more aware now.

[Terry Toenges]

As I think about it, it might have been varnish that caused it to melt. That was many years ago. I had painted a shallow riverbed with water based paints. Then I went over it with varnish and when I came back the next day it was a deep canyon. It did kind of look like an eroded bank where it had eaten away the foam along the sides.