Thread: polystyrene what should I use to stick?

Originally Posted by dullbird

Hi Guys and gals

I'm playing with a little project...

I'm making a target (for a dart gun not bullets) and it si in shape of a goat.

but rather than just having a peice of wood with some suitable material to catch the darts in the correct areas I have decided to see if I can get it a little more 3D

I have heaps of polystyrene here left over from packaging and stuff and I'm thinking of putting this on my goat cut out and shapping it to look a little bit more like a body and legs and stuff...

my question is because I have various pieces, what would be the best thing to stick the polystyrene to the wood and of course pieces of polystyrene to each other to build areas up ready to shape???

I know that polystyrene is not the most durable of materials if your going to shoot at it as it can fall apart easily however I do know you can coat it in a watery mixture of cement as people in aquariums do this for fake backgrounds etc.. was thinking of doing this just for a bit of durability before covering in material...


to those thinking of replying this is just a bit of project fun to see if I can pull it off and I only have 50bux to do it so no stupid suggestions of what I should be using including ballistics gel and real goats

the plan

1. draw goat shape - done
2. cut out
3. cover in polystyrene and then cut and file in to shapes to imitate body shape as best as possible
4. cover in something for durability
5. make areas where darts a re likely to hit out of appropriate material (thinking of those rubbery matts that people put down in boats and stuff that fix together like a jigsaw puzzle)
6. cover in material
7. attach something to back to allow it to stand on its own fairly stable
8. paint areas if needed

if you want to make a silhouette, use coreflute (plastic stuff used for real estate agent signs)

can be glued with sikaflex (small tubes from bunnings)

can be screwed to timber posts (if you need to stand it up )

as I just posted on that cardboard thread ( http://www.aulro.com/afvb/showthread.php't=149275 ) , 1200 X 2400 sheets from signwriters, 900 X 600 from bunnings at $7, (or real estate agents signs for free at nearest "for sale" property - just joking of course)

Originally Posted by V8Ian

At $12 a 415g tube Dave! I had to get one today. $12 would buy about 5 litres of the white stuff.

You don't buy Selleys Liquid Nails! Buy Parfix or Bostik No More Nails for about $2 a 300ml cartridge.

PM Digger DB, I'm sure he'll be able to offer a scientific soloution.

I used to design / build / fly Radio Control model aircraft (aka toy planes) .

Used polystyrene and EPP quite a bit.

The Fatman in the pics is made from 2" thick white polystyrene.
Use Weldbond to glue it, but any PVA / White glue / Aquehere will do.

Glue the foam together then glue a sheet of brown paper onto it to give it strength.

Even the wooden engine bearers and ply support are glued to the foam with white glue.

As an example I was into building planes that did not look like planes, EG the Fatman was a REAL crowd pleaser , You could hover it standing up & would hover across the sky looking very silly. The foam / weld bond/ brown paper is very strong, One of the vertical stabilisers broke off on a bad crosswind landing (no rudder control) & reglued with weld bond & some fiberglass tape & good as new. You can see some foam sticking out on one of his feet that drag on the ground when flaring to land.

Originally Posted by 87County

if you want to make a silhouette, use coreflute (plastic stuff used for real estate agent signs)

can be glued with sikaflex (small tubes from bunnings)

can be screwed to timber posts (if you need to stand it up )

as I just posted on that cardboard thread ( http://www.aulro.com/afvb/showthread.php't=149275 ) , 1200 X 2400 sheets from signwriters, 900 X 600 from bunnings at $7, (or real estate agents signs for free at nearest "for sale" property - just joking of course)

its not a silhouette as such its a target that looks more life like at a distance than a silhouette hopefully.

Us toy train modellers use acrylic liquid nails or aliphatic resin. PVA takes too long to dry.

So will hot glue gun and sticks not work? That seems to set pretty quickly