Thread: Acetone applied to painted foam

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I have a good amount of vinyl siding insulation left over from a siding job on our previous house. I'm planning on using this insulation (also known as fanfold) to skin my crypt builds.

The only potential problem I have is that there are many small holes or perforations along the face of the material. My plan was to tear off the thin plastic covering then spray a mist of acetone to make it more like stone material. The only problem is the acetone makes the holes considerably bigger. If the holes weren't applied so uniformly it wouldn't be a big deal but I think it may look too uniform when applied.

What I'm wondering if anyone has tried applying acetone (varying dilutions) to foam after it has been painted? I'm hoping an experienced tombstone builder may have tried such a thing and I'm wondering what your results were?

If the acetone will randomly eat through the paint and foam then what I might try to combat the perforations is to mix sand with the latex paint prior to painting the material (the mix will act as a filler and add more texture). Hmmm, anyone have any thoughts for or against it?

Back in April I attended Hauntcon & Bad Boys Scenic Design's seminar- Styrofoam Masonry V.
During the seminar they did several demos of their techniques. While it shows the use of acetone on their foam carving dvd, they stated that they no longer use the chemical. They now favor the use of a heatgun (typically used to remove paint in home improvement) vs the chemical.