Thread: Painting Tombstones

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KenPilot I saw your "Church stone on another thread with the cat beside it. The eyes were glowing and I thought "that looks like the cat from Pet Cemetary. I kinda remembered the cat's name being Church but wasn't positive. It shows what a great job you did to bring back a memory of a movie and book from so long ago.
Terra I'm getting ready to start on my first tombstones ever and was wanting to clarify. Latex paint can be put on pink/blue/green/white styrofoam. I read different threads some say acrylic, some latex, one enamel. Enamel is oil based, latex water based, acrylic I don't know. I saw where you said latex dryloc, just wanting to make sure from someone who knows.

Originally Posted by Thorn Kill Creek

KenPilot I saw your "Church stone on another thread with the cat beside it. The eyes were glowing and I thought "that looks like the cat from Pet Cemetary. I kinda remembered the cat's name being Church but wasn't positive. It shows what a great job you did to bring back a memory of a movie and book from so long ago.
Terra I'm getting ready to start on my first tombstones ever and was wanting to clarify. Latex paint can be put on pink/blue/green/white styrofoam. I read different threads some say acrylic, some latex, one enamel. Enamel is oil based, latex water based, acrylic I don't know. I saw where you said latex dryloc, just wanting to make sure from someone who knows.

Thanks Thorn Kill Creek They are yellow LED's I wired up and put thru the eye sockets. And as far as the paint for the different materials, I have always used Latex on the pink and blue foamboard, I don't have any experience with the others. But I know latex works perfectly fine with those 2.

Generally latex and acrylic have the same application rules. They are both water-based and generally use the same ingredients. In the UK, they are called emulsion paints.

Enamel paints or oil-based paints and spray paints all have an ingredient in them that eats foam. It's acetone.

So, if you want to paint the stones with no damage, be sure to get water-based paints. Either latex, acrylic, emulsion or latex Drylok. I have artists' quality acrylic paints and they have handled the elements really well. But, to make sure, I would buy exterior latex paint. The stuff you would get to paint the outside of your house. The great thing about that is that it's cheap.

Back to acetone. I use the fact that it eats the foam to my advantage. Prior to painting the stone with Drylok, I grab a can of cheap spray paint and spray the stone in strategic places. The way the foam is eaten away reminds me very much of old and crumbling stone. My last tombstone I went as far as using straight acetone for the cracks. Very realistic. Here is a picture of one of my stones that I used the spray paint to eat it away:

I would love to request that you create a photo album on your profile of all your wonderful tombstones! I always seem to admire your work!

Thanks Jess-o-Lantern. I have a lot of the tombstones that I made last year here in this album: Halloween Forum - Terra's Album: Graveyard '08

Thanks for the link Terra. Truly awesome tombstone work!

Your welcome. I just remembered, I made a vid too, if you are interested:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-CjYPstlco&feature=channel"]YouTube - Halloween 2008 Lead-up[/ame]