Concrete Angel

[garylmast]

I have this big pot that had ugly artificial flowers that I finally tossed, and now I needed something to put in it. This angel came to mind, but I wanted it to have a cement texture. Now comes the experiment that I never did before…working with Styrofoam.

Lesson one: don’t use the pink stuff from HomeDepot because it melts around the bit and you end up with a big hard wad around it. I ended up using the 2” white stuff.

After slicing it, I used Gorilla Urethane Glue, which work okay, but took forever to set, so I switched to the spray foam filler. Although it blows out everywhere, it set fast and was easy to trim the excess with my pneumatic die grinder with a sander head.

I filled the seams using a foam coating that I got at Walmart. $5.00 per 8 oz. where I used a total of 4 of them.

I then got some stucco from HomeDepot, added some Acrylic concrete fortifier to add bonding strength. I mixed it pretty thin and spread it over the model by hand. I then smoothed it out using water and a paint brush.

After the cement set, I sprayed it with an acrylic latex paint. After the paint dried, I set it in the pot and put some colored rocks around the base to hold it in and to give it a contrast look. It turned out fairly heavy. From floor to top it's 66-inches tall.

Although this was my first attempt using Styrofoam, I think if I do it again, I will experiment trying to get the finish a little smoother, probably using more than on coat of cement.

Gary

[Todd D]

Wow nice job, the foam can be fun I have been doing mockups with it but the pink type, I find it cuts good and no melting with slower rpm,

[JimmyD]

Looks good. For the foam things I make, I use a vinyl flooring and carpet adhesive from Home Depot. Much cheaper, dries in a few hours. Have had some things together for at lest 5 years that have not come apart.

I made some Chevy pistons and connecting rods, 8 feet tall, out of 5 pound white polystyrene using that as adhesive, still working great. Seams were hardly visible when they were just foam and glue.

[Holzarbeiter]

I wish my “first time” projects came out looking that good! Excellent job, Gary.
I have to look into slicing a little more after seeing this and some other great creations.