Props ChefBZD's Reach M6G from styrofoam WIP (pic heavy)

Hello All, I'll be posting my progress in here as I scratch-build my first styrofoam weapon, the Reach M6G. I don't expect my first go at this to be perfect, but I'm pretty confident I can do it.

Here are the supplies needed:
-Home Insulation foam- I got the 1/2" thickness because it has a nice smooth consistency throughout its core, unlike the white EPS foam which seems to be made of millions of little spheres pressed together, that just seemed like the spheres would fall apart during carving/sanding...but I could be wrong about that...
Its a powder blue color and comes in sheets 4' x 8' (so I have A LOT of it)

Also, this type of styrofoam has a thin laminated layer that you will need to peel off of BOTH sides...


-Foamies- I love these things. Great for layering on smooth details.


-Glue- I did a glue test to see what would be best, I'm a trial and error/figure it out for myself kind of guy. I tested super glue vs. hot glue, and found pros and cons with both.

The super glue slightly disintegrated the foam, but held strong. I don't see this as being an issue with gluing large sections from the interior, not too close to the edges.
The hot glue melted the foam quite a bit, but it seems like it will be fine as long I stay away from the seems/edges.
Also, the super glue was much easier to carve through once dry.
You can see what excess glue did to both samples in the picture above...the super glue did less damage so I will be using it as the primary adhesive.

-Blades- Most of the carving will be done with Exacto brand 'a' blades. I also needed something longer so i found this long thin box cutter at Harbor Freight, the knife and blades were super cheap, $1 for the knife, $1 for 10 blades.


-Paint- I did a paint test to see what would happen...the black one is plasti-dip and the blue one is Rustoleum. The blue paint alone disintegrated the foam, the plasti-dip did not. So if you are going to try this building method, make sure you seal your project with plasti-dip (or maybe another sealer? plasti-dip is my preferred method) before painting.


-Blueprints- I'm going to go the same route that I went with my Cardboard MA37, using a 1:1 scale printout, cutting away layers and using them as stencils. It is also important to use reference pics from multiple angles rather than guess what it looks like from the front, back, top, bottom, etc.


Thats all for now, hopefully I'll have some progress to report later tonight, will probably have to do the bulk shape of it a few times before I get it right...

trace the core shape onto the styrofoam, omitting the cylindrical details on the front (light and laser?), the magazine, and the hand guard. Keep the pieces, we'll need them later...

Looks like your off to a good start. But one thing you have mixed up, what you're using is EPS foam and the stuff that is made of millions of tiny white balls is styrafoam. May people confuse the two because EPS is extruded polystyrene, which many people just assume is styrafoam because styrene and styrafoam sound so alike.

But anyway, it looks good so far. If you haven't already make sure you check out 'DaFrontlineTrooper' on YouTube and see how to work with EPS foam. My tip for working with it is just to make sure you always have a VERY sharp blade.

Good luck.

RTWHOCKEY said:

Looks like your off to a good start. But one thing you have mixed up, what you're using is EPS foam and the stuff that is made of millions of tiny white balls is styrafoam. May people confuse the two because EPS is extruded polystyrene, which many people just assume is styrafoam because styrene and styrafoam sound so alike.

But anyway, it looks good so far. If you haven't already make sure you check out 'DaFrontlineTrooper' on YouTube and see how to work with EPS foam. My tip for working with it is just to make sure you always have a VERY sharp blade.

Good luck.

Click to expand...

I was just going by the labels...this stuff is labeled 'Styrofoam' and the bubbly white stuff was labeled 'Expanded polystyrene', both found at Lowes...


Either way, this stuff seems to be the way to go...I played with it a little bit today, fresh blades are a must, even slightly dulled blades tend to rip and tear instead of cut...hopefully I'll have something to show later...

Another small update, I don't get a whole lot of time to work on these things...
Got the two halves lined up pretty good, shaved off any major imperfections. Any little imperfections at this point will be sanded down.


I will start adding details tonight after work...

She's starting to look familiar...


I'll have to take the dremel to that ugly dip above the grip tomorrow to clean it up, but its coming along nicely so far. I love this styrofoam...it sands so lightly and smooth, I'm using 240 grit sandpaper by the way. In case you are wondering, the numbers are my way of determining the depths of the details with '1' being the deepest...

coming along nicely...

Very awesome, so with that foam do u harden it at all like you do a cardboard weapon? Or just carv it, plastidip, then paint/airbrush to finish it?

shotgun rumble said:

Very awesome, so with that foam do u harden it at all like you do a cardboard weapon? Or just carv it, plastidip, then paint/airbrush to finish it?

Click to expand...

With foam, you just carve, seal, and paint.

By the way, nice work Chefbzd.

looking very nice

Ok sweet! I and liking very good!

Looks awesome Chef!