Basecoated (on friday the 13th... in Monster Month no less!!)

I've basecoated the arms on all 6 of the rubber-armed puppets (the oher two - Tonic and Cindy Lou - will be wearing long sleeves). I know they look kind of crazy right now, not the right colors, but I'm going to be adding layers of other colors and hopefully can bring each pair of arms around to what it needs to look like.

I'm using my own PAX paint based on some Pro Adhesive, a Pros-Aide substitute available from Monstermakers. I can't provide a direct link, but click to enter the Monster Shop, then go to Makeup Materials. The Pro Adhesive is the top item on the page. It's a special flexible adhesive made for adhering foam latex appliances to actors (if I understand correctly), so is formulated to work on latex. Here's the PAX paint recipe LIO was kind enough to post on the message board a few days ago (and wise enough to save from an old post on another forum):

'Pax'-paint has gone through a number of evolutions since Dick Smith
first invented it. To begin with it's been found that acrylic paint is
not really the ideal colorant to use as it tends to impart a leathery
and wrinkly texture...although this might be perfect for elephant skin,
etc.

It's been found that either liquid cosmetic pigments or as Lionel
pointed out..Universal Colorants should be used instead. Secondly,
The paint should be thinned out to an almost 'wash' consistency and
built up in several translucent coats until opacity is achieved. This
technique imparts a much softer, subtler texture to the surface.

Although technically, Pax-paint can be airbrushed it is recommended that
you do not as it clogs up the tips very rapidly and is an absolute "bear"
to clean out. The recommended techniques are stippling each coat by
hand with a torn piece of white foam rubber cosmetic sponge ...(for
initial surfacing) and using inexpensive brushes for additional
stippling and detailing. (pros-aide ruins brushes even when cleaned
off immediately with alcohol)

Before painting, your model should first be prepped by sealing the
surface of the foam with a thinned out coat of Pros-Aide...(P.A.- 40%
H2O-60%)

Here is a basic paint formula to try:

Base
-----------
1 part Pros-Aide adhesive
1 part acrylic matte medium (pref. Windsor Newton)
1 part distilled water
15% Acrylic "Flow Agent"

To this GRADUALLY add the desired colorant until opacity is achieved.
The finished paint should have the consistency of milk.

The paint should be further thinned out with water as needed.

I intend to get some of the universal colorants (also called TintsAll), but for now I'm just using acrylic paints, the liquid kind sold in jars, though occasionally I have to break into the thicker tube paints to get the colors I need. I'm applying the paint with a piece of paper towel (while wearing latex gloves... this stuff doesn't want to wash off!) and I just keep patting and tapping gently at the surface. After a while the paint starts to get really tacky, and then you can get a really nice fine dot pattern. Don't keep going for very long after it turns tacky though... the paper towel will start leaving pieces of itself, and the paint can even start to lift off.