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[Isikaru]

I'm trying to make some armor for cosplaying Sango from Inuyasha:



But I'm unsure how exactly to do it. I've already made an attempt with craft foam, but it simply will not shape into an oval smoothly. What else could I use besides craft foam? And how? Also, I used acrylic paint to color my foam attempt and realized that was a mistake...I assume spray-paint is what I'll want to use this time around?

While I'm at it, I haven't made the boomerang yet, but I hear a sheet of insulation foam will do fine. Is that sturdy all by itself, or am I going to need to do something for the frame?

[kataelli]

Have you tried using heat and a bowl for your craft foam? Heat it up with a heat gun or over a stove and place it in the correct sized bowl you want and leave it there until it cools down. You can even chuck it in the freezer for a few minutes if you'd like.

Another way you can use craft foam without using heat is to cut small wedge-shaped splits in the foam and glue them together to get a soft rounded curve. Check out this tutorial for help with this: http://neotokyoproject.com/blog/2012...iece-tutorial/

Personally I swear by craft foam! But there's definitely other ways you could form your armor, especially because it seems like you don't need to make huge pieces. (I assume you're just referring to the shoulder, elbow, and knee pads yes?) The easiest way is probably to repurpose things that are already the shape you want. For example, but rollerskating elbow pads, maybe disassemble them and then paint up the hard plastic bit. Another method would be to make a good ol' papier mache. Blow up some balloons (I would use water balloons) and cut out little strips of newspaper and use glue/mod podge/wallpaper paste to smooth them on. After one layer is dry, repeat about 2-4 more times. When you're all done, pop the balloon and trim your shape. Give it a good smooth layer of gesso and paint it up!

You don't want to use spray paint on foam if it hasn't been sealed. You can seal your foam with many layers of glue/water mix (check penwiper's renowned tutoiral. It's fantastic. http://entropyhouse.com/penwiper/cos...helmsdeep.html) or you can cheat (like me haha) and use plasti-dip instead. It's a spray coat of rubber/plastic-y stuff that will seal up your foam nice and quick. This will give you a base for your spray paint so it doesn't eat away at your foam.

As for the boomerang, I can't help too much as I haven't made huge props before. But I assume the insulation foam would be fine (as long as you're not too rough with it). Maybe you want a basic skeleton inside it though of wire or pvc pipe or something. Sorry I can't be more of a help!

Hope this helped you at least somewhat! Good luck on your cosplay! Can't wait to see that boomerang!

[Isikaru]

That helped a ton! Really, thank you so much!

I did try the heat and bowl thing with the foam, but the extra material around the edges would make it look...crinkly. Maybe I just wasn't using enough force or heat? Either way, I'll experiment more and will try out the things you mentioned.

Again, thanks for taking the time to help me out! It's highly appreciated. Those tips and info will really come in handy.

[gambit86]

Nope that is normal. You just need to trim that off of the formed price and you should be good.

[grimpirate]

This tutorial describes the process textually, along with some follow up questions asked by various people.

[catfetus]

For your boomerang, insulation foam is a good idea but how are you going to transport such a huge prop? If transport is an issue you might have to come up with some way to make it multiple pieces that attach together.
The foam is sturdy enough that it won't snap apart without much force, but it will dent easily, you'll need to reinforce it with something. I would say paper mache would be best since it's cheap and you have such a large surface to cover, then just sand it smooth.

[Isikaru]

Aha, I see. That does make sense. This is why I ask for advice here; I lack common sense so I get it from others lol. Now...Mission 1: Find something dome shaped hehe.

I had just planned on not wearing this cosplay outside of local cons lol. So unless I find an easy way to make it fold-able/take-apart-able, I'll probably just make it one piece. Paper mache huh. =0 Good idea. Might as well go with that, even if it's just for extra assurance.

Thank you guys!