Various questions about building foam armor

I love this forum, man I need to get on here more, starting today I'm more involved.

Anyway! As a 'new recruit' i'm really new to all this business and have a lot of questions.

Can anyone provide me with a specific link to a place where I can buy a good visor for my H5 Chief Foam Build? And after I do get the visor, how do I go about adding the hex pattern to it without clouding my vision, is there a transparent sticker or something I can attach?

Secondly, for my boots, I'm obviously not going to be able to put my entire foot WITH shoes into the preexisting boot, unless of course I want to make neanderathal sized boots... should I just where black socks and attach the two halves of the boot to each other on the underside? Or should I buy an extremely thin pair of shoes like jazz shoes to glue the soles to?

I'm using very thin foam for my armor build, if you scroll down a bit you'll see my thread and I'll also add the link to my signature. My concern is that it will rip or be flimsy when I finish the armor. So when I go to seal / reinforce / waterproof my armor, what should I use that can best protect my armor from the elements and cracks, rips, scrapes etc? Will plasti sol do the job just fine even for how thin my armor is? I'm super concerned, I can't emphasize that enough, I really don't need my armor breaking on me xD

When I go to apply my plasti sol / resin whatever, how many layers am I going to put on? (I understand this is probably in a thread somewhere, just link me and I'll read up on it)

Cortana, does she attach to the back of chief's helmet, how does that work and where does she go?

Where is the CHEAPEST 1/2 inch EVA mats available? I want to keep a solid budget for my project, not hurt my wallet, because as far as I've seen EVA is super expensive.


Lastly, just as a reference for me, for those of you who have finished an entire build, how long did it take you (combined hours not overall timespan)?

I found my eva mats on clearance from a lot of places like Harbor Freight or Amazon even. Walmart or Home Depot usually have them cheap also.

What thickness are you saying when you say very thin? I'd personally use the 10mm mats for the armor. Hot gluing it together and then giving it a few layers of Plasti Dip probably give the durability you might want.

Honestly, it can cost a lot to make armor. It all adds up over time, especially after redoing parts a few times. Which leads into it also taking sometimes months if you really take your time to avoid errors and more costs.

AtomicDeadlock said:

I found my eva mats on clearance from a lot of places like Harbor Freight or Amazon even. Walmart or Home Depot usually have them cheap also.

What thickness are you saying when you say very thin? I'd personally use the 10mm mats for the armor. Hot gluing it together and then giving it a few layers of Plasti Dip probably give the durability you might want.

Honestly, it can cost a lot to make armor. It all adds up over time, especially after redoing parts a few times. Which leads into it also taking sometimes months if you really take your time to avoid errors and more costs.

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When I say thin, I mean as thin as possible. I use 2mm currently. And yes I'm slowly coming to realize how expensive it is, unfortunately xD

Lol. Oh geez. Idk. Only time I've seen something that thin is when the armor is made out of cardstock covered in resin and body filler. Might have to do some experimenting. Haha

The thinnest foam is the craft foam but you can't make HALO armor out of it entirely. Mostly it's used for detailing. Between Harbor Freight, Home Depot, Lowe's and Amazon, I would say Harbor Freight has the cheapest prices. $10 for a pack of 4 EVA foam squares. Someone in the 405th said they were getting it much cheaper from an "AS IS" store but didn't say where. You would have to research your local stores for something like that. ETSY has someone there that sells visors here. And as for protecting your suit for damage........one can only do so much. Over time and unforeseen incidents/accidents, armor is going to get bumped, hit, dinged, dropped, and rubbed up against. Nothing out there is going to give you 1000% percent coverage forever. A lot of times here you will read about repairs and incidents at Cons.... how it happened and what is being done to fix it or remake or scrap the whole thing and start fresh.......all part of the beast called COSPLAY!!!

And as for protecting your suit for damage........one can only do so much. Over time and unforeseen incidents/accidents, armor is going to get bumped, hit, dinged, dropped, and rubbed up against.

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I agree. Some dents and scratches are actually good! Makes it look used and battle damaged. Like its actually been used to kick some Covenant butt.

Feel free to peruse my build thread, linked in my signature. I have about 500 hours into my build overall, though I did freehand everything aside from the helmet, which takes a significant amount of time. I am also about $700 in materials in, though you could cut corners and spend less on certain areas of the build. My build took about two years to complete, so don't let that total cost scare you off. I rarely spent more than $30 at a time, but it all adds up

What? How did it take 2 years?? And over $700? holy crap. I'm a sixth done and it only took a combined 10 days, less than $30. Maybe I will check your build out, that info surprises me.

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I already follow your instagram, I'll check some of your build out there as well.

His pics do not do his suit justice, it looks a hell of a lot better in person.

Koenator2284 said:

What? How did it take 2 years?? And over $700? holy crap. I'm a sixth done and it only took a combined 10 days, less than $30. Maybe I will check your build out, that info surprises me.

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I already follow your instagram, I'll check some of your build out there as well.

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It took two years because I wanted to do a stellar job, not cut corners, and I do a ton of other stuff outside of the cosplay community. I work a full time job, I am a firearms enthusiast, I paintball, I do a large amount of metalwork and fabrication, I have 3 vehicles that I regularly modify and do maintenance work on, I ride dirt bikes and do water sports in the summer, and I snowboard almost every weekend in the winter.

That aside, as far as the time into my build goes, it takes a VERY long time to do a good job on a scratch built suit, especially taking all of the armor details and making everything proportional.

Aaand lastly, the money aspect. Like many other members on this site, I have to work a full time job to pay rent, bills, etc., as well as pay for my numerous other interests. I refuse to cut corners, so I'd rather hold off a paycheck or two to get the correct materials for the job, than to use something less suitable and do a crap job. I'm not saying that you have to spend $700 to do a good job, but spending money is necessary for a quality build.

Here is a quick cost breakdown for my suit.

Eva foam: ~$80
Craft foam $40
Razor blades $40
Glue sticks $40
Plasti dip $120
Spray paint $100
Acrylic craft paints $25
Paint brushes $10
Painters masking tape $30
Fiberglass resin $20
Body filler $20
Cardstock $10
Motorcycle visor $20
Motor helmet liner $20
Led's, fans, and electronics $50
Shoe goo $20
Upholstery foam $50
Various fabrics, strapping, velcro etc. $80
Gloves $25
Lower body base layer $20
Rare earth magnets $20
Rivets $5
Socket cap bolts $15
Contact cement $30
3m spray adhesive $15

Various other small purchases were made as well. I didn't take the time to add this up exactly, but I believe it's closer to the $800 mark.