Critical decision time Foam time?

[Kissker]

Alright finally some $ flowing in and supplies are at the ready, torso prop is near completion and I am at an impass.

I have seen a lot of awesome suits made of the 'fatigue foam' matting found in tool stores and such (Harbor Freight)

I don't know if it's something I should try with a deadline though and was seeking some feedback.

Current work to be started(over, again. lulz...) GoW COG Armor.

If I pep it, it will pretty much bring me to the deadline and possibly require extra helpers to finish up on time, unless my schedule gets a break.

Foam is faster, since it won't need multi-layer bondo/sanding support, but I don't have a pep file(altered for foam type use) to make templates of or anything to help get the shapes right.

Which way to go? Decision time is either 4PM today or delayed until tomarrow (central time)

*insert cheesy 24 music ticking time music here*

Either way I am going to give it at least 100% of effort, I tend to get going and forget to stop for sleep... and other needed things.

 

[HaloGoddess]

As far as foam templates go, none really exist. That is something you kind of gotta put together on your own and figure out the best way to do it so that you can have bigger pieces to work with. The foam really does go a alot faster than a normal pep. I was able to get so much done in one day as opposed to pepping, fiberglassing and all that other annoying stuff! XD

Within a matter of about a month, I was able to have nearly a full suit finished, minus the helmet and boot pieces for my Kat armor, but it's more than I ever had finished before.

As long as you think you can figure out your templates and work it out just right and got a good game plan, then go with the foam. You can always use craft foam (foamies) and cut out small pieces for some added detail. You can even add short screws to give a nice touch. I did that with a few pieces of my Kat build. So at this point, I guess it's all a matter of thinking on whether or not you can figure out how to work with the foam.

 

[Kissker]

well I have a cheap hot knife, but it does not appear functional for this , put the blade in (exacto type) and let it heat up for 15minutes, tried cutting the foam - and the blade actually pivoted and nearly slid out and coulda caused a ton of issues. No tension screw either, so it's useless as/is for this.

So cutting would be with standard blades, which may not give desired results. (choppy edges always kill the armor appearance, regardless of paint job)

hot glue's cheap, got a bundle of it already too ... hmm.

 

[HaloGoddess]

Well the blade that I used was one of those "snap blade" types. It worked well enough for mine and for any edges that can be seen and look pretty rough, you can just sand it off since you can use sandpaper on the foam. You can either do it by hand or use a dremel. Although a dremel might be easier.

 

[Kissker]

well now my only issue is finding full peps cuz apparently half of them were either not made/downloaded or corrupted and had to be trashed from the virus. Great, how dare my luck show it's ugly head!.

This thread can be closed. or left open for progress photos of the foam work (yup decided gonna try it)

 

[J326]

although my armor isn't by any means perfect I still got pretty good results with dollar store utility knives. i just had to put a lot of glue on the inner seams to fill gaps that my cutting left. I got a rotary tool that I will smooth out some edges when i get the time. check my sig for my thread.

 

[Toacrabman]

I was also thinkin of getting EVA, as it requires less finishing, and no tabs.

 

[Kissker]

Yea it boils down to this
EVA foam requires less finishing touches, no tabs, and has thicker parts for more stability and easy "thick/real" looking parts (no need for complex paper folds to make the armor thicker at the edges, like in arm holes)

Problems with it though are pep files aren't made for foam, especially 1/2 inch thick so they need tweaked to be 'foam friendly' , a lot of little detail parts simply can't be made of EVA foam -but that's what the 1mm and 2mm thick foam (craft foam, foamies, etc) found at WalMart for less then $0.50 for a 12''x9'' sheet are for. The only other thing I can find problematic is shaping, since you will be doing it free form and not flat/folds it would be easy to misshape something - but foam is more forgiving then paper I think, since you can bend/flex/heat'melt' or 'stretch' parts to do what's needed.

The biggest advantage foam has is it's heat/flex method. By using a heat gun and some templates you can get wonderful curves (say bust, bicep, knees, calves) in 1 solid piece shaped around objects like bowls and either Hand formed (use gloves!, thick ones!) or using a template Press method to push the foam into it's place to cool off.

Although with this detail it would mean a person needs a little more effort in the shaping - you need to think how the body moves and curves and not just "oh, valley fold, fold it this way" type thing, but definately has amazing results - especially for how quickly suits can pop up out of foam.

There are easy ways to fill in gaps (just hot glue, or more expensive/complex methods like that foam-fixit stuff) and then plasti-dip is common and cheap enough to cover the suit for durability and painting... so I am stoked.

Makin room for foam work as I speak,and dabbling in Pep for some more foam friendly peps - but still trying to find missing parts to my armor (see other thread) no thighs for instance, and I really wanted thigh parts.

 

[J326]

have you checked forgedreclaimer's database? http://www.405th.com/showthread.php...-Pepakura-Database?highlight=forged+reclaimer
*edit oops didn't notice that you are working on COG armor* If you can't find the pepfiles then the only thing left is to take reference pictures and scratch build. best of luck to ya

 

[misfitjh]

I use an xacto Knife just on it's own. Keep a small fine nail file handy to re-sharpen the blades, a couple of swipes on both sides and poof it's sharp again. I also use existing pep files, I print them off just the same and cut them out just the same but when building the foam model I try to glues as many peaces together as I can before cutting. You will also notice you will not need some parts so you wont have to cut everything. Last tip I can share is.... with a good pair of small scissors you can cut the foam in half length wise making it a 1/4 inch and if you have a really small sharp pair( I personally use a swiss army knife with the scissors attachment here) you can cut it down to 1/8th of an inch. Check out my KidKat build I just finished the for arms and other thigh last night and will take some good pics for ref and post them there.

 

[Liq]

Man I really might get into this foam stuff. It just seems so unique and fun.