foam building

[kelly548]

i have recently constructed the upper torso of an animated clone from the clone wars (the current project i am on).i cannot stress how usefull foam is i.e roll matt foam or camping matt foam sheets,especially military ones are very strong and very easy to mould round limbs and resin does not effect it so it can be fibre glassed and body filled or "bondo" for you people in the states lol.i used lots of duck tape to strengthen it but once the resin and bondo is applied it cant be seen a hot glue gun is very usefull aswell for foam moulding,it is also very easy to fix if ripped with either the hot glue and duck tape and can be built up with all the cuttings.i will post my pictures soon but i recommend it, it has the potential to be better than pepakura imo if you have a good eye and can copy references well.
thanks for looking any other opinions?

 

[ventrue]

any other opinions?

Not yet...

 

[Roadkiller]

I agree! This stuff is brilliant.

I completed a low-definition pep/fibreglass build in October. Since then I have been updating the costume to a high-def version. I'm using a mixture of materials and techniques in order to get the best look I can achieve with my current skill-set, EVA foam is one.

It is easy to cut. I use a good utility knife and a metal ruler. Draw out exactly where you want to cut, then lay the knife against the ruler and with firm pressure you can make one smooth cut. Someone on here has been using a band-saw to good effect for cutting.

A heat gun lets you achieve brilliant shapes with this stuff. I pepped and Smooth-cast a HD codpiece, then laid in a piece of EVA foam. A bit of heat and working it into shape and it provides padding that looks as if it's part of the original piece.

Hot-glue will stick this stuff to just about anything.

For those who haven't seen Ben Streepers video, check it out:

http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/28434-Foam-Armoring

Here is a great WIP to read through for ideas:
http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/27231-Reach-and-mass-effects-its-been-awhile-for-me