Help with Costume lighting?

Hi there! I'm working on my first cosplays (three different costumes for three days of my local comic con) and I've decided to be a little ambitious and include lighting in one of my costumes and one of my props. The problem is, I'm a total cosplay newb, and while I've been able to find a few resources on different lighting options, I don't know which techniques are better.

The costume I need to light is a genderbent Blue Beetle costume. The costume includes lighted panels on the legs, fingertips, and back (although I might nix the fingertips as that's not very practical for conventions.)


This is my genderbent design:


Judging by the research I've done, EL panels might be the best choice, but I've never worked with them before.

For a prop used in my second costume, I was thinking EL wire. The prop is a laser bow and arrow that looks like this:


It would be great to hear your opinions and/or experience with lighting materials!

Although I have never personally worked with EL wire, I don't think it would be the best solution for what you want to do. Reason being-EL wire just lights up itself, not the surrounding area. Unless you coil it up, it will just light up the edges. If you do coil it, you would probably need to use diffused plastic for the shells. Am I explaining this well enough-kinda hard to tell, plus it is a bit hard to understand without pics.

Looch said:

Although I have never personally worked with EL wire, I don't think it would be the best solution for what you want to do. Reason being-EL wire just lights up itself, not the surrounding area. Unless you coil it up, it will just light up the edges. If you do coil it, you would probably need to use diffused plastic for the shells. Am I explaining this well enough-kinda hard to tell, plus it is a bit hard to understand without pics.

Click to expand...

Thanks, although I'm only using EL wire for the bow.
For the suit I was going to use EL panels

they are flexible and can be cut, but light up a whole surface consistently

Kate Bishop said:

Thanks, although I'm only using EL wire for the bow.
For the suit I was going to use EL panels
View attachment 509026
they are flexible and can be cut, but light up a whole surface consistently

Click to expand...

Ah, that'll work well. For fun, I might suggest a magnetic reed switch for the bow-set up in your glove, the bowstring would only work for you

That would be an awesome touch! Thank you so much, I'll look into that