Foam or Full on FibreGlass Pep build for a costume

[EnterElysium]

Hi I'm new round here but I love the stuff that loads of you have created,

my query is I am thinking about a first time costume build using either the foam-plasti-dip or card-resin-fibreglass-bodyfiller techniques and was wondering which was best?

As the saying goes if I have to pick two of 'Cheap, Quick and Good' I'll be picking Cheap and Good, I have a couple of months to kill so Quick isn't an issue but being a 'just finished' student Cheap is a fairly important point.

I was gravitating towards the foam but am uncertain over how well the foam and the paint will cope. Card presents the alternative, I am wary of these fancy trashcan-esque plastic forming techniques I have seen posted, they look amazing but seem even trickier and have less useful threads since they're less common.

Thoughts?

 

[Kevin Gossett]

This has been discussed countless times here... Do a quick search on the subject and you'll see all kinds of back-and-forths. You say you have "a couple of months to kill", so foam will probably be best. Card/resin/body filler can take (literally) years to finish. Look at some of the foam builds here, and you'll see they can go on for months too. Of course, if the suit is all you're working on for those two months, you should finish no problem. Don't worry about the finish on foam, because there are multiple ways to achieve a great finish

 

[Miiraclez]

^^^^^^ plenty of info.....personally I did a foam suit (in my avatar) it turned out amazing or at least to me its pretty amazing. if its your first time doing something like this id HIGHLY recommend foam. Youre looking at a couple months to complete a suit and a couple hundred dollars. you can always pep resin and bondo a helmet which most people recommend...just to get a feel for it at the end....anyways personally id recommend foam. If you have the time and really want to do it go for fiberglass but be warned youre looking at maybe having your suit ready for next halloween.....its quite a commitment....from what ive read and heard, never tried it, never will.

foam suits are awesome just sayin. give it a try youll love it

 

[EnterElysium]

There is so much info around it makes it hard to decide! But thank very much guys, I'll definitely go foam then as that sound a much more feasible task, especially for a first build. Very nice suits by the way guys!

One other question, for filling the gaps in the foam between sections what would you recommend? I have seen mention of using some sort of putty but none of the threads mention what type and how good the bond with the foam would be?

 

[torx]

i dont see how people do paper peps, resin, fiberglass, bondo, sculpting, etc etc
my goodness, just looking at the paper peps im jawdropped at how long it must take to put something together.. not to mention the index finger pains from cutting out the hundreds of pieces *shudder*

do foam and use one of the many methods to coat it, plasti coat it, "docholiday it", etc etc

 

[iMan]

do foam and use one of the many methods to coat it, plasti coat it, "docholiday it", etc etc

Wow, "docholiday it". Nice.

 

[michaudtime]

I did foam for my first one and it was amazing learned so much and was happy how it came out, now I want to build a fiberglass one for display