Need help with foam shaping.

[shadowofthgiant]

i'm fairly new to the cosplay thing but i love doing it, and i have to do it right. i'm using foam to make a Dragon Ball Z Cell cosplay. i have a decent foam, but its pretty pliable i know i can sturdy it with the plasti-dip or something similar. so my question is, what is a good way to hold my foam pieces in the proper shapes? and after i spray them will they maintain that shape?

Any tips, hints, would be greatly appreciated! also if anyone has pictures of what they are talking about that would help me a lot.

 

[shadowofthgiant]

i'm fairly new to the cosplay thing but i love doing it, and i have to do it right. i'm using foam to make a Dragon Ball Z Cell cosplay. i have a decent foam, but its pretty pliable i know i can sturdy it with the plasti-dip or something similar. so my question is, what is a good way to hold my foam pieces in the proper shapes? and after i spray them will they maintain that shape?

Any tips, hints, would be greatly appreciated! also if anyone has pictures of what they are talking about that would help me a lot.

 

[Eru23]

I've never used foam before, but from what I've learnt - Use heat to reshape it, and then seal it with PVA or an alternative like wood glue. When you seal it, it should harden it, but keep it flexible.

 

[shadowofthgiant]

i dont know why, but i didnt even think of heat, thank you!

 

[WindPhoenix]

You can easily find heat guns for $20 in most Walmart. You can also use a hair dryer. Heat the foam, shape it and hold the shape until it cools down. Make the shape a little more pronounced than it should be to account for the fact that the foam will spring back a little bit once you release it.

 

[aetherdeus]

Heat-shaped foam holds its shape pretty decently, but the plasti-dip will keep it that way, for sure. Personally, I prefer 1-2 coats of glue or mod podge first, but thats just me. I think Smooth-On has a nice foam sealer, but I haven't tried it. Everything I've made so far >2mm thickness has been plenty solid after that. If you try that and its still not enough, you can always do resin or fiberglass over that.

 

[cavx]

What sort of foam? EVA or something else? EVA is easy to work, cut and glues really well with cheap superglue.

 

[Dragonmaster525]

I've used steel wires bent to shape and put inside the foam to help maintain shape; as well as using heat.

 

[Talaaya]

If you can afford it, worbla. Definitely worbla. Here's a great example of what you can do with it:

This is a 5mm foam piece of armor which has been covered in worbla. I heated up the left side and pushed it outward into a much rounder, nicer shape compared to the right side. Worbla not only allows you to warp foam into shapes you couldn't normally, but it also makes a hard plastic shell around the foam, making it really rigid.

Plastidip will not hold your foam in shape by the way. It will just coat it in a flexible rubber which seals the foam for painting or whatever.