Tron Legacy Costume
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Icey
Active Member
I stopped and bought a sheet of the 1/4" minicel on the way home from work today, and it's pretty awesome stuff. It looks almost identical to craft foam, but feels way nicer and more durable. It cuts easily with scissors and heat shapes great. As for heat sealing it, I was unable to with a heat gun without warping it significantly. Here's some pictures both with and without flash.
Here's a heat sealed edge. It's quite a bit shinier than the rest of the foam and feels like it has a thin plastic crust on it; almost like it's cauterized. I imagine you'd need a quick source of heat in order to seal this properly, like the friction from the giant band saw they cut this with.
To test how well it would heat shape, I cut out a small square and wrapped it around a screwdriver. It held gentle curves just by shaping it with my hands, but I wanted to test how well it did on more severe curves. It took them quite well
The surface does get a bit of a sheen when you take the heat gun to it, but it's still soft enough that you would need a sealer of some kind before you paint it.
Here's what happened when I tried to heat seal it. It warped and didn't form the crust like the edges had at all. One good thing is that it didn't really shrink at all, so you should be ok if you accidentally overheat it. The dents are from the wire strippers I used to hold it around the screwdriver. I tried denting it with my fingernail as well, and it only left a faint mark.
Here's a heat sealed edge. It's quite a bit shinier than the rest of the foam and feels like it has a thin plastic crust on it; almost like it's cauterized. I imagine you'd need a quick source of heat in order to seal this properly, like the friction from the giant band saw they cut this with.
To test how well it would heat shape, I cut out a small square and wrapped it around a screwdriver. It held gentle curves just by shaping it with my hands, but I wanted to test how well it did on more severe curves. It took them quite well
The surface does get a bit of a sheen when you take the heat gun to it, but it's still soft enough that you would need a sealer of some kind before you paint it.
Here's what happened when I tried to heat seal it. It warped and didn't form the crust like the edges had at all. One good thing is that it didn't really shrink at all, so you should be ok if you accidentally overheat it. The dents are from the wire strippers I used to hold it around the screwdriver. I tried denting it with my fingernail as well, and it only left a faint mark.
Ok, so I found something interesting online:
ThinkGeek :: "Wire Glue" Conductive Glue
Wire glue...apparently it conducts electricity. My thought is, if I'm not misinterpreting its abilities, could you use EL Wire or EL Tape on a costume or clothing and use lines of this glue to connect seperate pieces, instead of running wire across it?
It's hard to explain, but I hope it makes sense to someone. Here's a quick example of what I'm talking about (with a cheap/effortless/poorly done TRON design lol)
Could it be done, using conductive glue to complete the circuits of segmented wire/EL tape?
ThinkGeek :: "Wire Glue" Conductive Glue
Wire glue...apparently it conducts electricity. My thought is, if I'm not misinterpreting its abilities, could you use EL Wire or EL Tape on a costume or clothing and use lines of this glue to connect seperate pieces, instead of running wire across it?
It's hard to explain, but I hope it makes sense to someone. Here's a quick example of what I'm talking about (with a cheap/effortless/poorly done TRON design lol)
Could it be done, using conductive glue to complete the circuits of segmented wire/EL tape?
games001
Well-Known Member
Wire Glue, or Conductive Glue, is basically a carbon paste that conducts electricity.. problem is, the glues out there tend to be very weak bonding, brittle and a complete pain to cure. I can basically tell you that the glue will NOT flex without breaking the 'line' you have built with it and acts as a power feed to your ELWire.
I tried using this stuff to bond my leads to the back of ELTape, to avoid the need for clips or soldering, and the paste was worthless. It took nearly 24hours to even create a dry and stable connection and the paste would just snap free of the tape when the slightest pressure was applied to the wires.
Unless I am mistaken, you are trying to 'hide' the connection between the ELWire and still have power running to the strips without multiple leads and seperate areas of ELWire. Since you probably want some areas to flex a bit, an easier and more secure method for your layout might be cutting some thin, black cased speaker wire or the like and setting that as a connection between ELWire sections. It's how I wired my suit, but my wires are all running the rear length of the arms or alng the spine under a coat so they are hidden, except at the back of the elbow where they can be seen from a side glance.
I tried using this stuff to bond my leads to the back of ELTape, to avoid the need for clips or soldering, and the paste was worthless. It took nearly 24hours to even create a dry and stable connection and the paste would just snap free of the tape when the slightest pressure was applied to the wires.
Unless I am mistaken, you are trying to 'hide' the connection between the ELWire and still have power running to the strips without multiple leads and seperate areas of ELWire. Since you probably want some areas to flex a bit, an easier and more secure method for your layout might be cutting some thin, black cased speaker wire or the like and setting that as a connection between ELWire sections. It's how I wired my suit, but my wires are all running the rear length of the arms or alng the spine under a coat so they are hidden, except at the back of the elbow where they can be seen from a side glance.
I agree with gams, also I want to add that your idea is not as simple. You would need to have 2 lines for each set of el wire, and, combined with what gams, set the chance for error would be greatly increased.
hmmm...well, it sounded good in my head. Thanks for the input! 
I am trying to avoid soldering anything (I don't own any of the equipment, and I want to avoid the extra cost of buying it). I might just go the cheap route and use a reflective material (fabric, tape, or a heat transfer film I found online) to get the low-budget glowy effect.
I am trying to avoid soldering anything (I don't own any of the equipment, and I want to avoid the extra cost of buying it). I might just go the cheap route and use a reflective material (fabric, tape, or a heat transfer film I found online) to get the low-budget glowy effect.
metalgreyfox
Member
Icey,
I havent tried it but try a heated craft knife between the two edges you are connecting and then press them together....maybe....
I havent tried it but try a heated craft knife between the two edges you are connecting and then press them together....maybe....
games001
Well-Known Member
I would imagine that E6000 Glue, stuff is like liquid steel, would do a fine job as a binder/sealer. A heated craft blade will 'slightly' melt the edges of the foam, but I imagine won't stay hot enough to act as a binder. I have tried it with 1/2in EVA Foam, it does not work for anything other than short/long, quick cuts as the foam saps heat quickly.
tim
Sr Member
Thanks!
I think I'll plan to get five feet of both the 0.5-inch and 1-inch tape and see which looks better in person once I have a jacket. I've emailed LuminousFilm sales asking for a quotation for the tape, two inverters, and a bunch of ETCO clips without wires. I expect all this should run about $140 before shipping.I finished upgrading my deluxe identity disk last weekend, so now it's time to focus on the jacket! :love
Icey
Active Member
Sorry, I don't think I explained it well enough. I wasn't talking about using heat to bind edges together I was just using it as an example of what it looks like when properly heat sealed. What I tried to do with the heat gun was to get the front part of the foam sealed the same as the sides so there wouldn't be a need for an additional sealer such as mod podge or something similar before painting it. As for binding it to itself, I've found that simple wood glue forms a very strong and flexible bond on just about any kind of foam, though the E6000 I put on a scrap piece doesn't appear to be melting it so I don't see why that wouldn't work as well.
Thank you for taking the time to do it rite before you post pics of it! Looks fantastic... Everyone you need to make ur stuff look this good...
Thermistor
Active Member
Icey,
Do you know if you can sand it at all?
Do you know if you can sand it at all?
Icey
Active Member
Doesn't look like it. I just tried with my dremel and all it did was melt it a minuscule amount and stink. I don't have a coarse grit on hand to try, but I imagine all that would do is rip it since there's a decent amount of give to it. The only foam I've been able to successfully sand has been the extruded polystyrene insulation stuff. It sands wonderfully, but it's hard and will snap if enough pressure is put on it.
I did the math with the help of their price sheet here, http://www.luminousfilm.com/KNEMA-LUMINOUSFILM-PRICE-LIST-WEB.pdf , and I came up with a total of about $65. Also be sure to think about how many connectors you will need to connect the tape to the invertersThanks!
tim
Sr Member
The inverters make up the rest of the cost; I think a dozen clips should be plenty as I'm just doing the young Flynn jacket with two straight strips alongside the two parts of the zipper.
With my method you could get it blue either with all blue EL, or physically dye your diffusion blue with ink to match colour across the board if you try to do a combo (you can then control how dark/light the 'stain' is). The El tape would be significantly different to the EL wire in brightness I think, and a couple of people from this thread have said the power requirements for both are different. Doing a combo may mean two inverters.
You can 'mask' the shapes you need on EL tape with black duct tape, I'm actually sure what happens if you try to glue directly onto it. It just means that the width of your light strips are limited to how thick the El tape you bought is. However as the El tape is straight only... for the curved parts of the Siren/ Quorra costumes, extra soldering will need to be done to join the tape.
The best way for consistency of colour is to measure twice and be sure that's exactly how much tape/wire you will need and get it all in one go with some room to spare.
Hope this helps
games001
Well-Known Member
Before any pics of Castor had been leaked long ago, that was my first impression of his suit from the details I had been given. Should work great as a tails coat or other tux would rock with ELTape in key areas.
Greetings programs! The surprise news for TRON 3. This was planned to be shown at the end of TRON LEGACY! The clip has arrived. Go to Tron-Sector: Current News Sector For furthur details. FLYNN LIVES! END OF LINE!
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tim
Sr Member
That looks pretty darn cool! :cool
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