Tested Builds: Foam Propmaking, Part 3
We get to the meat of this week’s build with special guest Bill Doran! With each of our designs sketched out, we transfer them to foam and begin forming the blades. Time to barge it up! (Follow along the rest of the week by joining the Tested Premium member community!)
18 thoughts on “Tested Builds: Foam Propmaking, Part 3”
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Thanks again Norm and Bill for another wonderful week of build entry. Another question for Bill if I may. How are you handling your personal collection of props and costumes? Do you build for a single wear or intend to keep for multiple wears? Do you have an ever expanding wall of props or curate it with just your faves or builds you are most proud of? I’m sure every maker struggles with these questions and am wondering what your take on it is. Thanks again for sharing.
Where do you buy your foam? I’m pretty tired of sanding off the texture on the floor mats but finding other foam online is a little confusing… never really sure if im picking the right stuff!
I’m currently building a Deckard Cain costume from Diablo. This foam wood grain is deff something I may use for his staff!
lol I have a feeling in a few years were going to start seeing cosplayers with “foam lung” from all this foam dust! Dust masks are definitely good… though they irritate me with my glasses.
thanks guys I like listening in for little tips ~
Loving it!
I’m looking at buying his rotary tool from HF and a kit of bits for it. Looks really similar to what Bill has.
http://www.harborfreight.com/heavy-duty-variable-speed-rotary-tool-kit-31-pc-60713.html
I need to learn how to sew too. Useful in making costumes and has every day applications too.
http://tntcosplaysupply.com is where the none textured stuff comes from -for online. If your lucky enough, some big cities like LA have foam supply stores where you can L-200 and the like they are untextured
These videos have inspired me to finally start finishing my first ever foam build. Now if only i had seen these before i started it a month ago i could have avoided a bunch of mistakes and possibly finished it right away.
How well does the Super 77 spray glue work for the foam?
Foam core is great too! Almost ready for modling and casting on my Space Pirate Trainer gun prop! Going to be making fully finished versions as well as a couple garage kits. Norm, is your email still “norm”? I have to send you and Adam one each with all the electronics to paint and build! A little thanks for the years of tested! 🙂
(sorry, there was an audio problem with the latest episode. we’re looking into re-uploading it, but it will likely be tomorrow before it goes up. hope that’s ok–double episode finale tomorrow!)
Thanks for letting us know Norm, looking forward to seeing them painted!
Thanks guys.
This is a great build. I used to LARP (not very seriously, just wanted to hit my friends with “swords”) & we used PVC pipe, camping foam & sewed a cloth over it. It would have looked so much better if we had this resource. Thanks for the videos.
Quick tips when working with foam I picked up working in my buddies Upholstery shop to help him out:
Use a $10 Electric turkey carving knife on bigger cuts
You can buy Contact Cement in big Containers from a quart to a 55gallon drum (a quart is the same cost as 2 of those little bottles)
buy Meter sticks to use as a straight edge
on cutting PVC, use a small hacksaw to cut through it quickly with less mess $5-$10 at home depot in sprinkler section or you can buy the plier type cutters for small stuff.
I’m making a few things for 5 kids for Comic Con (Not all my kids, they are the kids of other Disabled Veterans who go to the Conventions) The organizers are pretty good at answering safety questions if you need to know rules.
For items like the pvc pipe he used, painting it with spray paint before you wrap the foam to hide your crimes.
Loved the books Bill, they helped me in creating my 4.5′ long Rocket Raccoon Gun
Holy crap you guys! Great job on the builds. It warms my heart to see so many of you following along. =D
I have a handful of costumes that I keep on hand and have worn many times, but it’s getting a little cluttered around here. Most of the props I’ve made have been sold or given away.
TNT Cosplay Supply is a good place to get non textured foam.
These Videos, Franks videos as well as Evil Ted inspired me to make these for my scfi webseries
Watching some of the videos on Bill’s Channel and the Evil Ted Channel it seems like when they’re not using floor mats they use L200 foam, which I also think is what they’re using here. You can also get L300 and L400 which I believe is denser. It is a little pricier, a quick google search shows a 36″x12″x0.25″ sheet of L200 is between $10 and $12 where as I just picked 4 24″x24″x0.5″ sheets of floor mat for the same price.