10 Tips and Tricks for EVA Foam!

hey everyone it's Taylor from competitive cosplay here and welcome back to our Channel one of the questions we get asked the most is how we get our foam work so clean so in this video we're going to show you a couple of tips and tricks for working with Evie a foam some of these tips may seem really simple but they can make a huge difference to your final result so if you're new to Evie a foam or you just want to improve your foam work and get cleaner results then we hope this video will be helpful and if you guys would like to learn more about making cosplay costumes and cosplay armor check out our Pepin's and tutorials on our website at competitive cosplay comm all right let's get to the video tip number one is choosing the right kind of foam not all Evie a foam is the same there are different kinds of foam which come in different densities and thicknesses softer Evie a foam is great for making armor pieces but it can be a little bit harder to cut harder or denser Evie a foam is great for details and props it's more rigid and you can cut into it really nicely but this also means that it can be harder to shape and form tip number two use a sharp craft knife to get clean edges one of the most important keys to clean foam work is using a sharp knife cutting with a sharp knife will give you a super clean cut and you will slice through the foam like butter using a blunt knife will create rough edges and rip the phone giving you a not so nice looking edge so make sure you have some replacement blades or you can also sharpen your blades with high grit sandpaper or a knife sharpener number three try to do one solid cut another important tip for getting super clean lines on Evie a phone is to try cut the foam in one continuous smooth cut this will give you the cleanest edges if you have to come back and cut over the foam again and again it can give you edges with weird lines on the side tip number four using contact glue instead of hot glue contact adhesive is one of the best glues for EVF oh it's super strong and bonds really well so your seams will never rip apart apply a little bit of glue to each side you will stick together and then let them get tacky you can then press the two pieces of foam with the glue on together and when they touch they'll bond instantly contact glue can also be applied really neatly so no glue will poke out the edges hot glue on the other hand is not really ideal for EVF oh the glue itself is pretty thick and can often squash out between the scenes which can be really difficult to get rid of it also doesn't bond instantly so you may have to spend time trying to keep the seams together and fixing the splits and because hot glue is activated with heat if you want to heat up your EBA foam again and shape it some more the glue can split open making the seam messy tip number five use your thumb as a guide to help line up your edges making a foam seam line up completely flush can be pretty tricky to help line up your seams you can use your thumb as a guide and place it on top of your seam as you join them this will keep the foam pieces from misaligning number six use a heat gun to remove the fluffy edges after sanding sanding Evie a foam is a great way to get certain shapes but it leaves really nasty little rough pieces all over to get rid of these you can melt off the little fluffy pieces with a heat gun you can also press the edges when they're warm to get them extra smooth tip number seven is heat sealing your phone heat sealing can help with priming and getting rid of the porous surface on the phone when heated with a heat gun the foam tightens up and the little pores in the foam surface shrink this makes the surface of the foam a bit smoother and will stop it from absorbing too much of your primer tip number eight is heat shaping folk sometimes it's not enough to just glue pieces together to get your desired shape and the EVF ohm may not always do what you want but with a little bit of heat you can easily bend the foam to your will just heat up the phone with your heat gun and bend it into the shape you want make sure you let the foam cool down this is what will lock it into position you can also use heat to press cool shapes and textures into your EBA foam tip number nine is hiding your seams to hide the seams on your armor pieces you can use gesso gesso is a flexible canvas primer so it's great for using on foam just take a bit of the paste and smooth it on with your finger you can also smooth it out even more with some water once the gesso is dry you can repeat this process until your seam is completely hidden and finally tip number ten is priming all evie a foam is like a sponge so to get a more plastic or metallic looking surface you'll need to prime your EBA foam luckily there are tons of options available to prime foam with a few examples of foam primers or PVA glue Mod Podge flex bond and Plasti Dip apply a few layers of your primer to the foam and then you'll have a nice smooth surface ready for paint we hope you guys enjoyed this video when it comes to getting clean foam work it really is about these small practices that can make a huge difference thank you guys so much for watching and if you haven't already make sure that you subscribe to our Channel and hit that Bell button so that you can get notified and we put up new tutorials bye guys

Channel: Kinpatsu Cosplay

Views: 164,416

Keywords: eva foam, eva foam cosplay, foam cosplay, cosplay foam, cosplay crafting, cosplay construction, foam construction, foam prop making, foam props, kinpatsu cosplay, kinpatsu, kinpatsu foam, foam tips, cosplay tutorial, crafting tutorial, kinpatsu cosplay tutorial, tips and tricks, cosplay tips, cosplay ideas, cosplay techniques, cosplay methods, EVA foam tutorial, tutorial, how to work with EVA foam

Id: kSppMZAr0Hw

Length: 5min 33sec (333 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 16 2020