craft foam armor thickness?

I wouldn’t think anything too thick, maybe something like the thickness of those foam sheets you can get at craft stores? Cause even then those can be layered ^^

 

It's funny, I'm currently working with craft foam to make some armor for a costume of my own! For dolly-scale projects, I would go with the typical 2mm thickness, and layer it up if you want dimension in different areas. It's available in most craft stores, and you can find huge rolls of it for pretty cheap depending on how much you need!

 

As reference, when I made human armor recently I used primarily 6mm, some 10mm, and 3mm (for raised details).

So for bigger dolls I would also probably not go higher than 3mm, if not 2mm. And 1mm for raised details maybe.

Regarding how you layer without making it show: some use caulk, some use foam clay. I had mixed results with the smoothened clay. I also went the whole nine yards with the armor (heat sealing, covering completely with Plastidip, airbrushing with flexible paint, using flexible drying sealant) because I needed it to be able to survive conventions. Which it did!

Only doll armor I ever made was with Worbla, and there I just simply airbrushed it with acrylic paint/no flexibility was needed.

 

Is this craft foam flexible? I love to craft, but I'm not familiar with this.


@Ara thank you for explaining that

 

Right now I´m using thin polystyrol for a warrior outfit.

 

If something like EVA foam is used, then you make it flexible via heat. Like with a heat gun. You heat it up, and then you bend it into shape and force it to stay there until it has cooled.
It's flexible on its own as well, but the heat is needed to get it into its base shape at least (like bending around an arm). That's also why the paint and other materials need to be flexible as well, or else they crease and crack.

 

Craft foam that's thin enough (like 2mm or less) can actually be heated with a heat gun and formed over a surface to create a smoother look. It's difficult to get super sharp details with it like you would with Worbla or another thermoplastic, but it's also a lot cheaper and easier to find locally vs. having to order online. That being said, I would recommend finishing with gesso or Plastidip if you're concerned about visible air holes on the surface.

In general, I would recommend playing around with some scraps and seeing what you like before committing to an approach on your final piece!

 

They're for smoothing and finishing surfaces prior to painting, and both will fill in any gaps from air bubbles in the foam. Plastidip is available in both spray and brush-on varieties, and gesso is exclusively brush-on. It just depends on your preferred method of application and budget, as Plastidip tends to be slightly more expensive from what I've seen.

 

Have you ever tried worpla? It is sticky, when heated but when formed it behaves like plastic and is really thin. I know some OOAK makers, who use it to make parts for Monster High and they_are_tiny. It can be painted on, glued on etc. Can be safely sanded as well.

 

This confuses me a bit, could you clarify?
If we are talking medieval metal armor, most would actually be quite thin, like 1-1,5mm thickness, with most of it's rigidity goten by rolled edges, bowl shapes and fluting. Sometimes parts would overlap, adding up to a higher total and some parts would be made thicker, but only where neccesary (such as a bacinet helmet I was able to examine once, that had a gradual increase of thickness towards the upper forhead area with a max at about 3mm, it was a very heavy helmet, made to be used both in combat and for sports with different visors), as the weight adds up quickly.
The really thick stuff is usually only found on optional pieces of highly speccialized tournament armor, as they'd know where the force would come from and mobility wasn't as much of an issue.
Raised decor is usually done by adding very thin metal shaped by what I believe is called "chasing" in english (but please correct me if i got that wrong) to the surface. It is hollow, not a solid piece and often done in copper or copper alloy. But I mostly know of exaples of that from earlier periods.

@lividdarkangel Unless your are trying to recreate a specific armor from a game that calls for thicker, i'd say go with 2mm foam. It's quite floppy, but it will probably stabilize enough with shaping and painting. Thinner than that and it will be hard to work with, being very fragile when heated and easily deformed. Foam is usually not the best for realistic armor, but for computer game aestetics it's great. It can be painted to look like metal, or at least what a friend of mine like to call "game metal" (you know, the painted metal look you find on well painted table top miniatures?) and that is probably more than you need to make a cool looking doll armor. Most dolls are not super realistic in themselves to begin with, so sometimes the stylized look is actually a better fit. And the foam is never going to scratch your doll or rust and stain the clothes, so it's a pretty good choice for material. And it's light, so it won't interfere with your dolls posing too much.

 

I think the thicknesses Ara mentioned were to do with craft foam not metal.

Although I've made and am still making doll armour out of metal and I've found 0.5mm aluminium works quite well. It's bendable without being too easily damaged by incidental impact and you can deform it with a hammer pretty easily without needing a proper forge.

 

Oh, that must be it. I just read human armor and assumed real armor for real humans, not cosplay armor for humans rather than dolls. I feel silly now.

 

Funny enough, it IS a medieval metal armor of sorts....because it is a Batman armor of his Dark Knights of Steel version, made out of EVA foam and airbrushed metallic
So yes, @Crissaegrim is correct. I was talking about the thickness of the EVA foam used. 4-6mm is pretty much the standard thickness most go for in the cosplay sphere. 10mm was just used for the upper most chest plate, to give it the dramatic bulk.

(For the curious, the finished armor: Et ne nos inducas in Tentationem )