Prop: Shop - Strapping Your Foam Armor 

I've used this technique a billion times on my cosplays. It works and is one of the best ways to attach armor pieces. I usually use e6000 glue instead of hot glue because it's much stronger. Make sure to place the parts that are glued together below books or have clips to hold them together and wait 24hrs for the e6000 glue to cure and release.

5 years later and Im still watching this! ❤️Love all your hard work!

"You can't wish it to stick to your body"?? Well that explains a lot... :D Thanks a lot for your great tips. I'm working on my first foam armor right now (this is going to be huuuuuge) and I could never do that without your books and videos!

You are freaking helpful. Seriously, I watch your videos and it helps me out a lot. Thanks for the tips.

All of these videos are super helpful. Thank you!

E6000 is a million times better than hot glue. Hot glue gets gross and weakens very easily. E6000 is flexible and tough as nails, great for working with straps and other potentially stretchy things.

Perfect timing i needed this ! thank you ! i love your tutorials :)

i got to say man, i love the videos so much i will be buying the book. you seem to be able to explain things very good. keep it up guys! very helpful!!!

This is something I never thought of! Thank you for making my work easier when I start lol

Thank you! My foam is gonna be thinner and cheaper but I think I can still apply the same idea. This really helped me have more of an idea for my Speed of Sound Sonic cosplay

ive needed this for a week thank you!!

One technique I've had great success with is for larger straps that have a lot of weight on them, like around the midsection of the torso, I glue a second piece of nylon webbing perpendicular across the top of the first strap and down to the foam making a t shape. It spreads the weight out and gives more surface area for the glue to bond.

I gotta say, these videos and your book has helped me get into this hobby so that I can make an XCOM 2 Advent Captain costume in time for the game release! It certainly isn't pretty, and I only have 2 weeks total to work on it, but the knowledge you have provided has mitigated a lot of frustration as this is my first time making a costume ^^

Thank You Bill!!! I had a lot of issues strapping my armors, but thanks to you problem solved!! :D

Thanks for this, ive been struggling with straps!

thank you for this video! i always had problems attaching my armour, this will help a lot!

thanx for the help! using this now! ps watch your show everytime i work on my stuff! good inspiration.

Thankyou for sharing these great techniques, liked & Subscribed, Aloha

great meeting you at the con my son was little deathstroke....i used magnets to hold down some of his armor..... worked great!

just as i was looking for this! thanks! :-)

I bought your book and am loving it for my Auriel build! Will definitely have to check out your 2nd one. =D

That was very helpful for my elastic band ^^

I’m currently in the process of building a halo reach armour and elastic straps have been a god send, it genuinely is perfect for building armour, It is flexible, stretches and is black so it blends in The black clips also were amazing for my master chief armour since I could hide it inside the suit to unclog the sides to remove

Just what I was looking for, thanks a lot!

all your tips has been huge help to a beginner cosplayer like me and I thank you so much but can you do one for painting and detailing with paint?

This tutorial really helped me when I was making my armor pieces for my Wonder Woman cosplay! Instead of eva foam, I used craft foam and it still works! Thank you!

Learned that velcro doesn't hold well glued to foam when my costume started falling apart at Denver Comicon this year. Haha, thanks for the tips, next time will hopefully go better.

I've been finding surplus, US Army issue, load bearing vests for between $5 and $10. These seem to be excellent platforms to use to strap an entire armor section to as well.

Great video

Trying to do Mercy from Overwatch and this helped a lot :) still not sure if I should use magnets or these ideas though. Great advice though! Subscribed!

Thank you, I plan on making a mandalorian costume, these tips are amazing!!!

Wonderful...thank you!

Glad I came across this. I'm working on a shy guy mask and I didn't have a clue how I was going to get elastic to stick to the inside. Hot glue was never favorable to me so I'm considering testing contact cement.

nice tips!

I have to make some minor adjustments to my Batsuit, this video was very helpful thank you

hey Bill!! Could you do a video on how to know how much mold making supplies to use when making a mold and how to figure out how much resin to use for casting? :) That would be awesome thank you!!

Good stuff

hi could you make video of how to install lighting on a foam armor

you videos are so professionally put together. how do you only have 110,000 subscribers. Keep up the good work I look forward to more videos ( : oh and have you ever heard of Gen-con in Indianapolis, because if so you should definitely go!

thank you so much!

Haha I recently tried hot glueing velcro to an elastic strap that was hot glued to foam and I figured right away they weren't meant to be like that so it's good seeing this video so I don't try again thinking it was a one time thing lol

Man that bill, hes my favorite "costume guy"

yeah, i've started to give up on velcro, it just doesn't hold as well as i want for parts that move a lot, even with Barge cement it peels if you move too much, so i'm switching to buckles anytime i can manage it.

I think using contact glue/cement will be better to attach the straps. Conventions can be pretty hot and especially in high summer so the glue from the hot glue gun can let lose way faster. I have seen many cosplayers struggeling with this so i hope you take the tip for granted ^^

Just a little tip for people out there who don't want to buy that nylon webbing: buy some cheap felt at Wal-Mart or a craft store and cut it into strips. Just make sure to pre-stretch the strips before you glue them to your costume because some brands of felt can stretch and then your pieces will become very loose.

I thought your name was Builder Anne, haha. A fitting name for a prop-maker. Thanks for the great video. It's helping with some shoe covers I'm making.

We use this staple gun at work that blows the staple ends outwards. I just used it on my 5 year olds scout trooper costume. I used hot glue as well, and you can find the staple gun at any AC supply house.

I have both your books

costume guy? more like costume GOD! AMAZING I HAVE LEARNED SO MUCH!

I like to use leather or thin aluminum glued to other side and a thin headed rifot or bolt through it. If it is going to support anything heavy. I have a lot of these on my bumblebee.

Dope Shirt ... Destiny ♠️

does it work with barge cement ??

Love the videos Bill! What type of glue would you recommend for 3d printed parts made of PLA?

Great video, do you have any suggestions for gluing straps onto Styrofoam?

this and scaling were my problems with my first suit.

Awesome

DUDE! Where did you find that Bourbon st. sign??! I am a huge Gambit fan and I must have that in my man cave.

Hey Bill, big fan here. I am working on a costume of my warlock for the local comic-con, and was curious about how you would go about making the Light Beyond nemesis exotic helmet? I was thinking of modifying an existing skateboard helmet, poly-carbonate sheets(from amazon), and epoxy/bondo. At the same time, I feel that foam would be much lighter, but how to keep the feathered wings stiff is a problem. The biggest issue though is how to make a visor that looks like it does in the game, but I can also look through. Any advice will be appreciated.

What type of mask and filter do you recommend for using spray paint, contact cement, and bondo?

thanks a lot buddy!! great videos. fyi, your links don't work at the end of the video. wonderful info and guess what? I'm buying your book!!

You should make the jacuzzi revolver from borderlands 2

Can you use this to glue abseling harness webbing and then sew for extra strength?

Do you think magnets will hold up to time? I'm considering using them to connect the Mando armor that I just finished to my jumpsuit.

How long would you recommend letting the glue cure? I'm always super impatient in letting stuff like that sit if i don't knoe how much time to give it. I tried this out and managed to wait about and hour. Good bond when pulling but still peeled relatively easy so I'm worried about that degrading pretty quickly when tightening the straps

thanks! great video! Youre book will be translated in french? I have much difficulty in English :p

It seems like the texture of the mat would do the job of scoring the foam for you.

Hey Bill, does the print copy of the foamsmith have all 3 books in it? Or do you have 3 different print books

what glue can i use to glue the foam except hot glue?

Thanks so much for this. I do have one question. Okay, I'm in the process of doing Sergeant Calhoun from Wreck It Ralph. As of now, I'm very pleased with my results. I managed to create the chest and back plates, along with attaching them together. Now, my EVA foam that I ordered (by accident mind you, only it turned into a 'happy accident') turns out it has an adhesive backing to it already. With that said, I'm going to have to have straps connecting my chest plate and back plate together at the sides. So my question is this, how would you go about attaching straps like the plastic buckles on the inside of the armor while them being secured with the factor of the EVA foam itself having an adhesive backing? Thanks so much for your time and response.

Bill, what the heck kind of hot glue are you using? Every time I ever hot-glue anything, as soon as it cools, it peels right up from whatever I put it on! I can't see using hot glue for anything you want to be permanent.

I Want to work for this guy

Which gum did you use plz tell me

my only problem is in FL the heat can be so bad that armor will only last 10 min outside before the bond weakens and falls apart. any way to fix this, will this tech work or should i keep using contact cement/superglue also my hotglue is a super strong hightemp that suppose to melt at a much higher heat, but FL is its weakening heat point

Thanks for the cool video! Informative but I have a question. Will Barge cement work to do this as well? Thanks!

would you be able to use hot glue to permanently attach velcro to flat rope nylon webbing?

What if you don't have a man equine to use as a reference when building armour? I don't have it, so the hardest piece to finish (in my opinion) is the torso piece.

What type of hot glue do you use? From my experience with hot glue eventually it will harden and release. I used to use hot glue for all kinds of stuff, but some brands seemed to work better than others, but alas eventually over time all hot glue I have used will just give up it's grip. I know low temp hot glue is worse than the high temp, even if you just melt it with a lighter at a higher temp, it still gets hard and gives up if it's something that flexes a lot. So is there a particular brand that you have found works exceptionally better than others? For me when it comes to rubber and foam in areas that have to move I have gotten better results with that shoe repair glue called Shoe GOO than I have hot glue. I haven't done a lot of foam craft. But when I was a teenager we used to hammer out practise swords out steel pipes. Got a lot of busted knuckles playing with those. Anyhow when making scabbards we toyed with lots of different materials, like foam or vinyl or cardboard with cloth or pleather glued to the outside, and hot glue was what we mostly used and after a few weeks the stuff always started falling apart. The Shoe Goo is made to flex and still be strong, so it worked a lot better for certain things. But we would melt down a bunch of sticks of hot glue over a fire in a tin can, and brush it onto the cardboard tubes we flattened to make the scabbards with to give it some durability. Now I would likely just make the scabbard by heat forming PVC. But I'm not sure what sticks to that when it comes to glue. Since PVC glue only glues PVC to PVC. It won't glue cloth to PVC, and it will melt vinyl faux leather completely so you can't use it on that. By the same token don't get PVC glue on linoleum flooring either, otherwise you will be replacing some linoleum.

Haha cool i did my spartan armour's straps the exact same way with the webbing without any tutorials :)

I've come here after ripping my velcro off my eva foam armor. Gonna try this strap thing

Since you're already using a sewing machine with some of the straps might as well sew all of your straps directly to the foam. Looks better too

Oh so I can't wish it onto me :,( I thought... *cri* Thank you so much, this is uber useful, making some Star Wars bounty hunter armoring, and it's basically my first full armor other than shoulder pads.

Would you recommend contact cement for strapping or velcro? I've done some foam fabrication with it, specifically a ringwraith sword, and I found that 2 coats of contact cement, 5 minutes of dry time in between coats, can take a hell of a beating.

Bill what do you suggest for attaching leather straps to foam armor?

Can you find the elastic at walmart?

So I have a question. What if one were to want to attach shoulder plates to a actual plate carrier how would that be done

could you tell us how to keep cool during a con while wearing this foam armor? I heard it can get pretty hot

How often do you change your blade of the cutting knife? Mine seems dull after 2 uses

can i just use contact cement instwad of hot glue? my costume fell apart during a con bc it was like 80 degrees out plus my bodyheat

is regular velcro okay to use for eva foam or do I have to use industrial velcro?

god dammit I spent all day today using felt, nuts, bolts and o rings attaching my armour. if I caught drift of this video sooner it might have made life easier xD Thanks Chin Beared

Hey Bill, sorry I don't know if this helps or not but u can actually buy the nylon webbing belt material and buckles for cheaper on wish.com. great quality items for dirt cheap. I got 50 buckle sets for FREE and all I had to pay was $3 for shipping and handling

I tried hot gluing some faux leather straps to my armor for PAX but it all fell apart in minutes. would sewing nylon onto the faux leather make it bind to the glue better? or is there another kind of adhesive that might work better?

Wow, nice!

Dead Orbit ftw

Another great video Bill, why wouldn't something like Barge cement be better for attaching the nylon straps rather than hot glue?

Hello, what glue you use?

what kind of foam do you use, and where do you get it? thanks.

what about attaching zippers?

is there anything wrong with sewing the strap straight onto the foam, why is glue better?

What about barge cement? Could I use Barge to glue either the nylon to foam or the straight velcro straps? Or would I still have to use hot glue.