In this week’s tutorial, I’ll show you how to make foam armor for cosplay. Craft foam is cheap and easy to make it out of, and some simple painting techniques give it a fairly realistic, aged metal look.

MATERIALS USED:
Red Sonja Shoulder Armor Template (available free in my patterns vault)
2mm craft foam
Puffy paint
Metallic silver paint
Metallic gunmetal gray paint
Paint brush
White school glue
Scissors
Heat gun
Distressed brown fabric scraps
Hot glue gun

This video is a small part of the full DIY Red Sonja costume tutorial from my new book: Cosplaying When You’re Broke (available on Amazon or Smashwords or wherever books are sold), which shows how to make awesome costumes without breaking the bank.

While these particular pauldrons go with the Red Sonja costume, you can use this technique to make foam armor for any costume very inexpensively.

Since the Red Sonja costume doesn’t actually have a lot of “costume” to it, I glued ties onto the pauldrons to attach them to my shoulders. However, if the costume you’re making your armor for has fabric on the shoulders, an alternative method would be to use snaps or velcro to attach them to the shoulders.

Legs or Pants?

Fun fact, I’m actually wearing pants with this costume, even though they look like bare legs. 👖

Last year I found a pair of skin-toned leggings that look just like bare legs when I wear them. That meant I was finally able to make a Red Sonja costume, which several people had asked me to make, but which I’d never previously been comfortable doing, due to the large amount of skin exposed.

But with my trusty skin-toned leggings, I don’t have to worry about anything being exposed if they costume moves. (Plus they’re nice and warm if it’s cold out 😃)

I also wore them under my Raven dress, to look like bare legs. And as the friend who was taking my pictures said, “those pants are very confusing.” 😉

Video tutorial by Amber Reifsteck, The Woodland Elf
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