My armor kept falling apart until a random guy at a con said one thing that fixed it

I spent 6 months building a Halo Spartan suit from EVA foam for a con in Phoenix, and the leg pieces cracked during my first walk around the dealer hall. This older cosplayer named Dave pointed out I was using contact cement wrong - I was slapping it on and sticking it together too fast. He showed me to wait 5 minutes for the glue to get tacky before pressing the foam pieces together. Now my builds actually hold up at cons and I stopped wasting foam on do-overs. Anyone else have a random stranger give you a tip that saved your costume?

2 comments

2 Comments

ivanb4125d agoTop Commenter

5 minutes of waiting? That's insane. No wonder my foam projects always look like trash.

the_nancy25d ago

3 years of foam builds here and @ivanb41 is spot on about the glue thing. I lost a full set of thighs from a Reach build because I rushed the contact cement on a 110 degree Phoenix day. Now I set a phone timer for exactly 4 minutes and 30 seconds then press. Another thing that saved me was using a heat gun on the foam edges before gluing, warms them up so the bond is way stronger. Also if your foam is dusty from sanding wipe it with isopropyl alcohol first, the glue sticks way better to clean foam.