Because of their domed shape, pauldrons can be one of the more difficult pieces of armor until you understand the trick for creating curves. This tutorial will walk you through how to create basic shoulder guards. You can build upon the basic techniques here to create your own detailed cosplay pauldrons. Supplies needed: 1. Create…
Helmets are absolutely one of the most difficult pieces of armor to construct for a costume. Not only do you have to get the shape of the helmet right, but it also has to fit over your face (sometimes with a wig on), and the eye holes need to line up correctly. There are many…
If you were making an actual female breastplate, the construction wouldn’t actually be all that different from a standard male breastplate. However, most anime, cartoons, and video games take a lot of creative license with this. So as cosplayers, we need to learn how to create a more complex breastplate that takes our curves into…
This tutorial will go over the basic technique for creating leg armor with a knee guard. Leg armor is fairly straightforward to make, so this is a great project to start with if it’s your first time using EVA foam. You can easily make a mockup with paper to make sure everything is right before…
If you’re new to using EVA foam and making cosplay armor, arm guards are one of the easiest places to start. The shape and design for these are fairly simple, and you can easily make tests using paper before cutting into your foam. This tutorial goes over the steps to make a basic arm bracer…
Many anime and comic costumes have unique designs that you’re not going to find at the fabric store. This can be anything from a superhero logo to a specific pattern of stripes on your character’s T-shirt. If you can’t find the fabric or clothing that works for your character, you can use paint to create…
Weathering props adds character and story to them. After all, what fighter will ever have a pristine shield or armor that looks like it’s never seen battle? All of the items that we use day-to-day will have some kind of wear to them, so it’s only natural that we’d want our props to look a…
Sometimes magic staffs that you need for cosplay are too tall or large to easily transport to an anime convention. In these cases, you’ll need to design your prop in a way that allows you to detach the head, save space and pack your staff properly. You can make the detaching mechanism a design element…
There are a lot of skills to learn in cosplay, and one that doesn’t get talked about as much is creating fake facial hair. Despite this, it’s an essential skill for crossplayers to master but is a useful skill for anyone who wants unique facial hair for a costume. I’ll go over the three most…
The easiest method for making your swords and other props look like metal is by using metallic acrylic paint. However, this doesn’t give you the most realistic effect, since there will always be brush strokes and surface texture even if you spend a lot of time sanding. Still, for most cosplay props, this looks good…