Questions about materials used for armor making and alternatives

treble

New Hunter
1. Which is better and/or cheaper, fiberglass resin or aqua resin?
2. When do I use fiberglass mat and when do I use fiberglass cloth? Can’t I just use one or the other or do I have to use both?
3. Can bondo crack? If so how can it? I’m mainly asking if you put it on something like cardboard. Im also looking for alternatives that are cheaper and/or less toxic
4. Can plaster of paris or durham’s rock hard water putty do the same thing as bondo? Also dealing with cardboard. Also which one would be better for molding and what could you add to them to make them stronger?
5. What is rondo? Is it when you mix fiberglass resin and bondo together? What does it do?
6. What’s a gel coat when fiberglassing?
7. Can you sand hot glue after it has cooled?
8. Can you make whole armor pieces out of hot glue? If so how can you cast the pieces?
9. How can you make craft foam stronger, stiffer, and/or more flexible so that the armor won’t get dents or warping or wrinkles? Would something like white glue or mod podge do it? Or would they be brittle? I think someone said you can use fiberglass resin but I want to know cheaper and/or less toxic alternatives
10. Can you sand craft foam or cardboard to make smoother pieces? Like when using pepakura and I don’t want ridges where edges meet
11. I’ve heard of people using plasti dip to cover foam but it can cause wrinkles if bent too far. I was wondering how to prevent that.
12. Can duct tape stick to hot glue?
13. Is there anything similar to liquid plastic that’s cheaper?
14. Alternatives to silicone rubber for molds. Is liquid latex good enough?
15. Can you pull fiberglass out of a plaster cast, for example, if you use something like paste wax or turtle wax or some other mold release even if the subject has undercuts?
16. Would shelf/drawer liner make a good halo/kamen rider armor visor? Can you heat shape it?
17. What could you do to a plexiglass visor that makes it see thru one way and be the color I want like blue or yellow or green?
18. Alternatives to plexiglass for heat forming for visor


*Alternatives don’t have to be cheaper or less toxic. I just need MORE options.

I’m sorry for so many random questions (studying for 4 tests this week). I just never seem to find the answers I’m looking for or I’m to busy to find them with school and all. If you guys can help me with any of these questions I would really appreciate it. Thanks.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hey there treble! Glad to see another new member!

However, I think it would really help if you edited your first post and deleted all those color codes. (It's kind of hard to read the post right now.) All you have to do is click "edit post" and you should be on your way!
 
Would covering cardboard with plasti dip make good armor?

in my opinion, no.

cardboard is too soft and isn't going to take a compound curve, and plasti-dip isn't rigid, so it's still going to be bendy, flat armor.

after filtering through the color codes in your post, i see that you are basically asking a lot of questions about a lot of different materials. please consider using the search feature on the board. most if not all of the questions you've asked have been answered many times over.

in the end, it all depends on what you want the end result to be. if you're looking for a halloween costume you can build it out of just about anything. if you want a screen accurate boba fett costume you really don't want to try to cut corners using cardboard and plaster of paris.
 
Thanx everyone for answering my questions so far. Sorry for so asking so many I dont get to get on the internet alot (college modem sucks :p lol). I fixed the first post so now you can read it better :) for some reason i couldn't find the edit button o_O lol.
 
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