If an average person opened the “toolbox” of cosplayers, he would look great at the diversity or weirdness of things, but perhaps this is the magnitude of our subculture, that you can find the tool you want in every detail, or just find another in every store. , which allows you to make much more beautiful and detailed costumes. But what are the tools you may need at any time? Now we’ve put these together!
You can find Part 1 and Part 3 if you clicked.
Glue gun
The second best friend of the cosplayers is the glue gun (the first is the glue) and is one of the cheapest and easiest tools to get. It is available in two sizes, it is worth getting both the small and the larger, as we are much better off with the “little things” than smaller, harder-to-reach places. Plus, you can get glue on the internet at a very low cost, even in color or glitter, and you can use them to color your costume or just have a way of doing it.
Heat blower
Although you can hear that a hairdryer is enough in many places, in most cases this does not cover the reality, as the hairdryer cannot radiate enough temperature for either Eva foam, worbla, or foamed PVC, so it is worth investing in a heat blower. The cheaper variety has two grades (this can be 80/300/500/600 degrees Celsius depending on the manufacturer), which is ample enough to shape the materials mentioned above. The more expensive varieties already have many more grades, so you can work with more precision. However, blowing hot air can be a very dangerous game, as we humans are very sensitive to heat, it is not worth risking physical integrity, burning, or more serious problems for a costume, so it is worth treating it with due care – I always use it myself, for example.
Engraving machine
Although I was very reluctant to use this tool in the beginning, we soon became best friends thanks to the fact that he knows everything – and I’m not kidding: cut, grind, polish, engrave, drill, and of course, engrave. It is great to work with on any material, be it EVA foam, XPS, or even PVC. Nowadays, it can be found in almost every DIY store, but larger hypermarkets like it, twice a year – I got the smaller one. It’s also worth looking around on the internet, as there are plenty of extras available for a little money to make the job easier. There are hundreds of types of grinders that are very easy to change in the engraver, plus if you get a so-called multi chuck, you don’t even have to change them, just clamp the tool head with it, pull it hard and you’re done!
Some engravers have a fairly large trunk, for which you can get an extension that the tool head itself puts on it, making it easier to work with – because let’s face it, no one uses it for just five minutes, and after a while one gets tired. But most importantly, always wear goggles or a dust mask and take a break every half hour!
Rhinestone applicator
I know it sounds funny, but this tool can greatly facilitate the process of decorating, plus it’s a very inexpensive item, available in several sizes and shapes of head, and the thermoplastic adhesive rhinestones attached to it don’t cost anything more than their general counterparts. All you have to do is make sure that the surface you want to use is not too thermoplastic, there is a slight tolerance – unfortunately, XPS is not suitable for this, but the other materials mentioned above are.
