Scott this is an unbelievable costume but I don't recognize it from anything
what is it so the characters action name is a
horrid Death Bringer oh yeah the initials are HD because what this is is
this is a custom character that my partner Steven K Smith and I created of
SKS props uh-huh to launch our foam line we have a specific line of cosplay and
props specific foam Oh HD foam and we're here in New York this weekend promoting
it with our partnership with Blick Art Materials okay now carries all our
products online and in stores because we're doing as a promotional piece we
couldn't really have a licensed character mm-hmm so we wanted to be very
Diablo very dark Souls very kind of Lord of the Rings inspired it's a very
recognizable character and to show off all that the HD foam can do so this is
the character that we created everybody know I'm from tested here in the artist
alley portion of New York comic-con is definitely artists here Steve from SKS
crops how you doing Steve I'm doing great man it's busy yeah yeah and you
have not only some of your amazing crop pieces and costume pieces that you've
made that people can find of course on your youtube channel but also you've
developed your own line a follow for a long time people want to buy cheap foam
bought just like matches foam or you get the texture on it here that are there
barber floor yes the floor mats what were the qualities for your HD foam that
you wanted in terms of thickness in terms of the short orders well the
biggest thing on there is I really wanted the foam itself to be
user-friendly I want when you're using Harbor Freight floor mats they're
designed to be stood on so they're very very tough you know they've been
heat-treated twice my stuff isn't like that and so the density of mine is
higher at the same Shore hardness most foam you have to use feet to manipulate
it right mine you don't you can actually use your hands to manipulate this stuff
and then just put like a strip of two mil on the back and it will retain that
shape so the other thing that's great though is that because it is so smooth
it paints its saying and it cuts beautifully so you could cut
angles get your bevels and oh yeah and it's real clean you're not gonna get
particulate everywhere you're so clean it's Heather at bars and yeah yeah so
we've tested like all day adhesives yeah for those people that still want to use
hot glue you can use hot glue but like I love barge yeah you know Bill loves a
barge and so I use a lot of that but for a lot of little details you know Bob
Smith super glue works great as well right and you won't want to waste the
material either you want to be as versatile as possible something also
interesting is you also have foam clay how did this come about and how are
people and you using foam clay foam clay is a game changer for people that want
to do a lot of organic sculpting and shaping all of the horns on this custom
armor are all foam clay I used tin foil to make the base shape give it some
rigidity and then skinned it with that so what foam clay is it's a putty in the
beginning stages okay hey test that out yep very putty like after about a day
it'll start to get a little bit harder and it'll start to skin and this is just
through air yeah it's all air so no baking likes pulpy or anything like that
this is a month oh and that's rough salt it's rock solid yeah Wow and when it's
in this one we did this farm you could start carving into it yeah so with the
horns here I let them dry for about two days you know and then I went in with a
dremel and gave it all the additional textures is it just the skinning or is
interior the interior is still almost in this state who can tell the moisture
wicks out of it God God so it's about the moisture really leaving it to a
point where you have nothing but the poem so if you wanted it to stay a
little squishy for longer if you sealed it sooner in its process it would trap
that moisture right right is there any way to get back to a more malleable
State once it's once it's here you can add a little bit more water to it but
you have to be careful with that ratio because it is water it can break it down
if you had too much I built this armor in ten days okay for this
no one should ever do that but this is kind of the example of everything I have
to offer because this is six millimeter foam
I have bevel dowels all this trim here is already pre-cut and so all people
would have to do would be to buy your bevel trim you know outline it and then
with a lot of this so this is foam clay pressed into a mold frozen and then
taken out so you actually use it in mold in a
press Bowl okay great yep and then a lot of this other stuff is just manipulating
the foam so I've got like two millimeter used as a leather wrap you know and then
your finishing or you're playing any type of clear coats anything it's a
primary for painting for painting purposes I did Plasti Dip on this
particular one but you could use you know any of the other ones like Mod
Podge or flexible and anything like that would work but Plasti Dip here and then
rattle can and then I hand paint almost all of my props yeah it looks great
this is vacuform this is 2 millimeter vacuform right on the package on the
vacuform are on a buck and then leak seal the backside of it to kind of help
retain the shape but you don't see vacuform foam every day that's going to
thank you for bringing all this cool stuff here giving demos and making a
costume in today's insane it's great to see se ya thank you very much well this
looks like a heavy steel helmet it it's actually soft flexible foam and weighs
probably only about 5 or 6 ounce that's right yeah the whole thing weighs
probably less than 6 pounds so that looks like it's actually kind of cut
almost comfortable it is is I can I'm very mobile with this incredibly light I
love I you know I love the way that companies like blick and smooth on and
other companies have reached out and embrace the cosplay community you know
they're there's something to be said for low level sponsorship allowing people at
the beginning of their careers to have access to materials and processes that
they might not otherwise and this seems to continue in that great tradition this
is fantastic and I love that these costumes are getting both more elaborate
and more comfortable yes the technologies improve and are you
also there's all is there also some laser cutting going on in some of this
so on this on this particular costume there isn't any laser cutting oh but we
do we have laser cut a lot of stuff and like I said we've run this through we've
run this foam through every every test we do have laser cut it have vacuum
formed it i've cricket cutted wood burned it we've traveled it we've used
every type of glue every type of adhesive every type of page it works
fantastic every type of sealer this is a great it's a lovely lovely job to done
and i are you feeling it you like this character
oh I love this character I love I've been walking through the con and I'll
come up behind somebody and they'll turn around like boom Oh like go go get
scared I'll bump into somebody like I'm something like okay can I get a picture
with you I like I love this like I don't know what it is but this is just amazing
and it's a really great feeling to walk around it and have that kind of
admiration for something you've put together that's fabulous Scott thank you
so much again I really appreciate it really inspiring week