hey it's jen from tested here to tell you about some of my favorite things i discovered this year
that made 2020 a little brighter and more bearable the first thing is this new material new to me uh
hd high density eva foam this is made by our friends at sks props and they are accomplished
foam smith so they engineered this specifically for their cosplay needs it's very soft and
flexible it's very easy to sand and carve i use this to make a huge foam character wig
for my halloween costume this year and it was my first time ever using eva foam but i have to say
this is super approachable and accessible as a medium you really only need a few tools to
manipulate this i just used a heat gun to sort of form and round it and then a dremel tool to
sand in some of the texture details the foam comes in three different thicknesses that i was able to
find there's a thin two millimeter foam there's also a medium thickness this is a six millimeter
six millimeter thickness and then there's a much thicker more rigid uh 10 millimeter foam so you
can kind of see the difference there between them so for my wig i was able to use both uh all three
of these to make the cap for my head that was out of the six millimeter stuff then i used this
uh thicker ten millimeter to make the skeleton structure to sort of hold the shape of the wig
and then i skimmed the whole outside with this two millimeter thin material and i was able to use the
dremel to sand in to sort of carve some strand details to really get some texture to disguise
the foam to look like hair but you could really i mean you could make this look like scales you can
make it look like metal you can apply all sorts of different paints and finishes this takes paint
really well i found these uh fx plaid paints and these work really great for the hd foam they're
specifically designed for a cosplay so they will stretch so if you have a costume that needs to
sort of bend and flex in different directions the paint will stretch with your material
so the hd foam for me was a huge revelation i am super excited to make a lot more projects with it
definitely check this out if you're going to be doing some cosplay builds
well from the foam that's a perfect segue into my next favorite thing which is this little
dremel tool this is the dremel stylo 2050 i believe is the model number this is a smaller
rotary tool i was gifted this last year for christmas and i was thrilled to get this
it's a lower rpm tool so you're not going to be like grinding metal or anything but it's great for
model making any type of hobbyist work engraving and it worked perfectly for sanding the foam i
just have a grinding bit in here a stone grinding bit but obviously there's lots of different
fittings and bits that you can put on there for sanding and polishing and engraving it has five
different speeds you can adjust the speed setting with this little dial and the thing i love about
it is it's pretty it's pretty small and it's very ergonomic so there's a sort of depression
here for your finger and it it holds like a pen so you can almost kind of draw with it which is
really nice for doing doing the strand details on the on the foam you get you get a lot of control
by holding it this way so if you're looking for a gift for a hobbyist or model maker this i was
thrilled to receive this this is a great thing and you can also build on that with some of
the little um kits that come with the different grinding and sanding attachments for this tool
once you've made all of your mess building in your studio you can use my next favorite thing to clean
it all up this is a five gallon uh relatively small shopvac uh this is a wet dry combination
vac so you could soak up kind of wet messes with this it also works great for things like
sawdust and metal shavings i used it to clean out a cnc i was able to clean my car with this thing
i did an absurd amount of research before buying this because i was looking for
something pretty specific i wanted something that was small there's shop spaces at a premium
in my studio so i wanted a small footprint but something that was pretty powerful and
also had the ability to switch between wet and dry messes this is also a bagless machine so
you just take the top off and the inside is just pretty much an open canister there's a
reusable filter inside which you can change out for what vacuuming and then it does come with a
few accessories in the in the base kit there's an extension arms you can reach kind of tall places
and a couple of different nozzles i did buy some additional accessories for it some brushes and
narrow nozzles for specialty jobs but overall it pretty much has everything that you need
the button here on the top i really like this is very almost like an arcade button it's really
satisfying it's got a nice long eight foot cord and a pretty long hose here so you can reach
you know you can reach without having to pull the vacuum but it does have wheels so you can kind of
drag it with you and i'm very pleased with it it does what it needs to do it doesn't take
up too much space in my studio and for about 50 bucks it's it's a great it's a great tool
my last favorite thing this year is something i've been meaning to invest in for a while but i've
been doing a lot more project documentation at home so i figured it was time to finally pull the
trigger on this and these are the rode wireless go microphone kit it's basically two little tiny
packs so there's a transmitter and a receiver and this allows you to record wirelessly into
your smartphone or regular camera and capture some really high quality audio so again i did a ton of
research on this i was looking for something that would allow me to operate wirelessly because i'm
shooting myself and i'm moving around my studio so being wired in is not really an option so i
wanted something that would capture high quality sound give me the mobility and also something that
was pretty straightforward interface i'm not super tacky with all of the audio stuff but i
did my research i i ran this by the tested team and and got the thumbs up and the way it works
is uh you have a transmitter pack so this is just a little box it's it's quite small this is smaller
than any loft pack that i've used and it has a clip on the back so you can clip that onto your
shirt there is actually a microphone built in if you wanted to use the onboard mic i opted to get
the wireless go lav so this little microphone will clip onto your shirt you run your wire to the pack
this can just clip into your pocket and it's it's super lightweight you don't even notice it's there
then that will wirelessly transmit to the receiver and this plugs into your smartphone so there are
a couple of cables that you'll need to get if you want to use this with your smartphone coming out
of the receiver there is a this is called the sc7 that road sells this is a trs to trrs patch cable
uh it's basically just a more defined signal that you're getting the audio on into your phone
and then if you are using an iphone like i am you'll need an additional cable to convert from
trrs to lightning so i have this cable here from saramonic it sounds complicated once you
have this setup figured out it is so simple and streamlined i keep this all set up that's plugged
in i keep this plugged in i just pop them on the charger overnight and they're pretty much good to
go the interface on these is foolproof you turn on the receiver and there's a little screen here
that will show you the battery life of both both units there's an option to increase your audio
gain there's three different audio levels and you basically just pair these once and you're all set
for for what i need for the price point that i was looking for this is pretty much the best
that i could find and it's been super reliable i haven't had any uh you know clipping or anything
dropping out i just plug it in i do my builds and i know that i'm going to be set with this audio
if you're looking for a gift for yourself perhaps and you want to upgrade your audio equipment
this is a great way to go yeah those are some of my favorite things i discovered in 2020 hopefully
that gives you some inspiration for gift ideas either for yourself or for a maker in your life
stay safe out there happy holidays and we'll see you next time