I’ve shared a lot of tutorials about using EVA foam to make armor. The beauty of EVA foam – besides being affordable – is its versatility. You can make the substance look like plastic, like metal, and like leather. Cosplayer and maker Andrew Cook, also known as DaFrontline Trooper, works extensively with the material. He’s recordered several tutorial videos on his YouTube page that demonstrate how to build armor and finish it, and in this video, he explains how to make it look like leather. It only takes foam, a heat gun, paintbrushes, and orange and white paint. A commenter also suggests this method:
To get a much better texture and a real look of leather, use tin foil, scrunch it up then flatten it out, not to much, keep the ridges in it and place over the foam, and with a hot iron, iron onto the foil over the foam making sure NOT to melt the foam, this technique gives a real leather look leaving an imprint in the foam, then use paint to correct the color.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
