Thermoplastic Pricing Guide And Behavior Cheat Sheet

Thermoplastic Pricing Guide and Behavior Cheat Sheet

 -These prices are based off of US stores and shipping rates. These prices are consistent across many websites and discounts are offered on bulk orders. Prices vary depending on shipping country.

*Sintra is offered in many sizes and shapes. The prices listed are from CosplaySupplies.com . More sizes than these exist. Sintra is a company name for foamed PVC. You can often find cheaper sheets of “sintra” by looking for “foamed PVC” or “extruded PVC”

* Worbla

-  The most well-known thermoplastic in the cosplay community. Available from multiple vendors online and from a few physical stores. -  Thermoplastic capable of multidimensional shaping -  Has no internal mesh -  Can be heated with a hair dryer or heat gun (better results from heat gun) -  Capable of reusing scraps by reheating them -  Smooth adhesive side/rough exterior side – can adhere to itself -  Relatively thin, often requires a supporting material in armor (craft foam sandwich) -  Most expensive of the thermoplastics -  Requires priming (wood glue, gesso, ect.) to remove texture

  *Terraflex

-  Only sold by Tandy Leather. If you live near a store this product has the benefit of no shipping costs and the ability to pick up same day its needed -  Thermoplastic capable of multidimensional shaping -  Has no internal mesh -  Can be heated with a hair dryer or heat gun (better results from heat gun) -  Capable of reusing scraps by reheating them -  Smooth adhesive side/rough exterior side – can adhere to itself -  Relatively thin, often requires a supporting material in armor (craft foam sandwich) -  “knockoff” of Worbla, if you have Tandy Leather membership cards, it makes it a fair bit cheaper than Worbla -  Requires priming (wood glue, gesso, ect.) to remove texture -  Has a scent, smells like graham crackers when heated

*Wonderflex

-  Contains an internal mesh -  The mesh provides additional stability to thermoplastic -  Can be heated with a hair dryer or heat gun (better results from heat gun) -  Smooth adhesive side/rough exterior side – can adhere to itself -  Internal mesh prevents multidimensional shaping without puckering -  (mesh can be picked out- extremely work intensive) -  Relatively thin, often requires a supporting material in armor (craft foam sandwich) -  Requires priming (wood glue, gesso, ect.) to remove texture

*Sintra

-  Comes in a variety of thicknesses -  A UNIDEMNSIONAL material. Is incapable of making compound shapes – i.e. can only bend in one direction without cutting darts. -  Can be brittle if cut when cool or across large pieces of material -  Needs to be heated with a heat gun or large heat source like an oven to work with uniformly -  Does not adhere to itself. Requires glue to bond pieces together -  Smooth texture doesn’t require priming like Worbla, Terraflex, or Wonderflex - Due to variety of thicknesses, it can be used on its own for armor pieces (no foam sandwiches) -  Cheapest of the thermoplastics, but limited in some areas. Great for things like pauldrons and vambraces, not so much with breastplates and curves. -  Because it is PVC, it is strongly recommended to wear a respirator and have ventilation when heating this material due to fumes.

* Transpa Art

-  Transparent thermoplastic -  Needs to be heated with a heat gun and only workable within a small temperature range -  Does not adhere it itself like other thermoplastics. Requires cyanoacrylate glues to stick pieces together. -  Not a strong as Worbla, Terraflex, ect. -  Cannot be reformed with scraps -  Great for accents and LED applications -  Elemental Photography and Design, and Kamui Cosplay do excellent videos showing more of how Transpa behaves

Cheap Homemade Fangs Tutorial by uncredited 

Intro to Basic Resin Casting

One of the major challenges I faced when I was just getting started in crafting props and accessories was making the massive leap from cutting and gluing things (simple skills we began learning in ...

I was getting so many questions about the casting process in my panels that I wrote this beginner-friendly tutorial. Then we had so much interest from the tutorial that we started teaching a three-hour hands-on workshop on basic resin and silicone casting at conventions. (Currently this is being offered annually at Gen Con, but I’ve recently been asked to do these workshops at a new local venue outside of conventions, so maybe we’ll be offering more of those soon! Stay tuned!)

@andsewingishalfthebattle Thank you so much!

Hi there! I have a question I hope you won't mind answering. Have you ever used wonderflex world? Are a reputable company? I've looked online and can't find out much other than their own website. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hello! I’m always happy to answer questions. :)

I personally have never ordered from Wonderflex World (a friend of mine works for CosplaySupplies.com, so I generally try to order from there to help keep her in a job). I knowof other cosplayers who order from Wonderflex World, though, and I haven’t heard any complaints.

I also see on WW’s site that that they had a booth at USITT last year, and that indicates a certain degree of legitimacy. The Stage Expo is a big deal in the professional theatre industry, and it isn’t cheap for exhibitors to get space. Based on that and what I’ve heard from other cosplayers, I’d say it’s a reputable company.

Making earrings from a plastic cup (or bottle)

A year ago, during one of our Pathfinder games, I finished the iced tea I’d carried out from lunch at McAlister’s Deli, then cut up the plastic cup to make these earrings for my Kunzite (Sailor Moon) costume. (They’re actually opalescent in real life, but the camera doesn’t capture the colors well.)

You can obviously vary the design quite a bit, but here’s how I made this pair. (If you try it, send me a picture. I’d love to see what other people make!)

Process:

Using sharp scissors, carefully cut shapes from PET plastic (#1 recyclable, such as a 2-liter bottle or many food containers). Gently shape them into a curve if desired.

Coat the back of each piece with a layer of glue (something that is flexible and dries clear; I used Jewel-It).

Pack the wet glue with super-fine iridescent glitter (available at craft stores; fine nail glitter also works).

Once glue is dry, add a layer of opaque paint behind the (now clear) glue.

Use a hot needle to punch a hole for the wires.

I am a huge fan of recycling trash to make costumes. (And multitasking. I get a ton of costuming work done during game nights!)

Do you have any suggestions on what fabric to use for superhero/villain cosplays? I am a cosplay noob and don't want to just go pick things willy nilly that dont work or work together lol. Any help is greatly appreciated!

hoooo boy do I ever

I assume we’re talking your traditional comic book bodysuit type deal?  Because the answer begins and ends with spandex - but knowing what type of spandex you want is the tricky bit

Thankfully, it’s not actually that tricky, it’s just kind of hard to find info on.

Your typical spandex is also called milliskin, and sometimes you’ll find it in both matte and shiny varieties.  The shiny stuff isn’t actually metallic or anything, it’s just a tiny bit sparkly.  I probably wouldn’t personally use the shiny stuff for large parts of a bodysuit, but for details that need to stand out it’s great.

Milliskin is super useful because it’s very stretchy, not extremely expensive (or at least, it shouldn’t be), and comes in a ton of colors, but if you don’t need something in an odd color, moleskin is the same basic material, but thicker.  If you want to wear a catsuit but are a bit self-conscious about wearing a single layer of stretchy bullshit, this is what you want.  it also comes in matte and shiny, and also something called “rough.”  I’m not exactly sure how rough differs from the others, except that it must be…rougher.  Moleskin is what they use to make football players’ pants; it’s a sturdy material.

There’s also something called “jumbo spandex,” which I haven’t actually used; I think this is even heavier weight than moleskin.  I wouldn’t recommend it, because as the thickness increases it’ll get harder to work with, but it exists.

…so that’s your basic stuff.  That’s what I would recommend for, say, an old-school Superman costume.  But then it gets weird.

There’s also “wet look spandex,” which I think usually compares in weight to milliskin, but has an odd sheen to it…like it’s wet.  It’s hard to explain, except like that.  It’s a little bit shiny, but without the aggressive plasticness of PVC, which can be a really nice effect.

Stretch PVC/stretch vinyl is the devil.  For someone with no experience, I cannot recommend strongly enough against it.  It is very shiny and looks impressive when used well, so people do use it, but it looks very tacky when everything doesn’t lay perfectly flat, and it doesn’t stretch as much as normal spandex, so it’s very hard to make it fit right.  AND it doesn’t breathe AT ALL so it’s even obnoxious to wear.

Matte stretch vinyl is a little bit better, but I may just be saying that because I like how it looks.  I’ve used it for accent pieces, but I definitely would not try to make most of a suit out of it.

Metallic spandex is kind of cool.  It looks almost-but-not-quite like metal when laid flat, and shines beautifully when draped.  Unfortunately, the metallic finish tends to rub off the spandex backing after a while, so I wouldn’t recommend it for anything that’s going to get a lot of wear.  But I used it for the lining of a cape once and it was awesome.  It’s usually much easier to work with than PVC, and it’s also great for gluing over simple foam armor pieces instead of painting. 

Nooooow you probably need to know where to get all of this.  Don’t go to Joann’s; their selection is extremely limited and they have a bizarre range of quality, from disgusting to the touch to diminishing returns levels of niceness.  You don’t need Joann’s $17 spandex; no one does.  I use two websites almost exclusively, spandexworld.com and spandexhouse.com.  You can also find some decent stuff on Ebay, and I did once have to get a specific galaxy pattern custom-printed on Spoonflower, but 90% of what you need is at one of those two sites.

One last reminder is to watch out for whether fabric says two-way or four-way stretch.  Two-way will only stretch across the grain, and four-way stretches both across and along it.  One isn’t necessarily better, but for most superhero stuff, four-way is a safer bet.  It makes the fit a bit more forgiving and it’ll be more comfortable to wear.

….good luck.  That may have been more information that you really needed.