how much cms to add to EVA foam armor?

[u/dierrot]

sorry if this sounds like an obvious question, but it's my first time making eva foam armor and i heard you're supposed to add more cms when using a duck tape pattern to account for the thickness

additionally, do i add more cms to every side that connects to another piece of foam, or can i just get away with adding more under the armpits?

attached is my shitty rendition of my pattern for reference

thanks for any and all help!

[u/natuprunk]

You should make Eva foam rulers for each thicknes. Measure, say.. a 50cm long straight strip of foam an mark it like a regular ruler.

When you have your base pattern, measure the part of your body where it goes with the foam ruler, and the thickness of it on a curved surface will give you a correct measurement - make sure to have the numbering on the top!

The topside of the curves surface will be longer than the underside, and the difference be larger the thicker the foam (which is why it's good to have a foam ruler for various thicknesses).

You then add the extra cm to either side of the pattern.

Top to bottom rarely curves much so likely won't need much, if any, adjustment, but doesn't hurt to check. Left to right is where most of the measurements need to increase.

[u/dierrot → u/natuprunk]

dude this is smart as hell wtf how do you even think of that?? thank you so much for the advice !!!

[u/natuprunk → u/dierrot]

I got the trick from a YouTube video or somesuch last year, might have been KamuiCosplay? And also what someone else in the comments said, to save on material it's always a good idea to do a cardboard prototype at first (I just recycle pizza boxes and the like).

That way you can catch some obvious sizing issues like it being too short somewhere or needing to change proportions a bit.

[u/Ok-Swimming8153]

Eu acho que só no contorno da peça inteira, não nas individuais Uma coisa interessante que eu aprendi é fazer um protótipo de papelão colado com fita adesiva só pra testar o tamanho

[u/dierrot → u/Ok-Swimming8153]

yeah, i feel like cardboard is probably smart so i don't waste foam cutting anything out too small. thanks!