QUICK OVERVIEW:

SCULPTING WITH THIBRA:

HOW TO USE:

Thibra comes in sheets and amongst other things can be used in combination with a thin layer of EVA foam sandwiched between two layers of Thibra. This can be accomplished by going through the following steps:

1. First create a pattern from your body with ducttape or paper masking tape or use a pre-existing pattern.
2. Trace the pattern on to a piece of thin EVA foam (usually about 3mm thick) and cut the pattern out of the EVA foam.
3. Put your cut out EVA foam on the sheet of Thibra and trace it, but make sure your Thibra is about 1 cm bigger all around than your EVA foam pattern.
4. Repeat step 3, because you need 2 layers of Thibra to sandwich your EVA foam pattern in.
5. Now that all the patterns are ready to go you can heat up 1 of your 2 Thibra patterns, we advise using a heatgun for this.
6. When the Thibra has been heated enough (you can see this when the Thibra becomes more shiny) put the EVA foam on the heated Thibra.
7. Heat up your second piece of Thibra and put it on top of your pre-heated Thibra and EVA foam, creating a Thibra sandwich with the EVA foam in between.
8. Use your hands to press the Thibra together and shape it to your liking, but be careful because the Thibra should still be hot.
9. While it is still hot, you can cut off the excess Thibra from the EVA foam pattern by using scissors.
10. Voila, you now have created your first Thibra sandwich and you are ready to take on the world!
11. Keep repeating the upper steps untill you have build your entire cosplay armor or prop.

There is also an alternative to the sandwiching method, which is called the folding method. The biggest benefits of using the folding method are savings in materials and weight, because you only need 1 layer of Thibra instead of 2 layers. The biggest difference is that at step 3 you need to make sure your Thibra is about 3-4cm bigger than your EVA foam pattern, because you will be folding these edges around your EVA foam pattern to the back. If you are interested in more details in regard to working with thermoplastics, we highly recommend the tutorial books from Kamui Cosplay or following one of our workshops. After you are finished with building your cosplay armor piece or prop, you can directly start painting on it with Acrylic paint. But for the best results we always recommend degreasing and priming the Thibra piece first. All of our primers are suitable for using directly on to Thibra.