As part of my skill building agenda, I have been trying different techniques to make props. This weekend I made a single gauntlet based on a design/prop made by TwoHornsUnited. This build took about 6 hours and cost about 5 dollars.

Step 1: Materials

2mm, 3mm, and 5mm craft foam
2 part epoxy
Hot glue
Velcro
Newspaper for patterning
Primer paint
Metallic and acrylic paint.

A heat gun (optional)
Exacto knife or a scissors.
Glue gun
Hole puncher

Step 2: Patterns and Cutting Foam

I started by making a pattern for the gauntlet. I measured around my arm then drew out the basic shape onto some newspaper. I cut the shape out of 5mm craft foam, then cut the four scales that go down the center of the gauntlet out of 5mm craft foam as well.

Step 3: Scaley Scales

I sanded the edges of the scales to a rounder shape with a dremel (sanding bit). then I traced out the scales onto 2mm craft foam (this is just so I have an idea for how large the plates would be). The scales each have a plate onto of them, so I drew those on the 2mm foam as well. I cut the plates out, then hot glued them onto the scales,

Step 4: More Scale Stuff

I glued the scales together, then glued them onto the gauntlet. I decided that I wanted my gauntlet to be steampunk which meant: rivety things. To make the first of the rivets (lets call these rivets tacks). I took an old pencil, and dug the eraser out of it. I heated up the foam carefully then pressed the eraser part into the foam. This gave the appearance of tacks.

It's important to be careful heating foam. If you look in the last picture I burned part of the foam pretty badly. If you use hot glue, excessive heat gunning can cause the glue to melt and your beautiful project can also fall apart.

Step 5: More Details

I cut out a strip of 3mm craft foam in a trapezoidal shape, and glued it to my gauntlet (I made tacks in each corner). I also cut out a weird shape (3mm craft foam), and glued that over part of the trapezoidal foam.

For the other side of the gauntlet, I cut a rectangle out of the 5mm craft foam. I lightly scored a triangle into the foam with an exacto knife, then went over the scoring with my heat gun. This creates a more defined design on the foam. Punished Props has a great tutorial you can check out on how to do this.

I actually screwed up making the triangle so to cover up my mistake I took a 3mm strip of craft foam and covered it (see pic 5).

Step 6: More Rivets

You can't make a steampunk gauntlet without rivets. I used a hole punch to make a bunch of foam circles to make large rivets, and two part epoxy to make the small rivets. I used a tooth pick to dab the epoxy where I wanted the rivets to go. I used hot glue to add the foam circles to the gauntlet.

To seal the foam I lightly went over the whole project with my heat gun until the foam looked shiny.

Step 7: Painting!!

I started out with a coat of primer.

I only had silver metallic paint, and gold. If you would like to see how I made all the colors I used check out pic 2, if you would like to see where I painted each color look at pic 4.

To weather the gauntlet, I would lay down a wash of black paint, then rub off a bit of it with napkin. This left it looking quite dirty.

Step 8: Strap

To make the strap I took a piece of 3mm foam, and glued one side to the gauntlet, and glued velcro to the other side (with hot glue), Then I glued velcro to the inside gauntlet.