Hitman Reborn Cosplay Progress + Tutorial

I've gotten a few people asking how I made the Hitman Reborn gauntlets and I found a few old progress photos that I hope help! I'll outline what I did in each photo and I hope it makes sense.

1) Here are most of the basic parts. The majority of the construct was fun foam or thick fun foam purchased at a hobby store. They were cut to size and "warped", either with a heat gun or a soldering iron. In the upper left, you can see the "studs" used were just tiny gems, also bought at the hobby store. In the upper right are the wrist band parts. I used a soldering iron to melt a line along the back and while the fun foam was still melted, I pinched it so it would make a beaded little lip. On the left, you can see the rings and X shaped pieced. I made a template and airbrushed it onto foam so I could see where to cut and where to burn with a soldering iron. Then I used the soldering iron to etch away the lettering and runes. In the middle are the rivets that go on the gauntlet, made of sculpey. I burned them a bit, as you can see. XD

2) a close up of the O part over the gem on the back of the hand. The green was the airbrushing part that I used as a template. You can see where I used the soldering iron to burn away parts to make it embossed.

3) a close up of the X part over the gem on the back of the hand. Similar to the O, but you can see the etching a bit better.

1-3) All of these pieces were coated with triple thick glaze, which dried all funky because of the weather. XD

4) All the parts painted! I forgot the knuckle pieces but you can see them on the left side here. Again, they were cut out and then I used the soldering iron to burn a score along the back side and pinched it together to make it have a V shape. Along the lower right you can see the "gem" parts. The soldering iron was also a wood burning kit, so I switched out the head to a knife and used the hot knife to cut out small round parts out of plastic christmas ornaments. I used liquid latex to mask out the inside design. I would later use transparent airbrush paint to paint them blueish. When it dried, I'd peel away the liquid latex and put silver metallic backing to make the gems glowy.

5) A closeup of the ring after it's painted and the gem unpainted.

6) A closeup of the X and the studs, after being painted.

7) A closeup of the studs

8) A closeup of the X over the O and how it overlays the gem.

I hope this is helpful. Feel free to leave a question and I'll be happy to answer it!