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shadowcat-666 — Shoulder Armor instructions

Published: 2011-05-05 14:05:46 +0000 UTC; Views: 7170; Favourites: 75; Downloads: 100
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Description Well as promised here is the instructions for how i made my Lina Inverse shoulder armor pieces. The general idea of how i made these can be applied to making just about any type of cosplay armor. And without any more delay here it is. And sorry for such a large picture.


Materials and tools
cardstock paper
pencil
14 guage wire
solder and soldering iron
solder flux
craft foam (6 pieces 1mm thick and 1 piece 6mm thick)
elmers white glue
hot glue gun and hot glue sticks
duct tape
8 empty toilet paper rolls of 4 paper towel rolls
Plaster of paris (at least 5 lbs)
primer paint
enamal paint in black, metallic red, and metallic gold
spray on clear coat
1/2 inch elastic
thread and needle
scissors
1/2 inch metal snaps (optional)
Directions
1. Make a template piece of the shape you want the final piece to have.
2. Shape the wire to your template piece remembering to include the curved part that goes over your shoulder. I used the dressmakers manniquine that I have, for those who dont have one you can use a flowerpot or something else thats the correct size.
3.Once you have the inital shape completed solder the ends of the wire together.
4.At regularly spaced intervals starting from the shoulder, solder additional pieces of curved wire gradualy decreasing in size until you reach the end.
5.Between each of the arched pieces along the leangth solder additional pieces to brace them in place and between the last arched piece and the tip opposite of the side where it goes over the shoulder solder a longer piece curving down to smothly meet the end. On the underside take a short piece of wire and bend it so that it makes a small loop bending away from the armor and solder it in place in the middle of the 1st bracer section coming from the neck end. Take another small piece of wire and bend it so that it makes a u shape then cut the ends so that they are even and bend them up slightly. solder this in place on the very end of the bracer section on the end that will be next to your neck creating what looks like a loop/hook like in the picture.
6.Now take 2 pieces of 1mm thick craft foam and glue the long edges together. Once this is done carefully start gluing and tapeing the wire frame to the craftfoam pieces shapeing it to the wire frame as you go. you will most likely need to cut the foam at least once to make it fit corectly to the wire frame. Repeat this for the other wire frame.
7. Once the foam is fitted to the frame trim it to within 1 inch of all the edges then curve the foam over the edges of the wire frame and glue/tape it in place. You will need to take the additional piece of 1mm thick craft foam and cut 1 inch thick strips. Begin glueing these on top of the armor along the edges till you make a complete edging all around the armor.
8.Take either the round styrofoam ball or x-mas ornament and cut 1 side so that it is slightly rounded in toward the top of it. Make sure that it comes close in shape to the top of the main body of the armor pieces and do this once for each shoulder.
9.Now take and piece together either 4 cut apart toilet paper rolls or 2 paper towle rolls for each shoulder. cut and shape these to make the cone like shape on the top of the armor that has the sphere/gem in it. (make sure to check the fit with the sphere/gem in the end of it) Once these are both shaped to look correct tape them in place and slide the sphere/gem into the end glueing it in place.
10.Take the 6mm thick craft foam and cut four 1 inch thick strips from it. Trim the ends of two of these to points and glue these in place around the front of the cone and sphere/gem parts on top of the armor. Take the other 2 and glue them along the edge of the cardboard pieces just where it ends and the sphere/gem begins. Make sure to trim the ends to just fit on top of the cardboard with the ends touching the other piece of the 6mm thick foam.
11.Take some of the leftover pieces from the cardboard rolls that you cut earlier and cut out 2 3/4th inch by 1 and 1/4th inch rectangles and cut out 2 1 and 3/4ths by 1 and a half inch triangles. Take these and glue them in place in front of the sphere/gem with the ends touching the foam. When placeing them make sure that they are curved so that they are raised up from the foam as shown in the picture. On the open end of the triangle place a flat piece of foam and glue it in place and trim it down to the edge of the cardboard.
12.Once all of this is done its time to start layering on the plaster of paris. I put on about 5 layers on the top and underside before i was satisfied with how it looked. Carefully sand it smooth once you have enough layers of the plaster. Make sure not to cover the loops you soldered in place on the underside.
13.Now its time to paint. i started by painting the entire thing with a layer of Primer paint then on top of that i put 3 coats of black paint. Once that was finished and completely dry i painted the still exposed part of the sphere/gem with several coats of a metallic red. Next i painted on all the gold parts taking the paint around to the underside along all the edges.
14.Once all the paint is completely dry on the top and underside its time to put on the clear coat. I used a spray on clear coat varnish that i got from Lowes but you can use any kind you want as long as it gives a clear hard surface when your finished. I coated each piece of armor 3 times on top and the underside.
15.Measure around your arm at the point where your arm joins at the shoulder. Cut 2 leangths of elastic 2 inches longer than that measurement. Slide 1 end of the elastic thru the loop you made earlier on the underside of the armor piece and pull about 6 inches of it thru the loop toward the front of each armor piece then pinch it around the wire of the loop and sew it in place. This next part is optional, on each end of the elastic sew on the snaps so that they hold the armor piece in place around your arm, or you can leave off the snaps and just tye the ends of the elastic together.
16.By now you should already have the cape and the rest of the costume either bought or made. Make and attach 2 small loops at the top of the "shoulder" area right below the collar as shown in the picture. below that farther down the "shoulder" make a slit wide enough for the elastic to go thru and sew the edges of the slit so they dont fray, make a matching slit thru the top of the shoulder on the costume shirt too. the reason for this is so the elastic you just attached to the armor can go thru the slits in the cape and shirt and be hidden inside the clothing as it holds the armor to your shoulder so it dosent flop around.
17.Now all you need to do is make the front closure for the cape. I'll leave this up to you on how you want it to look.
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Comments: 3

kappalizzy [2011-07-29 08:48:51 +0000 UTC]

my hero ^^
errrrrrrrr heroine

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

shadowcat-666 In reply to kappalizzy [2011-07-29 15:58:14 +0000 UTC]

LOL your welcome

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

kappalizzy In reply to shadowcat-666 [2011-07-30 06:47:55 +0000 UTC]

*Hugs*

👍: 0 ⏩: 0