In this Instructable I shall teach you the way of foam smithing yourself some epic skyrim steel armor and a nifty iron helmet. I know its not as cool as daedric armor, but lets be honest that stuff is so main stream anyways haha. Well lets get to building now shall we!?

What you will need:

• Eva foam floor mats or L200 I made the armor here with the mats but they both work great.

• Thin craft foam for detail work.

• An x acto knife and a lot of blades or a scroll saw or band saw work too.

• A straight edge ruler make sure its metal.

• Hot glue and a hot glue gun or Barge All Purpose Cement again both work great.Just remember one can burn you and the other has toxic fumes so pick your con haha.

• Fake or real leather around 3 yards.

• Fake or real fur about 2 yards.

• Plasti-dip grey so you can seal the foam.

• Silver spray paint.

• Acrylic paint of assorted colors.

• The strength to become Dovahkiin

Total cost for this build is around $75 depending on what you already have laying around and what you have to buy.

Step 1: Collect Your Reference Material

First you're going to want to get yourself some fancy shots of the armor you want to build so you know what you are doing. You can always fire up the game and wear your best set and go off that. You can print out some photos of the set you want off of google, hell why not do both.

Step 2: The Under Armor

To start off I needed some under armor, so I went out and bought myself a few yards of fake leather to make it out of. To get the size and shape that I would need I cut up an old shirt and used it as my pattern. After tracing out the shirt onto the back of the leather I cut it out and then sewed it together. This was my first time ever picking up a needle and thread haha. Once I had finished sewing the side up I noticed that in the game the front had some sewing in it as well. To be as accurate as possible I then made the seems that I saw in game. I found out after test fitting this that these new lines actually made the under armor fit better. Who knew that game developers actual know what there doing haha. Once that was all done I then painted the whole thing with a brown and red wash to give it that weathered look "not pictured here" I also added some fur around the arms.

Step 3: The Bracers

Time to start on the Bracers! lets star off by cutting out the basic shape of them then cutting into the foam to give them depth. I don't recommend picking it out with your fingers like I did haha. I then took some fun foam and cut the scroll work into it and then glued it into place. I then did it all over again for the other one I also did the same for the hand armor. Once the armors where done I wanted to have ridged gauntlets but in the game there leather, So I came up with this idea to make a tube of EVA foam and then cover it with the fake leather I had. Once the Bracers where completed it was time for painting. I then coated them in plasti dip before the paint so that it fills in all the small holes of the foam. After all that it's time to get them all furred up and leathered out.

Step 4: Body Armor BABY!

Time for some heavy armor I started by free handing the shape I wanted onto some EVA. You can always draw something up on the computer and then print it out if your more comfortable with it that way. After I had something I liked I then cut out one side of it flipped it over and then traced it out on the other side to get a full piece. I did that 5 more times at varying sizes to achieve the look of heavy layered armor. once the front was done I traced it again but this time I made a few small changes to make it look like the back of he armor. Once the back was done I started the processes of cutting out areas for the detail this time though I just cut out the whole thing. I then flipped and traced that part onto the other side to get an even look. Once they where both cut out I flipped them over and glued them into place with the textured side facing up to give it a busier more detailed look. I do have to say doing it this way is much faster and much easier on the fingers.

Step 5: The Iron Helm of AWESOME!

The helmet was a little weird I started off buy cutting out a small part that fit the bottom of my nose I then cut a piece that fit around the back of my head and glued them together. Once the two halfs had become one I then cut two small parts that would go above my eyes and then a longer one two go on top of my head "I didn't cut it long enough though, but that is an easy fix". All I did to make up for the lack of length was cut another piece that was the same size and just glued it to the already existing part. Once I had finished that part I moved onto adding the layered back half and the top. All I did for this was cut a few scaps up to fit the shape of the hole that was in the helm and for the back I drew up a shape I liked and then cut it out and glued it into place. It was a little short on the sides so I just added an extra little bit to get it to the size I wanted. I didn't really get many photos of this part but here is what I did. For the parts that hold the horns I took a large drill bit that is used for cutting holes for pipe and pretty much just popped two holes into the sides I then took some foam and rolled it into one long tube and stuck it through both holes I then glued it into place and then cut the access out from the inside. After all that I took fun foam and cut it into little strips and proceeded to glue them to every single edge to give this bad boy some depth. I also took some thumb tacks and used them as fake rivet/bolts. Before painting I figured this would not be a brand new helmet so I attacked it with some swords and battle axes AKA my dremel tool. I got the horns from a costume viking helmet. I know its cheating but its the best I could do for right now. I decided to geek out a bit on the back and wrote my name in dragon script. I then painted it with a dark grey then rust colors to give it that found in a cave look. I also wanted to add something to the inside to give it a little better of a look, so I took some of the extra leather I had and attached it to the inside. There you have it your very own iron helmet.

Side note: you don't have to stick with this paint job by the way as you can see in the last photo i got a little creative with another helmet I built. Go crazy and have fun with it.

Step 6: Extra Little Bits.

Here are some of the other things that I made for the armor far left is the little armor tops that go onto the top of the boots next is the shin armor and then the two big ones are the thigh armor that go on the sides. I didn't really get that many shots of the shoulder armor I kinda just threw them together last minute. They really are not that hard to make they are pretty much just a bent triangle.

Step 7: All Done and Ready for Battle

Congratulations! you have just built yourself some epic armor and you are now ready to take on the hordes of comic con fans. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope this really helped you make something awesome. Anyways if you liked this there is plenty more on my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ZombTechFX

Have a great time building.

FUS RO DAH!!!