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Step 11Shoulder armor: Sintra
The shoulder armor I wore with this costume uses another super cheap, safe, and easy method. It has the bonus of being incredibly lightweight. It happens to be one I had to come up with in roughly the three days before I had to leave for a competition I was taking this costume to; Murphy's Law had stepped in and a bad batch of resin axed my previous work. So, I had to come up with a new version out of supplies I had in my house. I don't have photos of this version of the actual armor in progress, but I've supplied a couple few to give you an idea.
I already had pattern pieces made from poster board, which I assembled for a test fit using brads.
Sintra is a very inexpensive thermoplastic material that people in the Star Wars costuming community have been using for quite some time. I got mine by asking a local signmaker to include a piece for me in his weekly order; it's a brand name for the material but it's usually called by that. So ask around. It comes in various thicknesses; I got this a number of years ago so I don't recall the exact thickness, but it's about 1mm thick. It can be cut with scissors.
Sintra is easy to form with a heat gun (or substitute an embossing gun, which is great for smaller pieces, or hair dryer). Practice with scrap to get the right amount of heat to get the flexibility you want without causing it to become overly floppy. Sintra has a similar "cellular" structure to something like foam core, and if it's overheated, that structure can be crushed when you touch it, resulting in a rough texture. You can burn yourself on it so be careful or wear gloves, and never form it directly over your skin. As always, NEVER aim the heat tool of your choice at your body; you can get bad burns even with a hairdryer. If your hands will be in harm's way, wear protection (Ove Gloves are good but even an oven mitt will do).
I really didn't want these pieces to look like plastic; I was going for something between fabric and metal. To get a rougher, more organic look for the pieces, I heated specific areas a bit too much on purpose with an embossing gun, to have sort of a feel like it might have been made of beaten metal.
Because I felt the pieces looked too thin, I backed them with felt and then lined them with pleather. I didn't like how the edges were, so I ran a bead of hot glue along it and then flattened it, and painted over that in black.
The pieces were painted with green metallic and then oversprayed with gold (before the backing was added). They attach to one another and to the rest of the outfit with Chicago screws (self-binding posts). The staff at your hardware store may not have heard of them, but it's highly likely they have them - hiding in with the screws somewhere.
I already had pattern pieces made from poster board, which I assembled for a test fit using brads.
Sintra is a very inexpensive thermoplastic material that people in the Star Wars costuming community have been using for quite some time. I got mine by asking a local signmaker to include a piece for me in his weekly order; it's a brand name for the material but it's usually called by that. So ask around. It comes in various thicknesses; I got this a number of years ago so I don't recall the exact thickness, but it's about 1mm thick. It can be cut with scissors.
Sintra is easy to form with a heat gun (or substitute an embossing gun, which is great for smaller pieces, or hair dryer). Practice with scrap to get the right amount of heat to get the flexibility you want without causing it to become overly floppy. Sintra has a similar "cellular" structure to something like foam core, and if it's overheated, that structure can be crushed when you touch it, resulting in a rough texture. You can burn yourself on it so be careful or wear gloves, and never form it directly over your skin. As always, NEVER aim the heat tool of your choice at your body; you can get bad burns even with a hairdryer. If your hands will be in harm's way, wear protection (Ove Gloves are good but even an oven mitt will do).
I really didn't want these pieces to look like plastic; I was going for something between fabric and metal. To get a rougher, more organic look for the pieces, I heated specific areas a bit too much on purpose with an embossing gun, to have sort of a feel like it might have been made of beaten metal.
Because I felt the pieces looked too thin, I backed them with felt and then lined them with pleather. I didn't like how the edges were, so I ran a bead of hot glue along it and then flattened it, and painted over that in black.
The pieces were painted with green metallic and then oversprayed with gold (before the backing was added). They attach to one another and to the rest of the outfit with Chicago screws (self-binding posts). The staff at your hardware store may not have heard of them, but it's highly likely they have them - hiding in with the screws somewhere.
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