Ultimate WW2 Captain America Costume

Step 6 The shield, part 1

The pista de resistance (sp?) of any Captain America costume is the shield. Now, the more knowledgeable geeks reading this will know that in the Ultimates timeline, Cap used a triangular shield in WW2 (instead of his trademark round one). I choose to be somewhat anachronistic and use the round shield for several reasons.

First, my son's 4 and I don't want him poking his eye out with one of the shield's sharp corners. Next, plastic versions of the round shield are cheap and readily available online (I bought ours for about $6). Finally, this costume is different enough from Cap's traditional red, white, and blue pajamas that I felt it needed the round shield to make it more recognizable to the average parent handing out candy.

So, I started with the round plastic, officially licensed shield. Unfortunately, there were a few issues I wanted to address before adding it to the costume:

The plastic shield is a little too flimsy. My son cracked the frisbee he used as a shield surrogate when he accidentally stepped on it. The store-bought shield seemed even less resilient. So, I bent a bunch of steel wire into a zigzagging circle and glued it inside the shield.

The shield comes with a pair of elastic straps that were the epitome of cheap. I engineered a strap system where each strap can be unclipped and lengthened. This allows the shield to be worn on the back or carried on the arm just like in the comics.

-Side note: the strap/ clip system is the aspect I'm most proud of. I searched around the internet but no one else (to date) has devised a sensible way to explain how the straps on Cap's shield shorten/ lengthen from his back to his arm. I believe my implementation is ground-breakingly unique and elegant.

The shield's a little too deep, so I trimmed off about 3/4 of an inch to make it less bulky.

The plastic strap bindings are too flimsy and too close together. I bend more steel wire around some plastic clips and glued them in more appropriate places on the shield. Before gluing, I sewed straps onto 2 of the 4 bindings. I didn't sew the other 2 because I needed to fit the shield's inner lining on later.

I made sure to raise them up from the shield to accommodate the next step. To hide the wire and glue, I sprayed foam insulation into the shield's concave. After the foam had hardened, I used a long-bladed knife and trimmed off the excess. The shield was nice and stiff at this point.

Comments

[baneat]

I think a large frisbee would work great for the shield, to play with as the trademark throw as well (Maybe foam the rim O.o)

[lordofthedonuts]

It's not "Pista de Resistance" , it's "Pièce de Résistance" from French wich could be pronounced "Pyasse da Rayzeestance", Voilà, Bon Appétit! ; )

[mrcrumley]

You're right. Although, if I had made the shield out of dough and cheese, I could have called it the "pizza de resistance". Hmm... maybe next year.