Kid's Stormtrooper Costume

This is my cheap attempt at stormtrooper costumes for my 4 and 6 year olds. It's made to be lightweight and flexible for comfort but still hold true to the movie armor and look cooler than the store-bought stuff out there. Because of the materials used, these costumes won't hold up to rough play or prolonged wear. Actually, they got pretty beat up after simply trick or treating. Within the steps I'll tell you how I did certain things and what I would do differently. My son's costume was my first attempt and spent about 18 hours on it, not including drying time for paint and glue. My daughter's costume took less time because I based it on my son's templates just smaller and I gave it a little less detail (and I was less careful with cutting and glueing). Anyway, hope you find the instructions helpful. The result was a ton of fun and the kids got a lot of attention. Cheers

Step 1: Materials

I used foam sheets from Michaels. The larger costume for my 6 year old to 9 of the 12" x 18" sheets. He's 50" tall and weighs 50 lbs. I used a combination of a glue called Quick Grip (which held very well and stayed flexible but is messy and needs to dry overnight) and hot glue (for adding some of the detail work.) By the time I got to my daughter's costume I got a little impatient and used the hot glue for most of the glueing. I worked ok as long as you are quick with getting the pieces together quickly. But it does deform the foam a little and it is not flexible. You're also gonna need a couple of packages of white velcro strips (18" in length). And you'll need a length of 1" wide black elastic for the upper arm pieces - both for a strap around the arm and to attach them to the shoulder straps. I also used some to hold the thigh pieces up - one end hot glued to the thigh piece and the other has a velcro piece that attaches behind the belt.

Step 2: Paper Templates

***These are on eBay right now!!! Go bid!! They could use some love but will still kill it among the hordes of store-bought trick or treat threads. Hurry, auctions end Oct 17, 2012 18:54:38 PDT!!!***

The first step was to make paper templates for each of the armor pieces. This allows you to size them by fitting them temporarily with tape and then shaping them with scissor around joints and what not. I used 8.5" x 11" paper - taping two pieces together for the larger templates.

Step 3: Helmet Construction

***These are on eBay right now!!! Go bid!! They could use some love but will still kill it among the hordes of store-bought trick or treat threads. Hurry, auctions end Oct 17, 2012 18:54:38 PDT!!!***

 This was the most difficult part to create. I purchased the three quarter mask from Amazon and then found a generic astronaut helmet on a different site. both were under $10 each. I cut the top of the mask and removed the visor and cut the chin piece off of the helmet. The black brow on the mask lines up with the top edge of the helmet. I then attached the mask with two rivets through the ear pieces. The to get a full ear piece and a more finished look I cut of the bottom of two small Glad Ziplock containers and affixed them with a small bolt and nut. I then got some flat white spray paint and repainted the helmet so all the pieces match. Be sure to remove the stickers so you can replace them later. 

Step 4: Applying Templates to Foam

***These are on eBay right now!!! Go bid!! They could use some love but will still kill it among the hordes of store-bought trick or treat threads. Hurry, auctions end Oct 17, 2012 18:54:38 PDT!!!***

The bulk of the work obviously is taking the paper templates and using them to cut the foam. It's important to get as many pieces out of each foam sheet and to save all the scraps for the smaller detail pieces. Use brand new xacto blades and change them often. When glueing the trim and other pieces be sure to apply pressure over night under some heavy books to get the smoothest surfaces and the strongest hold. Use velcro for closures but be aware that while initially the adhesive on the velcro seems strong enough after a few times of putting on and taking off the costume the velcro strips will let go from the foam so I suggest using hot glue instead of relying on the adhesive. The gloves are just cheap knitted gloves and the foam pieces hot glue easily to them. You'll use the elastic on the upper arm pieces to both strap around the arm and to attach them to the shoulder straps. Also use some for supports on the thigh pieces, attaching a piece of velcro to the loose end to attach to the inside of the belt.

Step 5: The Competed Costume

***These are on eBay right now!!! Go bid!! They could use some love but will still kill it among the hordes of store-bought trick or treat threads. Hurry, auctions end Oct 17, 2012 18:54:38 PDT!!!***

To complete the costumes we used black thermal underwear for the jumpsuit. Hope you guys like the result. Have fun.

Comments

[ariannejwright]

Hi friends, I'd love to use this pattern to make some clone trooper armor for my kids. I haven't been able to find a clone trooper pattern for kids, but figure I can make this work. Does anyone have any tips on what size to print these? Printing at the original size makes tiny armor parts. The shoulder pads seem about right, but everything else is way too small. Printing them at a larger size means I only get a portion of the armor on the paper. Any tips? Thanks!

[rappernegrogui]

hello bro, how are you? Where can I find the molds for this armor?

[ElisabethM14]

I've been eyeing this for three years. I finally bought the materials ....now I realize I don't know how to measure and then size the templates!!! Please help!

[jaezoe]

Here are all the PDF template files for the costume. ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR and COREL files each posted in separate comment here too.

[ElisabethM14]

Thank you so much for sharing these!!! Do you know much about inkscape? That's the only program I know of to use these, but I'm not sure how to size them. Any help would be greatly appreciated! (I assume it'll be like old school Word, where you'd print a banner and tape it together after printing?)

[jdsierra71]

Hi jaezoe, I would also love to get the templates as the links here do not seem to work. I'm a new Instructables user as well, so maybe I'm doing something wrong, but am hoping to make this costume for my 3 yr old in time for Halloween. My email is [e-mail]. Thank you so much!

[kristinezreyes]

Hi jaezoe, would you mind sending the templates to my email? [e-mail] Thanks in advance.

[cerinarider10]

I'd love to get the templates but I'm not able to view them could you email them or send a dropbox link [e-mail]

[sky-guy]

will this template fit a 10 year old?

[jaezoe]

Depends on his size. Originals were sized to fit my 8 year old who was quite small at the time (about 45 inches tall) so should fit up to about 48 in tall child - AI and Corel files can be scaled as required - unfortunately my work is going crazy right now and I'm on the road so just don't have the time to help with scaling or advising on using AI or Corel - lots of good stuff on the internet on how to use both these products - good luck :)

[sebastianx]

Hello,

Does tis have to be A3 or A4 i cant wait for replies

[sebastianx]

Hello,

Does tis have to be A3 or A4 i cant wait for replies

[MountainLove]

I just finished this for my 9 ½ year old. I scaled the AI templates to 120% and then cut them out and scotch tape them together. I tried 150% scale up, but it ended up too big.

[sebastianx]

how big is this?

[DanF20]

Do you have a pdf of the shoulder pads?

[jaezoe]

AI and PDF shoulder pad files

[jaezoe]

PDF shoulder pads.

[DanF20]

I do not see the shoulderpad templates

[MicaelaS6]

im from argentina , would you mind sending the templates to my email? please !! [e-mail] , thanks !

[hirerob]

Someone posted templates below in the comments.