Introduction: Cardboard Jaffa Serpent Gaurd Costume

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this is a good costume of a jaffa serpent guard from stargate sg1 made out of card board. there are 4 parts: the helmet, the chest plate, the belt, and the shin guards.

Step 1: Materials

for this build you will need card board preferably double corrugated, a hot glue gun (cation hot, don't touch the metal pointy end it will burn you, it hurts), spray paint, (i used gold, silver, bronze, and dark green), and you will need a good sharp box knife

optional - dremle, 2 red led's, and 2 watch batteries

Step 2: The Chest Plate

this step is easier that the helmet and has a good effect

first you cut out a trapezoid shaped piece of cardboard. (go to second picture for shape)

then you cut a repeating diamond shape with diagonal like 90 degree angles the sides should be about an inch then cut some inch wide stripes of cardboard (if confused go to picture 3)

first clue the repeating right angle pattern done the middle of your trapezoid then glue the slats on coming out of the right angle pattern. in the back there should be a loop that the belt will pass through (go to picture three for up close view of what the front should look like)

the upper torso and shoulder pads layout should look something like the forth picture

one you have cut out the circular shape in picture 4 , omitting the pads and after you have cut a neck hole you must make the pads.the shape of the pads can be seen in picture 5. i
paper mached (you know with flower and water and newspaper) them after i built them but you don't have to.

cut out 2 semicircular shapes that match half of the circular thing and glue them on to it the semicircular shapes are seen in picture 6. then use the knife or dremel to cut out lines in the second layer. as in picture 7

then glue the front smaller trapezoid onto the front bigger side of the circular upper torso guard and glue the back bigger trapezoid on to the back smaller side of the circular upper torso guard the front and back are see in pictures 1 and 8, the front being 1, and the back being 8.

Step 3: The Belt

the belt is the easiest part of the costume. but this does not make it unimportant. it keeps your chest guard tight to your body.

first cut a strip of card board about 3 inches thick make sure in fits all the way around your waste with enough space to over lap

then cut out the shape of the belt buckle. the shape is in picture 2. then cut thin strips of cardboard out and glue them on as in picture 3.

the next step it to install the rubber band. just put it down put lots of glue on and around it and stick piece of cardboard on top. this is in picture 4

the last step of the belt is the hook. this is the most important part of the belt because it changes the belt from a piece of cardboard to an actual belt. to make the hook you take some thing round and wooden, i used a bamboo skewer, and stick it through the cardboard at an angle so that the rubber band cant come off. like in picture 5. use lots of hot glue on both sides like on pictures 5 and 6

the rubber band should hook around the hook like in picture 7.

Step 4: The Helmat Part 1 the Front

the helmet is by far the most difficult part of the build.

the first step of the helmet is the neck piece. the neck piece has to be big enough for your head to fit through it but as small as possible as long as you can get your head through. it should be in the shape of the one in picture2

once you have built the neck piece the next step is the neck scales.the neck scales are important because they hold up the head and you see through them. they also anchor the frill. first attach your first neck scale as in picture 3. then glue on another piece of cardboard on it. it should now look like picture 4. after this you should only need about one more, but if needed, a forth smaller piece can be added.

now cut out a flat nosed triangle with a arc in it that will fit the arc of your neck scales.
then glue it on.

then cut out two of the curved wave like shapes seen in picture six and glue them on.

cut out 2 semicircles of cardboard and glue them on as eyes. optional, poke two holes for the two leds. tape the watch batteries to the leds so so that tey light up, and the put some hot glue around the base of the led then stick it through the hole you poked in the cardboard. you may have to replace the watch batteries so only put these in before you go where ever you are going in the costume.

cut out another flat nosed triangle and make a little square that is the tip of the nose.


now it is time to build the frill first. cut out the shape that you want your frill to be. then lay down the first scale. now lay down another scale on top that over laps the first one. keep doing this until you have filled the frill there should be about 5 scales. these steps are illustrated by picture 8-11. then glue the frill onto the neck scales. now do it again for the other side.

you have now finished the front.

Step 5: The Helmet Part 2 the Back

this step is difficult but very satisfying when completed.

before you start, glue a large flat piece onto the back of the head that goes all the way down to the bottom of the neck piece. then level out the sides with more pieces of card board. the back should now be flat.

now cut out a bunch of long strips with curved points in the middle of them. one of these is shown in picture 2 after which starting at the bottom of the out side of the frill as close to the bottom of the helmet as you can get. start gluing them on in a curved fashion, going up up the back. this will take a while since there are a lot of these back slates. make sure they curve up to meet the top of the head.

smooth out the sides of back scales where the back scales meet the frill shown as shown in picture 3

Step 6: The Shin Gaurds

the shin guard is relatively easy to build.

first you just get a regular piece of cardboard as in picture 2

then you get another piece of card board and cut a semicircle out of the cardboard this. semicircle gives the shin guard its shape so make sure your shin fits in it.

then bend the first piece and glue it onto the second piece it should now look like picture 4

then bent the flat part at 2 points and tape it like in picture 5

glue the inside of the bends and around the curve like in picture 6. now when you take the tap off it should stay in place.

do this twice, one for each leg.

Step 7: Making It All Fit

now your done.

all you have left is painting but wait if you have tried to put your costume on you will have noticed that the helmet doesn't fit the armor. to fix this you will have to cut off some of the frill so i fits over the shoulder pads, and you will also have to cut off some of shoulder pads so that your neck piece will fit.

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