Captain America (Avengers) and Mk VII for an 8yr old COMPLETED!

good luck with the build I'm going for a First Avengers costume! I'm buying a base costume to work from.. Have you thought about the same?

Hey, I remember you from Comic Book day, your Captain Jack was very cool.

I'm working on a Cap shield as well, I'd be interested to see how yours goes.

mystic gohan? i want to see that

@Chris: I thought about it, but if I can manage it I'd rather it be an original, and to be honest it'd probably be cheaper to buy the fabric and make it up rather than buy a prefab one lol. I'll be interested to see how yours works out though .

@Berserk: Which Comic Book Day was that? Do you mean Free Comic Book Day? I didn't attend this year, but I was at Oz Comic Con earlier this year in Adelaide, and I was at Armageddon and Avcon last year.

@EoS: I'm at work atm, but when I get home I'll post up a pic .

Could have sworn you were at Free Comic Book day.

Are you part of the Australian Costumers Guild? If not, we are having a monthly meet-up Tuesday 5th June (tomorrow) at Seven Stars Hotel, 187 Angas street city starting around 6pm. Great bunch of people and they are all pretty helpful.

Nah not this year lol. I was at the Gumeracha Medevil Fair that day. I must have a cosplay doppelganger :P

No I'm not, but I know a fair few of the members through different ways. I'm a shift worker so I find it hard to get to get togethers etc so I have never bothered joining something like that. I've seen the stall at the cons that I've attended though, and there are some damn talented people involved with it!

Oh, pic of Mystic Gohan for EoS. This is me and another guy who was dressed as Goku. I'm the one on the right lol. Unfortunately I didn't get many pics that day.

So, the first build post.

The Shield

Ok, so A) Because I'm cheap and B) Because I didn't think that lugging around a big piece of metal for 8+hrs at a Con appealed to me very much, I decided that my shield would basically be one giant pep piece. With that in mind I went searching for an A0 piece of cardboard which apparently, as it turns out, is stocked by exactly NOONE in South Australia, nor easily accessible online. In the end I had to settle for a 640x1020 piece of card, 400gsm because I figured that would be strong enough to support it's own weight at that size, but still flimsy enough to allow it to be bent without major creasing. (I did find a 750mm stretched canvas which I thought might work as the base but after a slight 'misadventure' I decided that it would not. Not-So-Pro-Tip: Don't use canvas. Just don't.)

I cut one giant circle ~640mm in diametre (biggest I could get) from the card and drew a line from the edge to the centre point which I cut along to create a slit (Pic 1). From the rest of the card I made a circular base to rest the 'shield' on for stability while it was having stuff done to it and secured it to stop it moving around (Pic 2).

I then curled the card in on itself using the slit to form a slight cone/dome shape and fixed it using masking tape (Pic 3). I then set about lathering the top side of the 'shield' in PVA to add some extra rigidity to the card (3 coats just to make sure :P). It got a bit floppy during this stage which was a bit worrying but after the three coats it hardened up nicely and retained it's shape (Pic 4).

Next it was on to the fibreglassing. First I fibreglassed the underside of the 'shield' first and due to the PVA coats and the base the 'shield' was a lot more structurally sound than I had hoped (Pic 5). Then it was the tops turn (Pic 6). (I would suggest when trying to cover a point that you use a cross shape to cover the point and go from there, it's easier than trying to stick down edges (Pic 7), it also works on the underside). I left over hanging pieces on the top around the edges without resin so that I could curl them over the edges to make them rounded, I then applied another coat of just resin to the underside while sticking down the edge pieces (Pic 8). I'm not 100% sure if the overhangs were a good idea as they kind of lifted up around the edges a little, but time will tell if it works out the way I wanted. Today after work I applied a final coat of just resin to the top of the 'shield' just for a bit of added strength (Pic 9).

Tomorrow is the day, assuming the top resin coat is dry, that I will attempt to cover it with Polyfilla (It's what I decided to use for Bondo). Then 'The Great Sanding Trials' begin...

P4r4dox86 said:

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Tomorrow is the day, assuming the top resin coat is dry, that I will attempt to cover it with Polyfilla (It's what I decided to use for Bondo). Then 'The Great Sanding Trials' begin...

Try either builders bog from Bunnings or bondo from SuperCheap, polyfilla has to be sealed or it absorbs paint like a sponge and looks terrible. It also has a tendency to disintegrate is you use the wrong paint

Really? Thanks for the heads up mate. I'll stop past Bunnings on the way home and get some.

Ok, so I took Berserk's advice and bought myself some Builders Bog from Bunnings yesterday and did the first main coat on the shield (Pic 1). From the side it kind of looks like a giant chocolate cupcake :S (Pic 2)

Sanded it back today and applied a spot covering coat this arvo (Pic 3). More sanding to come tomorrow.

It's starting to look more like a shield slowly. The edges are going to need a bit of smoothing down eventually, but I'm quite happy so far with how it's going. Especially given that this is my first main attempt at something like this .

Berserk said:

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Try either builders bog from Bunnings or bondo from SuperCheap, polyfilla has to be sealed or it absorbs paint like a sponge and looks terrible. It also has a tendency to disintegrate is you use the wrong paint

I cant remember the price on the bog but from memory this was cheaper

SCA Body Filler

It will be intersting to see how heavy it is once you're done as the helmets I have started in the past and abandoned carry a bit of weight.

The 1ltr BB was $32.95 at Bunnings. The link won't load for some reason, but what I've got was a reasonable price. In the end it came down to laziness which determined whether it was BB or Bondo...There is a Bunnings on the way home from work and it was the easiest to access lol.

So far, with it now coated in BB it probably still weighs no more than a kilo I'd say. Very light weight, especially compared to metal.

Fair enough. The Filler is the Super Cheap Auto branded body filler @ 10.95 for 500g.

If you haven't already I'd recommend reading any of thorssoli's threads. The man knows what he is doing when bondo is concerned.

Nice, that would be cheaper I'll bare it in mind for any future builds. Thanks for the tip off mate.

Right so after numerous patch jobs and sanding I applied the first coat of primer this morning that I will be sanding back off and looking for any further imperfections to fill. I'm HOPING that I was correct when I looked at the shield and thought "Hm, not many more gaps, maybe it's primer time!" however I can see that being wishful thinking on my part lol. But here's hoping. Also sanded the edges down into the best approximation of a smooth circle that I can eyeball.

So it's looking slightly more metallic now. I think, for what it's made of and the fact it's my first attempt at this, it's looking pretty damn good . The little imperfections are to be expected, as with our political system here in Australia I've learnt that trying to remove small imperfections from something that is inherently flawed is a futile endeavour.

that's actually looking quite nice dude! well done

Try and take the point out of the "top" of the shield to give it more rounded sheild profile like Cap's.

@SDUK: Thanks mate, much appreciated .

@Beejay: I actually did try and get is as rounded as possible but due to the original point in the card and hence the fibreglass point underneath the Builders Bog, I could only get it so flat. Now, with hindsight I would have pushed the point of the paper down into the middle to make it a rounder shape when it was still paper, then back filled the hole with Builders Bog later in the process. That would have given me a more rounded point. I completely agree with your judgement, unfortunately to do it I'd have to start all over again, so maybe next time lol.

Wow, that is coming along great. Any chance you will be finished for AVCon?

Unfortunately no lol. We have other costumes on the go for Avcon, this one is scheduled to make an appearance at Supernova in November Gives me plenty of time to work on it lol.

Will you be making it to Avcon?

awesome! it seems you have found a good way to make the shield; i just started the same project, but i choose to casting in resin with a plaster mold; it will cost me very much.

P4r4dox86 said:

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Will you be making it to Avcon?

Yeah, Batman will be there us maybe a few others.

When do you start on the helmet?

Just finishing up the painting on the shield, the helmet and chest star are next on the agenda! Going to attempt a foam build and coat it with Smooth Cast for a plastic finish with a soft interior .