Ideas and Help for EVA foam armor & design

darkcloud643

New Member
Hi everyone! Let me first introduce myself since I'm new to the forums: My name is Stephan and I got into costume making through a Larp that I participate in. I'm still currently working on my first few armor pieces (chest/back plate, shoulders, & vambrace), but I have some questions for a future project I want to start on.

The current armor I'm working on is made out of EVA foam and these are the steps I've completely so far:
1. Made a template out of posterboard and cut out the foam pieces.
2. Used Heat gun to form the pieces and trimmed parts to fit.
3. Dremmel to smooth all the edges then hot knife to make the designs on the armor

What I have left to do:
1. Paint the armor pieces with 50/50 mixture of glue/water to act as a sealant.
2. Spray paint
3. Paint the designs ( I bought acrylic paint and was wondering if that would work when working on the designs on the armor? If not, what do you suggest?)
4. Plasti-dip

I'm still wanting the armor to be a ltitle flexible and it has to take a beating which is why I'm doing the plasti-dip at the end. Any thoughts or suggestions for this?
Also, I'm running into trouble trying to figure out how to connect my pieces. It needs to be an adjustable strap that I can tigthen. I was originally thinking double sided velcro straps, but I figured they might come undone if caught on anything. Currently, I just bought some parachute string and am using that to tighten and hold the pieces in place to see what it looks like assembled.

-----------------------

For my future project I was aiming at doing something similiar to Immortal armor that the gods wore in the movie "Immortals".
Pictures:
http://media.liveauctiongroup.net/i/11166/11558476_1.jpg?v=8CE8542D05CD860

http://www.jessicarulestheuniverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/isabel-lucas-immortals-photo2.jpg
(I do not own the rights to these photos, these are merly used as reference)

In the first picture, I've always wanted to make a design like that, but I can't figure out how to get the "popping" effect of the muscles etc. I originally thought about drawing the design on the foam and sanding down around all the other parts. Anyone have some other suggestions? Should I also just use leather string to tighten the armor like in the picture?

Thanks!
I've enjoyed browsing the forums and looking at all the different creations people are able to make. People here are so talented! :)
 
im looking for a solution to this too but the best i got was to heat up the foam, not too fast, make sure the heat gets deep in the foam, and then mold it over a muscle mannequin.
 
like you have done seal the foam with water thinned pva/white glue then apply plati-dip this will seal it also and allow a level of flexibility to your armour, then apply your final paint work and seal your paint work with a clear spray sealant/laqure (gloss/satin/matt) depending on your designe to protect your paint work (read this advise on here and used it so credit to those who come before me) for attaching pieces i use clips/straps/buckles/snap locks from old rucksacks you can add Velcro for extra strength if you want
 
First suggestion: Don't use spray paint at all. if you want it to be durable and flexable, use acrylics for the whole thing
Second suggestion: if you are doing larp i am assuming it is medieval armor, so use grommets and leather lace to attach it. Grommets fit into the foam, just smush the foam a little.
 
I'll second the use of acrylics, but if you keep the spray paint light just for accenting and whatnot, then you shouldn't have to worry about cracking under the top layer of plasti dip.

If you have an airbrush, or can find someone who will let you use theirs, you can put the shading between the muscles by airbrushing them in with black acrylic paint after you've maybe painted with gold metalizer Plasti Dip. I think the gold Plasti Dip would give you the smooth god-like finish you might be looking for.

Another method you could use, if wanting an old, worn look is drybrushing paint onto black Plasti Dip. Get some paint on a brush and then wipe most of it off so there's just a little left and paint really lightly. I just recently started painting a Darth Revan mask and used this method. I started with a few layers of black Plasti Dip and then got some silver metallic acrylic paint and dry brushed it over the entire thing. You could get a similar gold paint and do the same, but just dry brush less in the grooves between muscles and it would naturally be darker in those areas. Really make it pop.

The dry brushing really changes the way the paint looks compared to this scrap piece I just painted like normal.

image.pngimage.pngimage.png
 
This thread is more than 7 years old.

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

  1. This thread hasn't been active in some time. A new post in this thread might not contribute constructively to this discussion after so long.
If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top