One more Captain America dream..

SirCrowley

New Member
Hi there! Let me just introduce myself as this is my first post..

First off, my name is Justice, I just turned 16 and I am a sophomore in high school. I am a football player, a graphic designer, and video producer. I have done work for commercial purposes and its possibly my best talent and second favorite activity behind playing sports. I aspire to be involved in productions on the big screen one day, maybe even be famous. I also, like many of the people here, love cosplaying or just showing fan appreciation for superheroes, such as my favorite, good ol' Captain America. I've always wanted a beautiful shield like the ones on the big screen or the ones built on this site (which are fantastic). A full costume just like the ones in the movies would be a bonus. I would die for either of these. But this is where my subject comes in..

I am TERRIBLE at physical crafts.

I'm good at video FX, general photoshop, graphic design, things that involve software. but I SUCK at making hardware. I've always been good at photo manipulation (check the profile pictures, tell me what you think!) and they are my only realm of pretending to be someone I'm not.. But I cannot for the life of me even draw a circle or cut a piece of wood. But still I see everyone making these great shields, and it makes me think "wow! thats awesome! I wish I could make that!". But as lazy as it sounds, I can't do it. Yet I want a Captain America shield without spending $40 on a piece of bendy plastic, yet again, without dropping $350 on a replica from Ebay, because that really isn't efficient for a student in high school who saves money for more essential needs and scraps together spare change to buy vibranium shields.

Heres the question, you've probably all read a thread like this before, and I probably look like an idiot because I should remember the whole "you get what you pay for" or "its only as good as you are willing to make it" stuff... But what suggestions do any of you have for my options? How could I somehow get my hands on good props (most specifically a shield) without dropping a pretty penny or pulling out a hammer and anvil? Is there a way I could get something half made that would only require some more simple crafting skillage or just anything like that? ANYTHING HELPS.

Thank you for reading my ridiculously long post, and I apologize in advance for sounding completely dumb or just any kind of error. And like I said, anything helps and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks.
 
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Hi Justice, I liked your post. I'm like you, not very good at building unless I had some help. Looking for a shield myself, (cousindave has amazing shields) which are a little pricey. I hope you find what you are looking for, you sound like a nice guy.

Donna
 
Justice, welcome to the RPF! There is a lot of great work done by many...to include how to make the bendy toy shield more rigid and movie like.
I'm not a craft person either but this is the place to see, learn and pass on new skills.
And Cap stuff is easy to find right now. You can even start thinking about the next Avengers uniform.
 
I would check out accuratemetalspinning.com other threads have mentioned it. You can see captain america shield blanks in some of there pictures with grooves. I read in a post its about 200.

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Thank you all for the replies! All of them are very helpful because I have had literally nothing to go off of or somewhere to start. I'm definitely giving them all a look!
 
You can use Valor's thread where he turns a metal snow sled into a very nice looking shield. It's not cheap, but it's definitely cheaper than the spun aluminum ones. You'll have to do the work on it yourself though... it never hurts to learn a new skill!
 
I did take a regular Disguise shield that I picked up at the Halloween store and then put it on top of a snow disk, marked it and then cut the rim off the snow disk. I used a polyurethane spray that plumbers use, u can get it at home depot, and then I glued some aluminum handles onto so that I could use it as a cosplay shield but still have some firmness and heft to it. All in all, about 65$. The Halloween shield was already painted to my liking, I have both the muted color and the Avengers movie bright colors. I prefer the muted.
 
You can use Valor's thread where he turns a metal snow sled into a very nice looking shield. It's not cheap, but it's definitely cheaper than the spun aluminum ones. You'll have to do the work on it yourself though... it never hurts to learn a new skill!

I have seen Valor's thread and that is possibly one of the best shields I have ever seen and I would do it, but I am very confident I would botch the whole thing.

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I did take a regular Disguise shield that I picked up at the Halloween store and then put it on top of a snow disk, marked it and then cut the rim off the snow disk. I used a polyurethane spray that plumbers use, u can get it at home depot, and then I glued some aluminum handles onto so that I could use it as a cosplay shield but still have some firmness and heft to it. All in all, about 65$. The Halloween shield was already painted to my liking, I have both the muted color and the Avengers movie bright colors. I prefer the muted.

could you post some pictures? And possibly some links of the used items? It sounds nice actually, the plastic shields look very nice, just lack heft.

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Can you let me know when you start. I too want to make a shield and id love to see progressions with yours


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Absolutely!
 
I must agree with the others, Valor's build is great! As for cosplaying in general is concerned, you either commission some of us to do the work, or learn to make it yourself. Hopefully, that doesn't sound mean, my point is once you learn how to do some of this yourself, the happier you will feel. Nothing I love more than arriving home with a handful of raw materials, picturing how it's gonna look when I am done. We're all here to help, whenever you have questions.
 
I must agree with the others, Valor's build is great! As for cosplaying in general is concerned, you either commission some of us to do the work, or learn to make it yourself. Hopefully, that doesn't sound mean, my point is once you learn how to do some of this yourself, the happier you will feel. Nothing I love more than arriving home with a handful of raw materials, picturing how it's gonna look when I am done. We're all here to help, whenever you have questions.

Thanks! I appreciate this a lot actually!

When do you plan on starting?

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Well.. I think I best try a shot at the sled shield.. It will probably go terrible unless someone can find one I can just buy for something less than $3000 (have you seen the ebay sales lately?). I'll try and jump on it as soon as I can find one (they appear to be gone).
 
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Im on the same boat as you Crowley. Ebay replicas are ranging from around $800 to $3000 on Ebay. And that sled from the Valor thread is $200 now. I remember listings that where only $150 for a aluminum spun Cap shield. Super hard to buy/make your own shield after Winter Soldier came out :/
 
Im on the same boat as you Crowley. Ebay replicas are ranging from around $800 to $3000 on Ebay. And that sled from the Valor thread is $200 now. I remember listings that where only $150 for a aluminum spun Cap shield. Super hard to buy/make your own shield after Winter Soldier came out :/

I know, I regret not buying the great replicas for $400 a while ago that are now selling for 2 to 8 times more than that after the new movie was released..

I saw some sleds at target for about 20 dollars


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Well shoot.
 
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