Original Green Ranger (Sentai) Dragon Shield Material

CottonFX

New Member
Hi all,

I have been curious about creating a green ranger dragon shield that is screen accurate to the original MMPR show. I am interested in the actual Japanese shield not the crappy cloth one that Jason Frank wore during alot of scenes lol.

I have looked at it and I am aware of several ways to make something like it.. however, the original seems to be made of painted foam. My question is about the ridges that are raised up on the shield. How would one create seamless raised details on foam like that without covering it with cloth or something which I dont think they did in the original, although alot of cosplayers do that now and it looks good.

My only guess was that maybe it was cast in some type of foam with those details as part of the mold? Also what type of foam would it have been?

Now people use EVA alot and thats what I am leaning towards but still dont know how you could get details like that unless you were to attach the ridges seperately and somehow hide the seams before priming and painting. I know how to do that with bondo and such on hard materials but not foam. Thanks.
 
This is an excellent question. I've studied this shield for years. I will need to make my own because to my knowledge the only makers that do shields make them in one size, that's far too big for me. The only builds I've ever seen is the way you mentioned: EVA foam covered in fabric. But I've seen plenty of photos from Zyuranger that show otherwise.

dragon_ranger_wallpaper_2_by_shogun86-d4w43xp.png C5uI9ToWAAAK_mc.jpg

It's got weird wrinkles near the diamond area. I was assuming it was an all foam piece colored gold.

Maybe using Plastidip on the foam before priming and paints? I don't know if that would be a way to cover the seams. I keep watching foam tutorials on YouTube. I don't have a work space to actually start work on my suit :/
 
I almost wonder if this was, because it was so long ago, a foam that was molded that way. Polyfoam would be too soft to my knowledge but I have heard also of e200 form. If I could feel what e200 feels like I would know if this is the foam I am thinking of. To be honest the original shield looks much softer than Eva and I have seen other things made of softer foam like stress balls molded with faces in them that makes me believe there is some sort of foam out there that you can cast this in.
 
I shot a message over to King Ranger. I would consider him the leading authority on Sentai anything, lol. Maybe he will chime in with suggestion. I saw he was making a shield mold sometime last year, but I don't know what he was going to cast with.
 
Hey, all! Really sorry that I didn't make it here sooner.

So, to address the OP's initial speculation, there were two different shields in the original Japanese series; the hero shield and the stunt shield. The hero was covered in gold fabric while the stunt was cast foam. Was the hero also cast and then covered? No one really knows except for maybe a handful of people in the know or have been in Toei's archives that we obviously don't associate with. Some people might tell you to check the Toei or Bandai Museums, however, both of those had the stunt shield.

On to pictures:

Hero shield, please note the pattern of the fabric's weave in the images. The hero shield also had a sort of sheen to it as gold metallic spandex does:
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Stunt shield, note the lack of fabric weave and more noticeable wrinkles. The stunt shield was dull in appearance as seen in the album photo to the left and the live action photo of the official suit in the middle and on the right:
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For comparison, this is my old hand-cut foam, fabric covered shield that I use to make. Note that is has the same sheen as the hero:
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And this is my cast foam shield without fabric that I currently make now, note the duller solid gold color:
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OK, to answer your actual question, to make seamless foam armor, you really only have two options: Cover it with a fabric like spandex or vinyl (in Japan, they have a thermo-formable vinyl called Larissa that they use to cover most foam armor) or you can use a sealer like Modge Podge or something like that.

Here are some WIP shots of my master shield I molded to make my cast shield. Hope it helps some. If you have more questions, I'll be sure to check back on or subscribe to this thread.


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It's amazing to find this thread the week I've been thinking about making a shield that fits me better or one I can wear in a crowded area that I'm not worried about being damaged. Right now I'm working off a template from Big Mike that I plan on laser cutting foam and then covering.
 
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