Anniemee
New Member
Hey folks!
This was my 2016 project for Dragon Con. I started in February and "finished" it in the hotel at the convention. I plan to fix a few things, use fewer safety pins and less duct tape, and add a lot of detail between now and the next outing. This was my first time attempting an armor build, first time making a large prop, and first time working with lights! Many regrets and much leveling up was accomplished. I live in a small town, so all the materials I used are things available from Lowes or Walmart.
The Death Knight starting zone has always been one of my favorite quest lines in WoW, so I thought it appropriate for my first stab at armor production. I picked a Draenei because A. I mained one once upon a time and B. I felt like making horns!
I started with the horns. I made giant piles of expanding foam and carved them down to shape, then covered in a layer of masking tape. I had issues getting the foam down to even points so added some twisted, packed newspaper at the ends. This was heavy and is a bad idea.... I then followed up with a layer of detail work in paper clay. These are way heavier than I intended, about 1.4lbs each.
Unpainted horns and makeup test. The horns are attached to a wire head piece made out of some gardening wire I had sitting around - not sure what gauge. The wig hides the less-than-pretty attachment. I upsized the horns from the in game model a bit - felt more epic and balanced with the real life height I was aiming for.
I wanted accurate space goat height of around 7ft, so used Stepping Up bucket stilts (thanks, Wookie costumers!) to which I added aluminum struts for stability, and EVA foam pads at the base for quiet movement. These plus horns put me around 7ft 3in.
The armor started out as EVA floor mats from Lowes. I freehanded paper templates then used those as patterns to trace on the foam. The foam was then cut with box blades. Many blades gave their lives for this project. These are the start of the hip plates. I attacked them with a heat gun and held them in place until they kept shape. Proper respiratory protection was worn at all times. Cause fumes. Cancer is bad yo. Underneath the armor on the right are parts of the skirt panels. I burned the edges with actual FIRE for that authentic singed hell flame look.
Complex curves are a byatch. I made two mirrored pieces. The curves were achieved with a combination of heat gun stretching, seams glued with contact cement, and mild profanity. For the detail work, I traced out the basic designs I wanted, then added some rope I had lying around for the base. The skull was made from Sculpey and baked. I regretted using this due to the weight and brittle nature... Details were added with puffy paint.
Details were added via heating cuts in the EVA foam, and adding edges with craft foam. Googly eyes for rivets was my favorite new trick I picked up from here. I had a piece of twine under the triangles on the edge for that ridged effect.
Trying out the balance on my dressmaker dummy, which was stacked on top of multiple books and a cat litter box for proper height. This was knocked over several times in the costume making process.
Here are a few early stage decorative skirt armor pieces.
All foam received 2-3 layers of woodglue, which was sanded, then 2 layers of plastidip. I found that plastidip, while making things more durable, tended to show any imperfections underneath. Hence the woodglue.
I made 20 of these tiny foam pyramids and glued my fingers together in the process. Doing this next to your gaming keyboard is a most excellent idea.
Pauldrons! Craft foam and puffy paint over EVA foam. This also received the wood glue + sanding + plastidip treatment.
Painting was definitely my favorite part of the entire process. I used about 5-6 different metallic spray paints.
This was my 2016 project for Dragon Con. I started in February and "finished" it in the hotel at the convention. I plan to fix a few things, use fewer safety pins and less duct tape, and add a lot of detail between now and the next outing. This was my first time attempting an armor build, first time making a large prop, and first time working with lights! Many regrets and much leveling up was accomplished. I live in a small town, so all the materials I used are things available from Lowes or Walmart.
The Death Knight starting zone has always been one of my favorite quest lines in WoW, so I thought it appropriate for my first stab at armor production. I picked a Draenei because A. I mained one once upon a time and B. I felt like making horns!
I started with the horns. I made giant piles of expanding foam and carved them down to shape, then covered in a layer of masking tape. I had issues getting the foam down to even points so added some twisted, packed newspaper at the ends. This was heavy and is a bad idea.... I then followed up with a layer of detail work in paper clay. These are way heavier than I intended, about 1.4lbs each.
Unpainted horns and makeup test. The horns are attached to a wire head piece made out of some gardening wire I had sitting around - not sure what gauge. The wig hides the less-than-pretty attachment. I upsized the horns from the in game model a bit - felt more epic and balanced with the real life height I was aiming for.
I wanted accurate space goat height of around 7ft, so used Stepping Up bucket stilts (thanks, Wookie costumers!) to which I added aluminum struts for stability, and EVA foam pads at the base for quiet movement. These plus horns put me around 7ft 3in.
The armor started out as EVA floor mats from Lowes. I freehanded paper templates then used those as patterns to trace on the foam. The foam was then cut with box blades. Many blades gave their lives for this project. These are the start of the hip plates. I attacked them with a heat gun and held them in place until they kept shape. Proper respiratory protection was worn at all times. Cause fumes. Cancer is bad yo. Underneath the armor on the right are parts of the skirt panels. I burned the edges with actual FIRE for that authentic singed hell flame look.
Complex curves are a byatch. I made two mirrored pieces. The curves were achieved with a combination of heat gun stretching, seams glued with contact cement, and mild profanity. For the detail work, I traced out the basic designs I wanted, then added some rope I had lying around for the base. The skull was made from Sculpey and baked. I regretted using this due to the weight and brittle nature... Details were added with puffy paint.
Details were added via heating cuts in the EVA foam, and adding edges with craft foam. Googly eyes for rivets was my favorite new trick I picked up from here. I had a piece of twine under the triangles on the edge for that ridged effect.
Trying out the balance on my dressmaker dummy, which was stacked on top of multiple books and a cat litter box for proper height. This was knocked over several times in the costume making process.
Here are a few early stage decorative skirt armor pieces.
All foam received 2-3 layers of woodglue, which was sanded, then 2 layers of plastidip. I found that plastidip, while making things more durable, tended to show any imperfections underneath. Hence the woodglue.
I made 20 of these tiny foam pyramids and glued my fingers together in the process. Doing this next to your gaming keyboard is a most excellent idea.
Pauldrons! Craft foam and puffy paint over EVA foam. This also received the wood glue + sanding + plastidip treatment.
Painting was definitely my favorite part of the entire process. I used about 5-6 different metallic spray paints.
