Foam Diablo Shield

[tshvahn]

I've been looking at other peoples builds for sometime, but this is my first post on here so sorry if this isn't the best forum. Anyways I've been watching a lot of Evil Ted and Punished Props and decided to build something out of foam. I've started 3 other foam projects and only one is actually done while the others are mostly done and need paint, but hopefully this one will actually get finished! I've been playing a lot of Diablo 3 and really liked the look of one of my shields, Guard of Johanna, and thought I'd give it a go
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So I started out by cutting a large circle out of a floor mat and cutting a thin piece out of it to help shape it. Then I glued it with Dap Contact Cement, I'd use Barge, but I don't have the money for that and my apartment isn't as well ventilated as I'd like for that stuff. I use a Glu-Bot for mine, it works really well and the tip doesn't actually get clogged up like you might think. That being said it SUCKS at keeping in the fumes, so when not in use I put it in a plastic bag filled with bubble wrap and then put the bag in a box. Of course I used a respirator as well
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I used my heat gun to shape it a bit better, but it's not very noticeable so I won't bother you with a picture of that, oh and that small container of Dap is actually empty. I just keep it because I like to use the brush that came with it. I heard some people keep their brushes in thinner, but i'm pretty happy with how it is.

Anyways after I got the basic shape I pinned some paper on to it to draw my pattern. I know most people use a different paper, but when I went to school I got a huge thing of tracing paper that I never use, so I just used that.

I started drawing the pattern and a ways in I noticed something exciting! I got to use some of the scrap edges from my foam mats! The outer ring that kind of looks like a gear is the exact shape as the middle of the puzzle piece scrap! So I made a little jig/template whatever you want to call it and used that to draw the ring.

I did it all in pencil because I make a massive amount of mistakes, but once I got it drawn out I took it off and flattened it and went through the whole thing with a marker.

The first thing I did after that was trace the inner star and made a separate template for it and cut it out of foam.

After that I cut out the outer ring from my original trace paper pattern. (two layers at a time because I want the very outer ring to stack on it to be raised up higher) After that I pinned it into the foam and traced and cut it out.Glued the edge together and placed it down to see how it will look, I'm going to need to trim the outer edge but that's fine. After that I just cut out the inside circle and glued that to the star.

Next thing up was the holes in the star. On Punished Props (and probably Evil Ted too) I saw that they use sharpened pipes to cut holes in foam. So that's exactly what I did and it worked great!

Next up the inner circle, I cut it out of my pattern and cut it all out.

And the last thing I got cut out was the very outer ring. After that I started drawing out the big blades. But after all of this I was really tired as I stayed up all night working on this, so I'll do that today (i'm writing this the day after)

I'm really happy with all this progress. I'm really looking forward to gluing everything down and finishing it up. Sorry if this has too many photos, I took one almost every step of the way because I thought I was going to go to bed after every one. I'm really excited about this project and am really looking forward to finishing it. Here's to hoping I don't mess it up when it comes to painting.

 

[Roughneckone]

Awesome amount of work in this Tshvahn, can't wait to see the finished result!:thumbsup

Roughneckone:cool

 

[tshvahn]

Thanks! I'm realizing on those outer rings I should have not glued the edges as I'm not able to glue it down carefully enough to not stretch the foam. so I cut it, and my little gear pattern won't meet up perfectly. But I'm planning on putting one of the big blades over it and the seam anyways.

 

[tshvahn]

Slow morning so far. Pretty tired from last night and I haven't spent too much time on this yet. So far I've glued one of the outer rings on. I pulled the foam too much when I put it on so it didn't line up right. But all is still good! I will cover that with one of the blades later on along with my seam. It was a good learning experience for the next one, by the time I was getting to the end I was much better at keeping it on the edge without pulling.

I also just glued the main circle on. I'll probably glue the final outer ring today too before I make the blades. After that no more gluing until I have all the blades ready.

And on that note here is a drawing of just one of the blades. I actually did this last night, but thought I'd put up the picture now.

Also here are the paints I'm planning on using, I'm not great when it comes to painting so that part will be a major learning experience. Do these seem like a good choice of colors?

 

[tshvahn]

How come on this last post the photo thumbnails don't show up like in my original photo? Do you need to do something different in comments?

EDIT: Never mind got it working.

 

[tshvahn]

Between fathers day and homework I haven't really got much done at all. Last Friday I glued the most outer ring on and then made a template for the blades and cut them out of 6mm foam. I tried cutting a bevel with my knife and failed miserably, so I ended up using my dremel for it all.

Side note the fine dust from this red foam that filled my bathroom floor and walls made it look like a murder scene. (I dremel in the bathroom as it's furthest from the wall shared with my neighbor)

I only beveled one edge and I forgot to pay attention to which way the pieces were sitting when i beveled them. So a couple of the blades will be flipped from how they are in the reference picture.

After that I just used some thin foam with the detail cut out to make the inner detail. I only ended up doing one that night and still need to do the rest.

Either tomorrow or the next day I should have a fan and duct tubing arriving so I can make a fume extractor. Once that's set up I'll probably do more work, currently the fumes build up way to much to really do a lot at a time safely.

 

[tshvahn]

So tonight I got a lot done. I know it doesn't look like much, but I spent all night on it. I cut out all of the outside trims of the blades and glued them all on. After that I took them all and placed them under the star and marked them out and cut out all the excess parts. I carefully marked the blades to make sure I glued the blades perfectly, then I pinned the blades to the star and carefully moved it all over and taped the blades all down and removed at the pins and applied the glue.

after getting the star and blades all glued together I glued it all to the shield. I still need to heat shape it a bit more as the blades flattened it out a bit. Hopefully today I can get it all sanded down and sealed for painting.

 

[tshvahn]

I mixed up some black paint with my PVA glue and several coats later got my shield all sealed up and ready to be painted!

 

[tshvahn]

The shield is done! there are a few things I might eventually touch up if I ever take it out cosplaying, but right now it's just a decoration and at the level of completion I want it to be at.

 

[Roughneckone]

Really lovely work, you should be proud of yourself!

Roughneckone:cool