Foam Pectoral Armor????

[Darth Yega]

Greetings All! My name is Darth Yega (Darth Yay-ga). I am new to the rpf forums, and this is my first post on the forums, (and certainly will not be my last. )

I have a question concerning foam armor.
My question is: How can I construct the pectoral armor you would see on a Spartans plate body (like this: http://holywars2010.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/hoplite4thcentury.jpg)?
I am constructing a custom Star Wars costume based off of the old republic era, with ½ inch thick foam mats (I have about 12 mats, one of which was used today, making it 11)
I have made the main torso armor; it fits the general shape of my torso very well. I should post pictures of it soon. It is flat in the front (it is only the front half of the torso, starting at my waste line proceeding to the top of my shoulders. It looks like a black tank-top, lol), besides the curve it has to fit my torso. So in essence, it is flat because I do not have big enough pecs to make any more curves, lol.

I was thinking, maybe I should cut out of one of the foam mats to the shape of the pecs, and shoot them with the heat gun to round them out like pecs, and then attach them to the main torso armor. Once on the main plate of armor, I could use my dremel to even out the edges so that it does not look like they were slapped on, but apart of the main torso armor (make it look like one piece of armor instead of three). Does that make sense? In my mind this idea works, but again, that is my mind. I have a gut feeling that it will not, so I am turning to you guys. What should I do? I do not want it to look like more than one piece of foam, but one piece. I do not know how to do that.

 

[Kommissar]

it sounds like a solid idea. if you have a look at my NCR fallout armor, i've done somthing close with my riot gear, but less sculpted.
im sure if you used a belt sander to give a very gradual and long curve to the edges, you could get some nice muscle shapes

 

[Darth Yega]

it sounds like a solid idea. if you have a look at my NCR fallout armor, i've done somthing close with my riot gear, but less sculpted.
im sure if you used a belt sander to give a very gradual and long curve to the edges, you could get some nice muscle shapes

I have a dremel? I don't know what a belt sander is, lol.

I looked at your fallout armor, VERY NICE BRO! I think I might take that road for the pecs. It looks slick, and easier to make as opposed to trying to shape the foam.

 

[G33k]

Depending on the density of your foam, a good way to smooth out the carving down of the foam is to carve it to shape , but then glue it down by the side you cut down... that compresses the irregularities of the carving process, but let's you sculpt shape in.

 

[Kommissar]

I have a dremel? I don't know what a belt sander is, lol.

I looked at your fallout armor, VERY NICE BRO! I think I might take that road for the pecs. It looks slick, and easier to make as opposed to trying to shape the foam.

this is a belt sander

i got one on sale at harbor freight for like 70 bucks.
its a little pricey, but if you do a lot of work, its worth having heavy power tools.

i started with a craft knife, now i use a bandsaw for a lot of my cutting. its all escalation.

you could use your dremmel, but be warned, it worked well for me with the beltsander because i'm sanding about 4 inches at a time.. with a dremmel? 1/2 an inch? consistency will be touch, its totally possible though! and if you manage it, your dremmel-fu is better than mien.