Foam Shield.

[familyman]

After the success of my first ever foam shield http://www.therpf.com/f9/foam-prince-phillip-shield-disneys-sleeping-beauty-188950/ I decided to try another one. This time doing a different type of shield though.
First I cut the foam in to a circle then gave it a wood type look then I added an edge. Then I sealed and painted it. Once dry I painted the edge. I then decided to put a pattern on the shield. I was going to do a wolf but decided on a dragon for this one. I made a template and then brushed and dabbed the paint on, I didn't want a perfect even look. Once that was dry I then decided to add some tacks to the border, I used furniture nails, I used sandpaper to rough the heads up a bit first.

 

[Valor]

That is really beautiful. Very nice job on the paint. Looks convincing as hell.

 

[familyman]

Thank you very much!. Going to be doing a few more, maybe even try a few movie replicas.

 

[Snow Builder]

Absolutely fantastic. Each of your projects is inspirational.

 

[dereference]

Very cool, I am planning something similar in the future. What kind of foam did you use?

 

[familyman]

Thanks guys, I always appreciate the kind words. I just used anti fatigue mats, 2x2 foot square.

 

[audrey1nd]

That looks great! How did you get the foam to look like wood? That's exactly what I need to do for the next cosplay I'm planning.

 

[Siliconsmith]

Oh nice, you can barely tell it isn't wood! I second audrey's question on how you got the wood grain. Also what thickness of foam did you use, and does the shield flex much?

 

[tauriice]

What a cool technique! Now I want to have a shield making party for my kids. They would love something like this and they could each personalize them. Love it!

 

[familyman]

Thanks guys for all the kind words.
To get the grain in the foam all I did was use a pencil and draw the lines on the foam. I did them light to begin with and did 2-3 passes each time making the lines a little deeper, So basically I just drew the grain on.
The shield doesn't flex that much because I have some stripes of foam on the back. BUT! The one thing I am doing differently this time is the following, Instead of making the shield from one big piece of foam I have cut the individual slats of wood and hot glued them together. The hot glue is helping make the shield even more ridged. and yet adding no noticeable difference to the weight.
SO in other words the simple steps to make this shield are as follows.

step 1: Cut a circle of foam out of a 2x2 ft anti-fatigue mat.
step 2: Draw lines on it to simulate the separate slats of wood, and draw the grain.
step 3: Cut along the lines separating the shield in to its individual slats.
step 4: Hot glue the slats back together.
step 5: Get thin strips of foam glue them end to end and glue them around the outside edge of the shield.
step 6: Seal the whole thing, (I use latex house paint, cheap and works great), normally I would use 4-5 coats to get a smooth finish but if you want the shield to look used just one of two Uneven coats really works well to sell the wood look.
step 7: decorate your shield with whatever pattern and paint scheme you want.

I hope this helps. if anyone has any other questions please post here and I will do my very best to answer them. My mini tri-pod came for my Samsung S3 the other day so if anyone wants I could video what ever part of the process you need.
Cheers, Jamie

 

[familyman]

Here is a newer shield. Made the same way and this one took just under 2 hours from start to finish.

 

[CVWcreations]

2 hours to make that is very impressive, kudos.

 

[WarpedScale]

I love the knot in the wood the best. It really shows how much thought you put into the build to give that level of realism to a medium that is completely unrelated. Very awesome, sir. :thumbsup

 

[familyman]

Thank you very much. I think the key to most things is in the small details. Putting a knot or two in there really helps trick the eye into seeing wood.
And yes 2 hours from very start to finish. Including drying time, normally it would take longer but it was so nice outside today perfect drying weather. The 2 hours also includes making the lion template.
Thanks again guys.