Boris Mzhen
Active Member
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Skyrim Daedric Armor - Foam Build (COMPLETE! Pic Heavy)
- Thread starter Boris Mzhen
- Start date
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- Tags
- costuming
Nicklepickle
New Member
Hello Boris,
I know you have answered many questions already, but I've read your post thoroughly and I've not got all the info I need just yet to start this build. I know you posted the widths of foam that you used, but my main question is what were the base widths you used for each piece of armor (mainly the helmet and the cuirass)? For example, did you use X inch on the helmet but Y inch on the spauldrons, etc, etc.
Thanks for your time, and I hope your future builds go as well as this one!
I know you have answered many questions already, but I've read your post thoroughly and I've not got all the info I need just yet to start this build. I know you posted the widths of foam that you used, but my main question is what were the base widths you used for each piece of armor (mainly the helmet and the cuirass)? For example, did you use X inch on the helmet but Y inch on the spauldrons, etc, etc.
Thanks for your time, and I hope your future builds go as well as this one!
Boris Mzhen
Active Member
Hello Boris,
I know you have answered many questions already, but I've read your post thoroughly and I've not got all the info I need just yet to start this build. I know you posted the widths of foam that you used, but my main question is what were the base widths you used for each piece of armor (mainly the helmet and the cuirass)? For example, did you use X inch on the helmet but Y inch on the spauldrons, etc, etc.
Thanks for your time, and I hope your future builds go as well as this one!
I think you are asking about the scale of the individual pieces? I used the same scale for all of the pieces except the helmet, which I scaled slightly larger to fit my head. I did make the mistake of answering Yes to the "resize to fit?" popup when printing some of the pieces, so they came out slightly smaller than scale, but I got lucky and the end result came out alright. I suggest scaling each piece separately to fit that body part. The only thing that you should scale the same is chest and shoulders, since you don't want shoulders to be too small and not fit on the chestplate.
alvarengar
New Member
Jack7226 said:
Awesome work Boris, I actually started building the helmet using the Pep method. I am seriously considering doing the torso in foam to keep it a bit more flexible. Would you mind if i got a copy of the files that you modified for foam please?
For me too please...I already sent my email to you ... yesterday... thanks...
Awesome work Boris, I actually started building the helmet using the Pep method. I am seriously considering doing the torso in foam to keep it a bit more flexible. Would you mind if i got a copy of the files that you modified for foam please?
For me too please...I already sent my email to you ... yesterday... thanks...
mikevang90
New Member
wow i'm speechless.... please upload file when u are done unfolding it please
Hi there Boris.
As many have already said before me, I'll just repeat: amazing work on this armor!
Almost impossible to believe this is your first foam project, the level of detail and overall look of this armor just blows me away.
I have been wanting to try my hand at making props or a full costume and have been reading up on materials and techniques a lot in the last few days.
I actually found this forum when I was googling for ideas on how to make armor out of foam or other material, and had just decided that the Daedric armor from Skyrim was the one I wanted to go with. Good thing you've beaten me to that idea and have created an excellent example because there is a truckload of useful information in this thread. So thanks for that, it's given me a lot of inspiration!
In spite of the tons of information you've already given here, I still have a few questions and would really appreciate it if you could find the time to answer them;
- How flexible/pliable is the EVA foam you've worked with?
I'm from the Netherlands myself and the actual Craft or EVA foam is something that seems to be quite hard to find over here (and very expensive). I have however found a store nearby where they have material that looks very similar to what you've used and seems to be a more affordable too at around 5 euros (6 dollars) for a sheet of 60 x 60 cm. (roughly 23x23"). A friend of mine used it to make inserts for the game pieces in board game boxes and according to him it comes in bigger sheets too but there is just one thickness. I think it is quite stiff though, it barely bends. Do you think this would be too stiff or would the overall sturdiness benefit from that?
- How do you know how much material you're going to be needing? Does Pepakura Designer tell you that? I have yet to work with this program and the pepakura files so forgive my ignorance, will try those out soon enough.
- Is the overall toughness/structural integrity of the pieces you make already strong enough when you've bonded them with the hot glue? Does the sealing of the foam provide extra stability or would you recommend even adding another layer of some reinforcing material or sealant? I have this idea that by fixing them together purely by glue some of the more complex pieces would become less stable. But correct me if I'm wrong, after all you've worn the complete set so you obviously have a better idea of how it holds together after a while
- How did you optimize the fit of the armor? With that I mean, how well the pieces position themselves on your body. I've read that you wear a body armour underneath and use velcro to attach the pieces to it, but have you added extra 'padding' in some places between the armor pieces and the suit to make it fit/look better as a whole?
- How important is it on the whole to size the pepakura files to your own body? Are they made so that 'one size fits most' or are there essential measurements I'll need to alter in the program?
- In regards to the 'rivets' you've used throughout the armor; what type are those and how do you fix them to the armor? Is the foam sturdy enough to hold them or do I need to reinforce the places where I use rivets or cotter pins?
I've already found an alternative I think I will use for the decorations that you made with the gluegun, found a store that sells foam thread by the bundle. Not sure how I will attach that to the sheets yet but I think it will make for some nice detailing.
Also thinking of making a chainmail coif out of black mail rings to make for a smoother transition from the helmet to the shoulder pieces.
Would greatly appreciate if you could answer some of my questions, sorry for the long post, haha.
I'll pm you my email address, do you think you could maybe send me your modified pepakura files that you used? Thanks in advance!
As many have already said before me, I'll just repeat: amazing work on this armor!
Almost impossible to believe this is your first foam project, the level of detail and overall look of this armor just blows me away.
I have been wanting to try my hand at making props or a full costume and have been reading up on materials and techniques a lot in the last few days.
I actually found this forum when I was googling for ideas on how to make armor out of foam or other material, and had just decided that the Daedric armor from Skyrim was the one I wanted to go with. Good thing you've beaten me to that idea and have created an excellent example because there is a truckload of useful information in this thread. So thanks for that, it's given me a lot of inspiration!
In spite of the tons of information you've already given here, I still have a few questions and would really appreciate it if you could find the time to answer them;
- How flexible/pliable is the EVA foam you've worked with?
I'm from the Netherlands myself and the actual Craft or EVA foam is something that seems to be quite hard to find over here (and very expensive). I have however found a store nearby where they have material that looks very similar to what you've used and seems to be a more affordable too at around 5 euros (6 dollars) for a sheet of 60 x 60 cm. (roughly 23x23"). A friend of mine used it to make inserts for the game pieces in board game boxes and according to him it comes in bigger sheets too but there is just one thickness. I think it is quite stiff though, it barely bends. Do you think this would be too stiff or would the overall sturdiness benefit from that?
- How do you know how much material you're going to be needing? Does Pepakura Designer tell you that? I have yet to work with this program and the pepakura files so forgive my ignorance, will try those out soon enough.
- Is the overall toughness/structural integrity of the pieces you make already strong enough when you've bonded them with the hot glue? Does the sealing of the foam provide extra stability or would you recommend even adding another layer of some reinforcing material or sealant? I have this idea that by fixing them together purely by glue some of the more complex pieces would become less stable. But correct me if I'm wrong, after all you've worn the complete set so you obviously have a better idea of how it holds together after a while
- How did you optimize the fit of the armor? With that I mean, how well the pieces position themselves on your body. I've read that you wear a body armour underneath and use velcro to attach the pieces to it, but have you added extra 'padding' in some places between the armor pieces and the suit to make it fit/look better as a whole?
- How important is it on the whole to size the pepakura files to your own body? Are they made so that 'one size fits most' or are there essential measurements I'll need to alter in the program?
- In regards to the 'rivets' you've used throughout the armor; what type are those and how do you fix them to the armor? Is the foam sturdy enough to hold them or do I need to reinforce the places where I use rivets or cotter pins?
I've already found an alternative I think I will use for the decorations that you made with the gluegun, found a store that sells foam thread by the bundle. Not sure how I will attach that to the sheets yet but I think it will make for some nice detailing.
Also thinking of making a chainmail coif out of black mail rings to make for a smoother transition from the helmet to the shoulder pieces.
Would greatly appreciate if you could answer some of my questions, sorry for the long post, haha.
I'll pm you my email address, do you think you could maybe send me your modified pepakura files that you used? Thanks in advance!
Boris Mzhen
Active Member
I'll try to answer as best as I can, see in bold below, and let me know if you have any other questions:
- How flexible/pliable is the EVA foam you've worked with?
I'm from the Netherlands myself and the actual Craft or EVA foam is something that seems to be quite hard to find over here (and very expensive). I have however found a store nearby where they have material that looks very similar to what you've used and seems to be a more affordable too at around 5 euros (6 dollars) for a sheet of 60 x 60 cm. (roughly 23x23"). A friend of mine used it to make inserts for the game pieces in board game boxes and according to him it comes in bigger sheets too but there is just one thickness. I think it is quite stiff though, it barely bends. Do you think this would be too stiff or would the overall sturdiness benefit from that?
The foam I used is fairly flexible, it does stiffen up a little bit after sealing it but when I wear it, it seems to soften up a bit from the heat. I think the sturdiness would actually benefit from it if your foam is stiff. As long as it has some give to it, it should be ok. Normally you can soften it up by heating it with a heat gun/hair dryer.
- How do you know how much material you're going to be needing? Does Pepakura Designer tell you that? I have yet to work with this program and the pepakura files so forgive my ignorance, will try those out soon enough.
As far as how much material, since there was a nearby store that sold the foam, I just bought more as I ran out and needed it. Pepakura doesn't really tell you, although you can always measure the pieces if you wanted to and kind of guess.
- Is the overall toughness/structural integrity of the pieces you make already strong enough when you've bonded them with the hot glue? Does the sealing of the foam provide extra stability or would you recommend even adding another layer of some reinforcing material or sealant? I have this idea that by fixing them together purely by glue some of the more complex pieces would become less stable. But correct me if I'm wrong, after all you've worn the complete set so you obviously have a better idea of how it holds together after a while
Hot glue holds the pieces fairly well, sealing the foam does provide an additional layer of support but not too much. The main purpose of sealing is so that it can be painted without the foam absorbing the paint.
- How did you optimize the fit of the armor? With that I mean, how well the pieces position themselves on your body. I've read that you wear a body armour underneath and use velcro to attach the pieces to it, but have you added extra 'padding' in some places between the armor pieces and the suit to make it fit/look better as a whole?
I got kind of lucky with the fitment, I did have to adjust some pieces to make them fit better. Basically you have to try to scale each piece to your body parts and also still keep them close enough scale to each other so they don't look too out of proportion. most of the armor just slides on and stays in place. Some pieces such as the leg plates are held on using nylon straps.
- How important is it on the whole to size the pepakura files to your own body? Are they made so that 'one size fits most' or are there essential measurements I'll need to alter in the program?
You definitely want to scale them, that's the trickiest part unfortunately.
- In regards to the 'rivets' you've used throughout the armor; what type are those and how do you fix them to the armor? Is the foam sturdy enough to hold them or do I need to reinforce the places where I use rivets or cotter pins?
I used round bead rivets that I purchased on ebay, here is a link:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/100pc-Round...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item51c39379f6
They have little teeth in them that stick into the foam and hold pretty well, I sealed the foam after adding the rivets, so they are held in by the sealer as well.
AtrumAntics
New Member
Hey there Boris,
again just adding amazing work on this looks great im also thinking of making the Armour to match the helmet i made but have other things on the bench at the moment how did you scale it so well i tried a few months back at scaling the pep to myself as a template but it dident work out so well despite an hour of messing again looks great hope to see more in the future
again just adding amazing work on this looks great im also thinking of making the Armour to match the helmet i made but have other things on the bench at the moment how did you scale it so well i tried a few months back at scaling the pep to myself as a template but it dident work out so well despite an hour of messing again looks great hope to see more in the future
Boris Mzhen
Active Member
Hey there Boris,
again just adding amazing work on this looks great im also thinking of making the Armour to match the helmet i made but have other things on the bench at the moment how did you scale it so well i tried a few months back at scaling the pep to myself as a template but it dident work out so well despite an hour of messing again looks great hope to see more in the future
I got lucky with the scaling, I actually messed up when printing the parts and accidentally clicked the "resize to fit" option on some of the piece so scale on some of the parts was not what I had initially selected, but somehow it worked out in the end.
For scaling I recommend doing each part individually, except things that should go together, such as shoulders and chest. Use the "measuring distance between 2 points" tool in pepakura to get the size you want.
Boris Mzhen
Active Member
I have done a few projects since this one, one of the most recent ones being a different take on a plague doctor costume. Here is the build thread for it:
http://www.therpf.com/f24/plague-doctor-build-227746/
I used foam for most of it, but also some paper mache and worbla. Currently trying to decide on my next project.
AtrumAntics
New Member
Thats what iv been doing as well just thought there might have been an easier way haha thanks dude !
Boris Mzhen
Active Member
I wish! If there is I haven't found it yet. Scaling seems to be the biggest obstacle in pepakura.
raphaelgau9
New Member
Hi,
your armor is really beautiful, what glue do you used fort the helmet?
your armor is really beautiful, what glue do you used fort the helmet?
Middleearthling
New Member
Hey there! Seriously this build is amazing, I am in awe!! My partner and I want to build this costume using Eva foam as well and I was wondering if you still have the pepekura files for this costume? Would LOVE to follow in your footsteps!!
chemicallion
New Member
anyone have any pictures on how the armor is attached?
