USCM Colonial Marine Armor....Kid Edition

Leonidas280

New Member
At the request of my 6-year-old son for Halloween, he requested a Hicks costume. My experience with my prior set of USCM armor made me believe it was doable with EVA foam and "scaled down" components so it would look dimensional once he put it on. Construction of all the parts was done the same as my set of armor. I had no experience with EVA foam prior to this project but found it to be quite enjoyable, forgiving, and a way to creatively problem-solve some of the engineering associated with making this for a much smaller frame. I started with my armor, measured him up for scale, then drew out his templates on card stock. Luckily, other than the back plate, nothing required using anything larger than an 11"x17" piece of card stock. Did a quick mockup, then off to the races with the EVA.

Materials:

  • 2mm, 4mm, 5mm, and 8mm EVA foam
  • Acrylic paint from Micheals (he doesn't get Humbrols on this, not to mention they wouldn't hold up to the flex of the EVA)
  • Stove Polish from Amazon
  • Moltow chrome paint pen
  • Blind Rivets from Amazon
  • Various 1" and 1.5" webbing from amazon
  • 1" and 1.5" snap buckles
  • Gorilla glue (because I don't know how to sew)
Below is the end result, which I'm pretty satisfied with. Last picture is next to my Hudson armor for scale and paint reference. My apologies as I'm a terrible build log person, but I'm happy to answer any of the questions in the process I did if there are questions.
 

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This is awesome dude!!!!
I hope your boy enjoys it.

I'd love to kit out my "squad" with some foam armour (7 year old boy, 4 year old girl, and a 2 year old girl).
Maybe one day. ;)
 
Here's the paint I used, in order. The Stove Polish knocked everything down after the initial application. Buffed out with 0000 steel wool to remove some of the stove polish after applied.
20221021_190714 (1).jpg
 

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