Infinity War THOR + Stormbreaker

CosBlade

Active Member
I've always liked Thor (even though I didn't care for his first two solo films) but after seeing Ragnarok and Infinity War, I knew I had to find an excuse to do a Thor build! My wife works at a viking themed brewery and hosts their special event nights, and the last one was superhero themed. I had only about 3 weeks to prep, and so I was planning on donning the batsuit, but I couldn't resist the opportunity.

Viking themed brewery? Superhero night? What choice did I have?!

And so I made Thor!

I began by ordering the armor templates provided by Sean Xieng on Etsy (he does a lot of cool work, and releases lots of free templates. If you don't follow him already, get on it!) I did this because I wasn't aiming for 100% accuracy as much as I was aiming for convenience and speed, and I already had several sheets of EVA foam in varying thicknesses. His armor templates are pretty close on the front, and he made a handy YouTube tutorial on how to put them all together. Super easy to follow if you're new to foam work! Sean's build calls for the abdomen pieces to be attached to a base of fabric, and the chest gets glued down at the top. This allows for some flexibility, which is nice!

I set to work on it right away, and did most of the front of the armor in a single night.

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I did want to make some changes, though. I wanted my armor to be a complete vest, not just a facade. So I took some scrap durable nylon fabric I had and used it to build the sides and back of the vest, and detailed it with craft foam. Not only that, but I wanted to add some details that Sean missed on his templates, so I looked at as mnay reference photos as I could and carved details into the armor with my wood burner. I decided to make the vest lace up in the back like a corset (which I now regret, because I can't put the costume on without help!) and the shoulders close down with velcro.

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In the film, his vest is all black with a few brown highlights. To be honest I thought this was a sort of boring departure from the previous versions, so I decided to give the armor a hammered metal look. I first gave the armor 3 good coats of plasti-dip. I don't have too much experience with painting foam (I've done one or two props) so I experimented with different dabbing techniques with paper towels and different brushes until I was happy with it. Honestly the only thing I would have done different visually is the 6 discs - to me they look too flat and handmade. But, lessons have been learned for version 2!

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I decided to sew the cape as I couldn't find any good ones online at a reasonable price, so a quick trip to the fabric store later, I had two yards of a nice royal looking red fabric and a black lining. The cape was far more trouble than I expected because of the crazy pleating required, and I could never get the points in the center to sit like they do in the films, so I gave up on trying because I just didn't have time to experiment. The cape attaches via several velcro panels to the armor, and has a wonderful "swish" whenever I walk or move about. The pleats are held in place my stitching all across the cape, hidden by the collar of the armor, which also goes down with velcro.

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I didn't have time to mess around with the scale armor and pants, so I ordered some from ubestcosplay.com. I inquired about ordering just the shirt and pants (though their whole Thor build is pretty good for the cost!) and they set me up with a custom order at a reasonable price. It was a fairly last minute order, only 2 weeks before the event, but I told them my deadline and they came through for me! The shirt and pants are pretty well constructed, so I'm glad I ordered from them as I don't expect I could have made them much better myself!

I decided not to build the bracers until I received the shirt, since I knew the thick material would affect the fit. The shirt and pants arrived literally hours before the event, so I wore some brown leather bracers I had from another costume. I've already patterned the Thor bracers (which was a pain, because the straps are super weird), and I'll be building them soon.

I also ordered the shirt one size large because I knew the sleeves were a non-stretch fabric, and I wanted to make sure I had room to glue in some urethane muscles since Thor's arm muscles are visible through the scale armor. I don't yet have a source for the urethane muscles but if anybody knows a good pair, let me know!

For the boots, I decided to use my Dawn of Justice Batman boots since they're close enough, and comfy.

With the costume squared away, I spent the rest of my free time building Stormbreaker. I started with a free template from Sean for the axe/hammer head, and built it all from EVA foam, adding my own details to make it a bit more accurate. I noticed the toy had some viking runes on it, so I decided to implement my own runes. One one side, the runes read "Avengers Assemble", and on the other side they read "Thunder God Odinson". I decided to build the Groot-stick on a real axe handle, which I bought at Home Depot for only $14, and detailed it taking inspiration from Odin Makes on YouTube.

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The entire handle was wrapped in brown floral tape, and I used craft foam to bulk out the bottom to look more like a tree branch. I still need to paint the bottom, but had no time before the event. I used some synthetic vines from Hobby Lobby, which are wire based, and attached these by wrapping them around and tying them off to themselves in multiple places. I covered the raw edges with more floral tape for a somewhat seamless look.

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I used the same acrylic paint techniques for the axe head as I used on the armor, and haven't had time to completely finish it just yet. I want to do some brighter highlights along the edge pieces, and to give the entire handle some brown paint before sealing the entire thing with polyurethane. But I was able to finish it well enough for the event!

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I had a great time pounding mead and playing Thor as I met up with old friends and made a few new ones. I also won the costume contest in the category of "Best Superhero". I'd call that a victory worth entry to Valhalla! I'll have a few more pictures of the suit being worn once I can get them. In the meantime, I've just got this!

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Thanks for looking!!!
 
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That looks outstanding, brother... you've done great work!

And you're right, Sean's got some great stuff on his YouTube channel... well worth subscribing to. [emoji106]

Rob
 
Great costume. What an awesome event! Viking brewery, you had to be Thor!

Thanks! My thoughts exactly! Seemed like a no-brainer, and the brewery makes some fantastic meads and ciders.

That looks outstanding, brother... you've done great work!

And you're right, Sean's got some great stuff on his YouTube channel... well worth subscribing to. [emoji106]

Rob

Thanks dude, that means a lot! It's been a fun learning process, and I'm looking forward to working with foam again.

And yes, Sean is a great person to follow. He's both laidback and dedicated. Great guy.
 
Great work! I was curious how you went about attaching the fabric to the chest piece? I've seen his video I believe he sewed it...
I'm sure I could get away with using all foam, but the fabric with definitely help with flexibility.
 
Hey man, great work. Looking to make my own after seeing this! Did Sean’s templates come with just the chest piece or does he include the gauntlets etc? Did it allow you to scale it to your size as needed?
 
I have the same pattern, I was curious if you needed to scale it at all. I know he mentioned an XL would be 110% Im looking at like a 3X and am not 100% sure on scale
 
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