Dragon Knight - Dragon's Ascension (DotA 2)

Hello everyone.

I'm sort of a newbie to cosplaying, having attended two cons in cosplay so far (The most recent one was held last weekend). After some talks with friends, we've decided to go for a group cosplay the next con in December, and we've decided on doing Dota. I've decided on doing Dragon Knight in his Dragon's Ascension set for the costume. I was able to get a look at some great costumes up close and personal, and learned a fair bit of working with Eva Foam. But the armor in this costume is something that has me worried a bit, because we had quite a few wardrobe malfunctions at the con due to costumes not holding properly or being too weak. I've been searching for a way to harden Eva Foam after I shape it into the way I like, but I haven't really been able to find anything concrete to go on. Can anyone help me with this?

I also have a few other questions about the foam itself. As far as embossed designs and edges go, I can make those with a layer of foam on top of the base, but the slanting angles, especially the ones that we see on the face of the shield, are something I haven't a clue how to do. If anyone can guide me through this, I would be very grateful.

I've always thought that looked like something great to make. Looking forward to seeing the progress on this.

If the parts are the bits I think you mean, I've seen some people get really good results with undercuts (effectively hills and valley cuts on the back) allowing them to have bevels and ridges. Can't think of the names just now though. Maybe cullen cosplay I've seen do a tutorial video about it. I may be wrong on the name though.

Can't help so much with the hardening point. Sounds like you're looking for something more than the usual sealing methods? Can you give specific examples of the problems you experienced? That might help with the identification of a method for you.

Hope this all makes sense. Happy to expand on any points if not.

Edit: just came across some great examples of what I mean here:
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=244422

Maybe check out Evil Ted's Inquisitor helmet build, where he has some slanting angles on the wings on the helmet. Link
But Ikras has a good point with the valley cuts on the back and gluing the sids of the cut together to get the hills on the front. To get the valleys on the front you'd probably have to cut valley cuts in the front and glue those together. Or you can sculpt it in foam.

Also, if you need to harden the outside of the costume, you can use glassfiber and resin on the outside.

PS: just thought I'd make a hyperlink to the thread Ikras posted.

Ikras said:

Edit: just came across some great examples of what I mean here:
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=244422

Click to expand...

I'm mainly looking to make the shield and sword rigid, so that they can survive the crowd of a con.

As far as the sword goes, I was thinking of using foam board or PVC board as a base and apply foam for the designs. A friend of mine did something similar to this for the scythe of Hiiragi Shinoa from Owari no Seraph, but we both found that it was rather fragile.

I'm going shopping for some materials tomorrow, so anything that you guys advise to buy, I'll look into it. Much appreciated!

Cheers for that. I was on my phone at the time and I'm not sure why it didn't come out properly.

I've come across the resin on the outside idea but I thought that might have made it liable to crack. I haven't heard of using more than that. How does that turn out? I'd have thought you'd lose the flexibility and the lightness of the foam that way?