Modding Cheap Costumes

I’m brand new to making costumes/props and the like and my first attempt is going to be a knight costume for my son. He’s four, so I don’t want to spend a ton of time/money on something he is going to outgrow soon, but I wanted to get some opinions. I bought a plastic breastplate from the dollar store and was thinking of coating it with bondo and then working with that to get the shape, texture and look I want. It’s flexible plastic but not heavy. Would directly applying bondo to that work or would I need to use resin first?

Alternatively, is this just a bad idea to use as a starting point, and should I do something completely different?

Darth Cal said:

I’m brand new to making costumes/props and the like and my first attempt is going to be a knight costume for my son. He’s four, so I don’t want to spend a ton of time/money on something he is going to outgrow soon, but I wanted to get some opinions. I bought a plastic breastplate from the dollar store and was thinking of coating it with bondo and then working with that to get the shape, texture and look I want. It’s flexible plastic but not heavy. Would directly applying bondo to that work or would I need to use resin first?

Alternatively, is this just a bad idea to use as a starting point, and should I do something completely different?

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Not knowing exactly what you are doing, I can give you a few tips to get you started:

1) A little bit of Bondo will start to weigh down the little guy. If you have to use it, use it sparingly. You don't want him walking around with an additional 5 to 10 pounds of weight just on his chest.
2) if you are using the bondo on the breastplate, make sure you rough the breastplate up so is has something to stick to. Bondo does not like a smooth surface (or for that matter, 90% of adhesives don't like a smooth surface save for acrylic glass, pvc, abs)
3) If your armor needs to flex, you may not want to use Bondo. it will crack under stress. EVA foam is more forgiving and it is far more lighter. It has no real smell while working with it and you can adhere it to the breastplate with hot glue. Just make sure both surfaces are scratched up.

If the reason you're using Bondo is because the breastplate is already embossed with scales, a large lion, or something else you'd probably be better off eithe sanding down the details and filling any holes or heat the plastic and flatten out the details.