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Warrior of Light - Chestplate Tutorial

Added 2021-06-04 00:21:41 +0000 UTC

Warrior of Light Paladin Chestplate tutorial

Materials and tools used

Worbla black art thermoplastic
2mm High density craft foam
6 mm craft foam
Googly eyes
Resin 3D printer (Optional)
Heat gun
Heat wand
Super Glue
Painters tape
Seran wrap
Scissors
Rustoleum spray paint (Dark Steel)
Black acrylic paint
Rub N Buff (Silver Leaf and Gold Leaf)
Elastic
Detachable buckles
Hot Glue
Glue gun

Construction

Armor builds can be a bit tricky, especially ones where you need it to be as form fitting and slim as possible. To get the proper pattern for this look I have a friend cover my chest in seran wrap, then after that is done the begin to cover that with painters tape, you can also use duct tape I just prefer painters tape because it has less adhesive. Once I am fully taped I have them sketch out the basic design/shapes found on the armor, you can do this yourself if you are alone by looking in a mirror and trying to get a rough layout of what you need then going back in later and refining the details!

Being in full armor can get hot very fast, to help alleviate some of that heat I chose to make this chest plate a 2/3 piece, meaning the back is not armored since it will be covered by the cape anyways, this way my chest can breathe a bit more and I can get a tighter look to the front once I install the straps to the back. Now safely have your friend cut you out of the pattern from the back (If you are alone, since we did not cover the back it should be easy enough to just tear)

With the pattern out, go ahead and cut out the pieces you need and transfer them to your 2mm foam, I chose thin foam for this so that the armor wouldn’t look bulky once layered with worbla and so that I can easily form it to my body.

For the neck piece its essentially just a donut and your head goes through the center! Measure out your shoulders so you know how wide you need the circle to be, cut out a hole in the center of the foam the circumference of your neck and then cut a slit in the back, that way you can easily take the neck piece on and off.

In the middle of the chest piece there is a small emblem, I drew out the shape on 2mm foam and then glued it atop the chestplate.

I adhered all my pieces together with super glue though if you want to make it extra secure you can use contact cement but since I would be covering everything in worbla the super glue worked just fine. Take your worbla and layer it over your chest piece and your neck piece and begin heat forming it to the foam, make sure to have at least an inch of extra space on the ends so you can fold the worbla over the foam and tuck it into the back sides. To attach the neck piece to the main chest plate I just heated up the underside edge of the neck part and the chest where the two pieces would meet and pressed them together, worbla when heated easily sticks to itself and creates a firm bond between the two pieces easily without the need for glue.

In order to get the armor to actually stay on me I installed elastic straps inside the chestplate and sewed on some detachable buckles. I used elastic that way the armor could pull as tight against my body as possible while also giving me enough pull from the elastic to not feel uncomfortable. To get the elastic onto the armor I superheated the worbla till it was very malleable and pressed it firmly into the fabric of the elastic while also having a layer of hot glue under the elastic for extra support.

Now that you’re all strapped up its time for the detail work! For his chest emblem I 3D printed out the sword and shield, use what you have though and this piece can also be easily sculpted by hand with clay if you need to, there are plenty of alternatives to 3D printing. As for the wings beneath that symbol I took some printer paper and drew out the design on one side then folded it atop itself, this way the other side would be symmetrical!

I took the wing patterned and traced it onto 2mm foam making it two layers of wings to give it a bit more dimension. For the details on the wings I used a heat wand and scorched the design into the foam.

Same as you did for the chest piece, heat and form the worbla over the wings!

On the armor between the neck piece and the chest there is a small connector piece which I also crafted out of 2mm and 5mm foam! I did the same process I did for the wings, scorch the details with a heat wand and later atop the details. Each piece of foam layering is adhered with super glue.

Wrap it in worbla as you did the other pieces and go ahead and add it to your main chest piece! To do this just heat both the small ornament parts we just made and the area you will be connecting it to on the chestplate.

While doing this I also added on some googly eyes to act as rivets, I personally really like how they look when the project is fully completed but you can also opt to make your own rivets out or worbla by just rolling your worbla scraps into a small and ball and pressing them firmly on where you’d like them! I attached them with super glue, I use super glue atop worbla cause as the glue activates it heats up and bonds to what its connected to and since worbla gets stick when heated it adds a bit more adhesion overall this way.

At the top of the neck piece there is a small rectangular section, for that I also just used 2mm foam, cut it out into a rectangle and drew down the area where I would later go in and scorch it with my heat wand. After it was complete I layered on a small border to the top and bottom of it for a bit of dimension.

The arrows on the side of the rectangle piece are really important, they are what my cape will be connected to so first off I made a pattern for it by taking two pieces of painters tape and sandwiching them together, then I drew on my design and transferred that piece to 2mm craft foam.

Just like how we have been doing I covered this piece in worbla but on the back of it I layed down a small sewing clip, this is how I was gonna have this piece of the armor hold my cape into place.

The squares that lay atop these two pieces I 3D printed and adhered them to the worbla pieces we just made with super glue. Once completed I heated the pieces up and connected them down to the collar of my neck piece.

I noticed there is a small edge line that runs through the arm holes of the chestplate, for this I just cut out a thin line of worbla, heated it up and pressed it down into place on the chestplate. Along with this I went over all the armor and created battle damage by taking my heat wand and making shallow and deep cuts where I saw fit all over the armor.

There are these small line raised pieces near the abdomen of the armor, to get this look I just rolled some worbla scraps into thin line, heated it up and pressed it down where I needed them to be.

The odd part of this armor is this small hook near the right armpit, I am unsure what its used for but to make it I drew and cut out the shape using 5mm thick foam. For this I did not cover it in worbla just because I did not want to accidentally hook into anything/anyone, having it stay just as foam just felt safer overall and would allow it to bend upon contact with anything. I stuck it onto the chestplate using super glue. Under the hook theres a small base so I quickly used painters tape on the chest armor and drew on the design, then transferred it to 2mm foam. After cutting it out I glued it down with super glue to the chest plate.

To lessen the appearance of the grainy texture worbla has I went over all of it with two layers of mod podge, the armor is meant to look old/battle worn so I did not want it be super smooth but this is a choice you can decide on how smooth you’d like your armor to be.

Once the mod podge dries take your choice of spray paint (I used Rustoleum in Dark Steel) and give it a nice even coat of paint all around.

Onto my favorite step which is detail painting! I do a mix of dry brushing and smearing for armor like this that is meant to look old and worn down. Essentially I just put down a layer of paint and smear it with my fingers to get an airbrush look. Do this in every seam area or raised portion of the armor.

Now that the shadows have been added it is time for highlights, to do that I use Rub N Buff (Silver Leaf) and gently paint anywhere where its raised or areas opposite of the shadows we painted early to give a nice contrast.