Do you have any advice for cosplayers who are trying to make armor for the first time?
Research, research, research! You are not the first person to make armor and thus you should take advantage of the wide breadth of knowledge available online.
Things to consider:
Material choice. There are many options and techniques available to you, and they all vary in skill level, budget, feasibility, work space friendliness, access, etc. Do your research in advance. Worbla, sealed EVA foam, fabric-upholstered foam, heavy felt, leather, etc might all have different advantages for different projects.
Movement and wearability. If you’re investing time and effort into armor, you’ll want it to be armor you can wear without too much discomfort. While armor will never be as comfortable as sweatpants, it should have a good range of motion, allow you to sit, allow you to drink/eat, etc. Test your patterns thoroughly for this comfort and practicality; you’ll thank yourself later when you aren’t robot-walking for an hour before changing out.
Real-life armor. You can get an amazing amount of information and ideas by looking at real life armor. In my opinion, cosplay-type tutorials should take a backseat to real-life armor tutorials/write-ups for these kinds of projects; I’d rather learn to make elbow cops from functional, real-life elbow cops than wrap my head around some cosplay DIY version. The Armour Archive is incredible for this and includes many real, functional patterns you can start from.
Give yourself time. Armor builds can be long, tedious and expensive. Don’t rush them; you get what you put into them.
Rigging. Too many people make the armor and then figure out how to rig it after. Make planning attachments your first priority. The best armor in the world is useless unless you can reliably, comfortably and durably attach it to your body. Me personally, I will ride or die for proper leather/belting straps. They look awesome and are super easy to assemble.
Rivets. Spinning off rigging –– absolutely nothing replaces the sheer durability and strength of riveted straps. I have never, ever encountered a worbla loop or D ring or whatever that was even remotely as trustworthy, reliable and strong as a proper goddamn rivet. They will never fail you ever, come heat, weight, pressure, etc. Rivet guns cost about $25 from most hardware store and rivets are cheap, and once you have that gun, you can use it on every subsequent armor you might ever make. Rivet on your straps, ideally with a washer or two. (Plus, they look cool.)
All our best! Good luck.
- Jenn
