#armor patterns

[silvericedragon]

Want to make your own Abyss Watcher helmet? Been itching to join Farron’s Undead Legion? Well I've just made things significantly easier for you! Downloadable patterns and tutorial are now available :-) https://www.etsy.com/listing/562628723/abyss-watcher-helmet-patterns-diy

[3gremlins]

Fenris Patterns: Pauldrons

Ever since someone asked about Fenris’ belt, I’ve been planning to do some posts on the basic patterns for Fenris cosplay (since I’ve done it twice, albeit genderbent so slightly different from normal fenris). I can’t recommend the armour archive enough for any time you are doing armor work (be it fantasy or sci fi- body armor patterns don’t really change that much at their basic level)- they have tons of *free* patterns as well as a forum with real armorers that you can get help from! It’s a really excellent resource! Anyway- the top diagram goes over the basics of how I went about Fenris’ pauldrons both times I did it. The first time I used thermoplastics (wonderflex and craft foam for the base, just wonderflex for the feathers)- method one works best for this, as you can layer “feathers” on top and then just use the natural stickiness of the material to attach them to the base. You can see how that looks in the first photo (it gives the armor a slightly more three dimensional look). The down side of using thermoplastics is that the feathers themselves are a little more fragile and if you happen to sweat in the armor at all or the convention you are attending is very warm, you can accidentally deform it a bit. Method 2 is the second way I did it for my second version- making the armor out of leather makes it stronger and more durable (I also personally prefer wet molding leather to thermoplastics). It’s also closer to what the armor was probably intended to be made of. Leather  takes rivets reasonably well (whereas thermoplastics have a tendency to tear under stress), so that’s another point in its favor.  Basically you cut out the pauldron with the feathers as one whole piece and then add some tooling into it to give the impression of feathers. For the second version, I altered the design a bit to add mobility to the armor (the first version didn’t allow me to lift my arms very high w/o stabbing myself). I added the drop pauldrons down the bottom and one at the top (which also helped with attachments)..The top ones attach to my neck corset thing (on a normal fenris, you’d probably attach them to the underside of the tunic. I highly recommend snaps over buckles! hopefully these are helpful to someone! Feel free to send asks if you have any more questions! bottom two photos by Geeky Lens You can see more of my stuff here: fb:Cool by proxy Productions web:www.coolbyproxy.com

[projectcosplay]

Cosplay Tip #11: Pepakura for Armor Patterns

Pepakura is basically the art of paper craft folding. You can make amazing life-sized pieces of armor such as:

A full body Halo Armor Suit. Photo belongs to Tawnysha Greene.

Alphonse Armor. Photo belongs to di-chan.

So how do you use Pepakura? Here are tips on how to get started.

1) Download Pepakura Viewer (free). Here is a tutorial on how to download, open, and scale your first file. Most files are pre-scaled for someone 6 feet tall so it's pretty easy to use. There is also a Pepakura Designer which is not free but only needed if you are going to create pep designs. Otherwise, for a cosplayer, the Viewer is more than enough.

2) Know where the Pep databases / galleries are. Some of the links are outdated or old so here are some useful (not dead) databases to start your search:

http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/gallery/list.php

http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/papermodels/

http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura/gallery/list.php

http://papermau.blogspot.com/

http://pepakuraindex.weebly.com/

Google your item + "pepakura"

3) Pepakura is good for "metal-like" armor. I will create another post for more organic armor but the pep databases are much more useful for costumes that would be made out of metal: Gundams, Star Wars robots, Halo suits, Mega Man, etc.

4) It takes a lot of time, paper, and work. If you are doing this only using paper, it will already take a lot of time. However, if you are using craft foam and then using vinyl over it, or anything else over the craft foam, that's three times the work. So just keep in mind, these are very detailed down to every fold so it will take some time to finish the projects...but they will come out awesome. Sometimes, I feel like pep is a little overkill because of all the details for every fold but it gives you a good starting point.

5) Oh and I have to mention, this method is not for everyone. I'm pretty good with fitting pieces together and 3D orientation but not everyone is made that way. So if you print out the pieces and get discouraged, it's ok. Keep trying or try another method altogether. While using the software is easy, constructing the paper patterns is a completely different skillset. So don't beat yourself up too hard if you can't get it right the first, second, or even third time, ok?