DIY Captain America Shield Tutorial
Ever saw those great shield replicas you can buy online? And ever realized that they are pretty huge - especially for girls - because not everyone of us can have shoulders like Steve Rogers? That’s why I decided to make my own shield - which doesn’t require lots of tools or even metal.
Continue reading if you want instructions on how to make your own shield (contains lots of pictures!)
First of all: gather materials!
My basic for the shield was a kiddie sled. The only thing you need to make sure here is that the middle isn’t flat but a bit curved. The handles don’t matter. I’ll just make a list of stuff you need: - a sled (colour doesn’t matter!) - spray colour (make sure it matches the material of your sled) - some base coating for your sled so that the colour will stick properly - protective paint for the final touch - a small saw - sandpaper - masking tape - two belts of your liking - some cardboard - glue, scissors, a pen - i recommend a face mask for the spraying process! - small paint brush Now that you have everything you need, let’s get started! First of all you should measure your shoulders. You want your shield to be at least as big as the width of your shoulders, maybe a tiny bit more. Make sure to find the middle of the sled and draw a circle with the diameter you measured earlier.
Next comes the most exhausting part of the shield building. (At least when you have a damaged hand...) Saw along the marked line. It’s easier if you saw it bit by bit. Which means: Saw from the top to the line every few centimeters, then saw horizontally. That way part for part you come closer to your shield. In the end ot should look like this (you can also see some of the parts I sawed off):
Next up! I did some research and obviously colour wouldn’t stick too well to that kind of surface. Plus, there might be some information etc engraved in the sled. This is the part where you use sandpaper (lots of it) to methodically work on the surface of your shield. Use circular motions until everything is off. Yes, it won’t look that shiny anymore, but I prefer a rougher shield to one with running colours any day. It should then look something like this:
Next: Spray on the foundation spray. Please use a face mask for the process!! I didn’t have the possibility to do it outside, so if you are gonna do it inside like I did, please do it in a separate room which you can close off and air _properly_. Let the spray dry. Should take about 30 minutes. Next spray on the silver/gray paint - both the front and the back.
I used the box my sled was delivered in for the spraying process. :)
Use the time your paint is drying to get some fresh air. For example take your cat out for a walk so she can play tiger hiding in tall grass.
Done with the foundation! Now it’s time to get some colour on your shield! It’s where the masking tape comes in. I thought about in which order I wanted to add the colours and I recommend the following: Start with red, then white and then blue. First off: Tape off everything that isn’t supposed to become red. should look like this in the end:
Basically it means covering the ring that’s supposed to become white and the circle in the middle.
Next: cover up the red parts (after they are dried of course). Leave the star-shape in the middle, but cover up the rest:
Spray on the white paint and let it dry thoroughly. Last, but not least: Cover up everything but the blue parts.
After you sprayed on the blue paint and it’s dry, you can start working on the details. My shield didn’t work out perfectly either, so with a very small brush you can colour the parts that didn’t turn out as smoothly as you’d like it to be.
Should look something like this after the clean up:
Next is the backside. I mean, you want to carry it around, don’t you?
Here’s the parts I cut out of cardboard paper and painted silver. They will be arranged later like this:
Next up will be preparing the handles. For that I got two belts of my choice (they were actually very cheap). Use the parts with the buckles to make two loops that fit the middle of the cardboard pieces and are big/small enough to fit your hand and your lower arm. Then make four smaller parts out of the remaining belt bits. All assembled it should look like that:
I admit that I didn’t just glue everything to the cardboard bits. Luckily I chose a belt with a little ‘design’ and could use the little holes in the belt to actually sew the handles to the cardboard as an addition. It just gave me a better feeling, but with proper glue it shouldn’t be necessary to actually sew the pieces together. Well then - get out the glue!
As a final touch I decided to make some ‘confetti’ and glued it on top of the belt:
And yeah - that’s it! Let everything dry properly, spray on your protective coating and you are ready to go recuing the world!! Have a proper look at the finished shield:
You can see my full Captain America (dress version) outfit here (though I didn’t have my shield finished back then) Have fun building your own shield!! I hope this tutorial will be helpful to you!