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The Voltron Armor Cosplay Tutorial I Needed Half a Year Ago.™

OK, this is suPER delayed, but I’ve just been putting it off and then forgetting about it and then putting it off again, so in my defence, no one knew it was really supposed to exist 4 months ago.

So. Voltron. Amiright?? Its amazing, and you’d like to show your appreciation. Dope. You’d like to show your appreciation specifically in the Art of Cosplay™. Dope.

Unfortunately, you know nothing about said Art, and are now depressed.

WORRY NOT FELLOW LAZY FOLK COMPARING THEMSELVES TO COSPLAYERS WHO’VE BEEN AT IT FOR YEARS!!! THIS TUTORIALS FOR YOU! IT’S EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED BUT WHAT I INSTEAD HAD TO SUFFER WITHOUT! BUCKLE UP, CUZ THIS IS A HELL OF A LONG RIDE!

So, I wanted to be Lance. (He’s meh fave) I knew nothing about how clothing worked though, and even though I knew I’d be working with foam, it still needed to fit into the right shape and size. Now, I donno about you, but this was the hardest part for me. This was the part I wished someone could just give me and I could adjust, or something I could print out, idk. I didn’t have that, so I basically spent hours looking at different pictures of the armor and using trial and error to see what worked and what didn’t. I obviously ended up with templates, although I made them in a very particular way. This is a very effective way, in my opinion, to make particular shapes for YOUR body type. Looking into it, I found many templates changed size, but not necessarily SHAPE. Sometimes, someone needs that same length and width, but they may need more curve to the sides of the template. Or perhaps someone needs more width but not more height. See what I mean? Bodies are different, and need different templates. You can make them however you please, but I used this method:

1.) Wrap the part of your body the templates for in saran wrap (make sure to go a bit higher and lower than the actual piece needs to be!)

2.) Wrap that saran wrapped sweaty limb in thick tape (I found that blue tape is good because its easy to cut and light, but its also not that sticky)

3.) Eyeball the cuts the piece has to have. When it comes to Voltron armor, there’s lots of random cuts for design purposes, be careful not to accidentally put the shape in the wrong place. Once you understand what goes where, sharpie the lines of where you’d need to cut. (Do this WHILE ITS ON YOUR ARM. You need to know where cuts go in relation to other cuts!! If you move or twist the cast after already making a cut, you won’t know if you’re right about the next one. Generally, its good to have help with this part)

4.) GENTLY AND C A R E F U L L Y cut through the BACK of the cast, (the side not facing outward), and take it off. PLEASE ONLY MAKE ONE, CLEAN CUT ACROSS THE BACK. DO NOT CUT BOTH SIDES OR IN THE FRONT! After cutting and cleaning the edges, wrap it around that limb again to see if it fits nicely. (You’ll want some extra room) 5.) To complete your template, lay it FLAT against a sheet of cardboard. (I would not recommend paper, its too flimsy) It may look really weird, but remember, if you did it right, you already saw what shape it eventually becomes when put together. Make sure to pin it down to the cardboard so it doesn’t dance around, ruining your shape. Its very important to trace the EXACT SHAPE, so spend good time flattening your design best you can. This isn’t about cutting, you shouldn’t cut it more than you already did. After you’ve secured your cast, trace the shape carefully and cut out the cardboard shape.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! YOU COMPLETED YOUR TEMPLATES!!!

I don’t have pictures of my templates as of now, but I could get some. If anyone actually wants the exact templates I used, I will give them to you. I could edit this post or just send them to you, if anyone wants them, that is. (I didn’t wanna go through the trouble if no one wanted them, remember: I’m lazy) Like I said, I’m no expert, but they made soMETHING. So if you do want them, shoot me a message!

After I went through that step, which took the longest despite just using cardboard, measurements, saran wrap, tape, and a sharpie, the next step was to hold down the cardboard onto the foam and trace and cut. It sounds simple, but its more time consuming than it sounds. Seriously. Be careful with your speed and where the knife is actually digging. I used an angular box cutter, which cuts a bit more off the trim than it may appear at first. Just in general, make sure you know what your tools do and make sure you cut ON THE LINES. If you for some reason can’t, always cut OUTSIDE the line. ALwaYs. You can always trim stuff down, but you can’t put it back. After you cut out the templates in foam, make sure to sand the edges. This step isn’t really necessary, though it improves the overall look of the completed project! Also, please REMEMBER TO MARK YOUR LEFTS, RIGHTS, FRONTS, BACKS, UPS, AND DOWNS!!! THIS IS SO IMPORTANT I CANT STRESS THAT ENOUGH!!!

I would like to give advice about the circles on the boots: CIRCLES ARE HARD. Too often, I think, people underestimate how hard it is to actually cut out a circle. I remember being so PiSsEd about the circles, I made a Special Guide™ to them. Because of the thickness they needed to be, I cut out 8 identical circles so that I could stack 4 as one, of course, you need 2. I used a cup for the measurements. I found a Starbucks cup works extremely well for this, because the top is nice and wide, and the bottom is smaller and oddly a perfect size ratio for the Voltron boot circle light thingys. Its also plastic, so damaging the cup, (you definitely will), isn’t that much of an issue. Basically, I placed the cup upside down, (top of cup on foam), and traced around the top with a sharpie. I then flipped the cup, (bottom of cup on foam), centered it best I could, and traced the bottom of the cup in the middle of the circle. Then I cut them out and tried to sand them to a smooth, even shape of equal size. Cutting out the middle was INFURIATING, though it got done. You will find your circle to be very rugged and uneven after being cut, which is why sanding the edges and inside is basically essential. A good system, I found, is to sand each circle individually, until its smooth and round, then to place all circles stacked upon each other, and sand those to about an even size and shape. This will probably never end up perfect, but its all the way on the bottom of the cosplay, so its not that noticeable.

After your final foam pieces are cut out and sanded to be smooth, make sure you test how they all fit together and how they fit on your body. Skipping this step is just plain stupid, and let me tell you why. Even though you may have tried on the cast and cut the shape out correctly on the cardboard, remember, this final size has gone through 3 different cuts, every material likely to have a different thickness. There’s actually a VERY HIGH CHANCE it won’t be as comfortable or fitting as it was before, and that’s normal. To fix that, you can try to add more saran wrap and tape to the cast you had and remake the shape. I had to do this a few times, mainly with the thigh guards and upper arm guards. So, a good idea I think, could be to leave reasonable room in the cast when you first make it. Don’t make it as snug as you want it to feel in the end. Remember, saran wrap and tape is gonna be a HeCk toN thinner than 1 inch thick EVA foam. So yea, please piece it together and see how it all fits.

Once you’re completely happy with your pieces, its time to glue them together! Now, an important part of this would be how you plan to actually put the outfit on. In my cosplay, I just kinda wiggle in through the bottom, kinda putting it on like a dress. The rest of the parts slip on their respective limbs in their respective order. I wanted something easy and simple, so I went with it, though feel free to change how you choose to put it on! Remember though, if you change how its worn, chances are it’ll also change how you should glue it. I recommend using Barge Glue, because its the strongest thing out there, this stuff is Solid. Careful though, its extremely toxic, so please remember to only use it in a ventilated area. Glueing is pretty self explanatory, though the amount of time I had to press sides in on each other before letting it cure on it’s own was a bit longer than expected.

Glueing will take a while, since you need to wait for the glue to cure, which for Barge is about a full day. But once its done, its done, and that stuffs not coming apart anytime soon! After glueing is shaping, which was fun for me simply because it was a break from all the hard stuff. Heat shaping is kinda a thing you eyeball, I don’t think you can do much else to prepare for it. You do need a heat gun, which is basically a hairdryer on acid. You can get one on amazon for 30 bucks. Basically, whattcha do is hook up the heat gun and use back and forth motions over your pieces. Make sure not to get too close, cuz you can burn and/or melt the foam! Also make sure to do it evenly, sometimes there’s a really soft, bendy side with hard spots all around it. That’d be because you weren’t using the gun evenly. Remember, even if you’re not gonna actually SHAPE a piece, you still have to HEAT THE WHOLE PIECE, INCLUDING THE INSIDE. This is because heat, once cooled back down, causes the pores within the foam to seal, making the piece much more solid in its shape.

After heat shaping comes the dreaded yet important job of pAInTinG. There’s a reason they call it that, kids. It definitely brings on the pain. Now, being new to all this, I had no idea what paints were better, how to seal proficiently, which shades of colors to use, any of that stuff. So, naturally, I turn to my good friend, the Internet. There’s a ton of stuff on painting, but I was on a budget, (I’ve already spent over said budget), and I had only a week to finish before the con. So, I look for a quicker alternative to the water and glue stuff, which I find in Plastidip. When I read about this stuff, I thought it was a gift from the automotive gods to my undeserving soul, like, everyone was raving about how great it worked and how it was not only a paint found in multiple colors, but also a sealant and weather proofer. Personally, I do not recommend it. I wish it worked as good as people claimed, but unfortunately, that was not the case. I found Plastidip reacted chemically to the EVA foam, despite the many times I read it didn’t, and it was also splattery and goopy, dripping from the pieces I worked so hard on as it dried. In the end though, it did color my pieces a nice, thick white, and it did seal the foam in an almost elasticy casing. However, it also had small, black holes from where it reacted with the EVA, and bumpy, uneven layers of the stuff across every piece. Though that may have something to do with not having a room temperature environment to use it in. It was cold outside. Idk. After that disaster, I painted all the blue parts with acrylic paint, which I loved, careful to use tape along the edges so as not to get paint where I didn’t want it.

After painting would be lighting, which I actually have yet to do. I couldn’t really finish that before the con, (I was actually still glueing stuff together the DAY OF), so I’m gonna get to figuring all that out for Halloween. Because of the amount of effort, time, and money I spent on this cosplay, its gonna be worked on and constantly improved as time goes on. I never really could finish the whole thing in 3 weeks, so its got a ways to go. And don’t worry, I’ll update it here!

So that’s about it! I had a blast at the con, although it did do an insane number on my cosplay… And I look forward to working on lights and Lance’s gun!! Thanks for sticking with me, feel free to share this information with anyone, as its here to help. I’m also totally up for questions or just long discussions about this if you want to know anything from my experience that wasn’t here, so hit me up!!

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