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[char99char]

My suggestions -

1) find every armor making tutorial you can and read through them - see how patterns are made. I spent 20 hours just reading before I started making anything.

2) Start sketching your costume - or mark up a picture. How many pieces is it? What is it made out of? What are the details that you want on the finished product?

3) Make patterns for armor - cardboard / posterboard / craft foam and tape. If you can't shape it and build it out of these materials you aren't going to be able to do it in your final material. It can take a lot of iterations - my shin pieces were redrawn and recut 6 times before I was happy with it.

4) read the armor tutorials again. By now you've learned more about the process and you'll pick up different things from the articles.

[ILovePopCulture]

Originally Posted by char99char

My suggestions -

1) find every armor making tutorial you can and read through them - see how patterns are made. I spent 20 hours just reading before I started making anything.

2) Start sketching your costume - or mark up a picture. How many pieces is it? What is it made out of? What are the details that you want on the finished product?

3) Make patterns for armor - cardboard / posterboard / craft foam and tape. If you can't shape it and build it out of these materials you aren't going to be able to do it in your final material. It can take a lot of iterations - my shin pieces were redrawn and recut 6 times before I was happy with it.

4) read the armor tutorials again. By now you've learned more about the process and you'll pick up different things from the articles.

Awesome, Thank You!!!!

[ILovePopCulture]

also, i order the materials, wonderflex or craftfoam online? or are there stores you can buy them in person?

[ILovePopCulture]

So I order them online or buy in person?

[rj_sosongco]

As far as I know, wonderflex can only be ordered online.

For craft foam (also called EVA foam), you can use the colored sheets in most arts&crafts stores like Joanns or Michaels, since you'll be sealing it. However, that stuff usually only comes in the 2mm thickness, so if you want thicker EVA foam, you can either utilize other products made of foam (yoga mats or anti-fatigue floor tiles are examples) or find an online distributor and order the foam you need.

[verdatum]

sheets of EVA foam can be fused together quite effectively using contact cement. You just want to do this step after any heat-forming takes place (stack them up, heat form them, then glue them all together).

[ILovePopCulture]

Originally Posted by rj_sosongco

As far as I know, wonderflex can only be ordered online.

For craft foam (also called EVA foam), you can use the colored sheets in most arts&crafts stores like Joanns or Michaels, since you'll be sealing it. However, that stuff usually only comes in the 2mm thickness, so if you want thicker EVA foam, you can either utilize other products made of foam (yoga mats or anti-fatigue floor tiles are examples) or find an online distributor and order the foam you need.

yeah as for the online distrubutor, i will use that for Sintra and Wonderflex since according to most people, they can be only bought online, but for Craft Foam, EVA Foam that I can get at Michael's and Joanns, Yoga Mats and Anti-Fatigue Floor Tiles, i assume i can get that at a place like Home-Depot, OSH, or a Sporting Goods store?

[ILovePopCulture]

how many layers of the 2mm Craft-Foam per sheet should I buy at a place like Michael's or Joann's?

[rj_sosongco]

That's totally up to you. Can't really walk in with a set number of foam sheets to buy, I'm afraid. I'd start with making some paper patterns so you know the shapes you need. You can use newspaper for these since they're large sheets and you only need them to draw a pattern before you use craft foam. Once you have all of your armor sketched out in patterns, you have to decide how thick the armor is going to be, whether you want it just 1 layer of foam (pretty flexible) or more (less and less flexible) I'm sure you're going to need a ton of it though. At $1 a sheet, we're talking like 20-30 sheets, at least. My MGR Raiden armor took a good 15 -20 sheets for all the pieces, and all of that was pretty flat shapes formed to my body.

[ILovePopCulture]

Originally Posted by rj_sosongco

That's totally up to you. Can't really walk in with a set number of foam sheets to buy, I'm afraid. I'd start with making some paper patterns so you know the shapes you need. You can use newspaper for these since they're large sheets and you only need them to draw a pattern before you use craft foam. Once you have all of your armor sketched out in patterns, you have to decide how thick the armor is going to be, whether you want it just 1 layer of foam (pretty flexible) or more (less and less flexible) I'm sure you're going to need a ton of it though. At $1 a sheet, we're talking like 20-30 sheets, at least. My MGR Raiden armor took a good 15 -20 sheets for all the pieces, and all of that was pretty flat shapes formed to my body.

also, i'll have to draw blueprints right?

[char99char]

Have you made a pattern yet? Once you have pattern pieces - you can lay the pattern pieces out on the floor and measure out how much you need to buy based on how big the sheets of material are that you are buying. Blueprints aren't necessary. It sounds like you are trying to skip ahead to buying material without making patterns that represent your cosplay and fit your body first.

When you are ready to buy - this is where I buy wonderflex:

http://www.dazian.com/html/wonderflex.html

[Millions_Knives]

i have to say do the blue prints first and fit them to your body
it may take a bit longer but is much cheaper
oh also have some new vids on armor that may help
i dont use patterns here
but ill have some more advance armor sets out soon
where ill have tons of blue prints

[ILovePopCulture]

Originally Posted by char99char

Have you made a pattern yet? Once you have pattern pieces - you can lay the pattern pieces out on the floor and measure out how much you need to buy based on how big the sheets of material are that you are buying. Blueprints aren't necessary. It sounds like you are trying to skip ahead to buying material without making patterns that represent your cosplay and fit your body first.

When you are ready to buy - this is where I buy wonderflex:

http://www.dazian.com/html/wonderflex.html

any advice, tips, for those who are new to making patterns for cosplaying? no i haven't made them yet

[ILovePopCulture]

i've thought of a great idea, i should buy Football Shoulder Pads for upper part of Fulgores body-armor, but how to start drawing the patterns?

[rj_sosongco]

You do it the hard way:
1. Get big sheets of paper (newspaper usually works)
2. Look at your reference and figure out the overall shape of the piece of armor you want to pattern out
3. Draw that shape on the paper, and cut it out.
4. Hold against your body and look in the mirror to see how it would look. Trim, fold, modify as necessary. Sometimes, you may just have to redraw and recut from newspaper.
5. Lather, rinse, repeat for every piece

Ideally, you could find the 3d model of Fulgore from the game, unfold it in pepakura, and make it that way. Otherwise, you'll have to draft out patterns from scratch. There may be patterns of generic pieces (like a standard boot pattern , or a glove pattern) that you can find online and use, but otherwise, it's just a lot of trial and error until you get something you like.