Armorer Build Work in Progress

[cp60520]

I'm about halfway through a casual Armorer costume build and I thought I'd share my progress.

This costume is meant to be a casual build for my wife for convention wear, but I still want to make things as "right" as I can.

I started with the armor pattern from SionnachStudios and knocked it out from EVA foam. I'm still new to EVA foam, but I think it turned out alright. I made a few alterations based on the reference photos that Art Andrews posted here. Then I Plastidipped it.

After some painting, brush and spray, and weathering with black and brown washes, it's starting to look okay!

Here you can also see the muslin mockup of the "apron" and the first draft of the gloves I patterned based on my wife's fireplace gloves.

I'm not totally satisfied with the fit and the weave on the shoulder guards. I'll probably rebuild those.
So far, I've finished constructing the apron, the helmet, and the top of the jumpsuit. More on those elements as I go.

I still have the belt, pants, and boots/leg-wrap thing to go!

 

[ImABarRoomHero]

Amazing!

 

[cp60520]

I built the helmet following a pattern from Armorer Props on Etsy, which was a good start. Constructed it out of EVA foam, plastidipped it.
The back of the pattern is not 100%: there should be a small lip around the lower part of the back of the helmet. I also adjusted the "vents" to make them angular instead of scallops and some ears to make it look more like the pics I've seen. Otherwise, though, this was a pretty easy to follow build.

Then we painted it gold with some brown/black washes. The six-year-old apprentice LOVES washing stuff to weather it. He finds it hilarious!
I hoped to make it look "schmutzy" enough to match the effect of the screen version, and parts of it are. I think I could go back and blob some paint or make it rougher all around, but overall, I think it's good enough for our purposes.

I also got a dark green welding visor and cut it down and hotglued it inside. That adds some stability and gives it that dark effect.

Here you can see it perched atop the fully constructed apron. I'll post more about that part soon. The apron needs some weathering washes itself, and it'll be good to go.

 

[cp60520]

Let's talk about how I made some Armorer gloves.

I was a little stumped at first, but then I realized that an armorer should probably have gloves ready for the forge, and the pics make the ends of the gloves look pretty bulky, like work gloves, so I borrowed my partner in crime's women's sized fireplace gloves.

Using these as a template, I drafted and adapted a pattern from them.

I created the quilted part with a layer of fleece and a layer of muslin to give it that texture. Initially I thought these would just be a "proof of concept," so I wasn't too worried about color matching, so go easy on that criticism. I think the real ones are a lighter, more "natural" color of a sort of sand or putty with darker colors on the bumpy parts of the gauntlets, and I bought some faux suede in a lighter shade to more approximate that looks, but now that they're constructed, I think a little bit of paint could have these pretty workable (for our purposes).

 

[TerranCmdr]

Wow! That is some seriously impressive work! Those look phenomenal.

 

[cp60520]

Let's zoom in on the apron. I based the pattern on the one from Sionnach Studios on Etsy. I think they all it the "Blacksmith Apron," but it was a great starting point. I had to add a few things--adding the hexagon stitching on the back and trimming the ends of some of the layers which didn't end up even for me. I also added some ragged bias tape to the edges, which seems pretty close to how the real one looks, but overall, this seems like it worked out okay.

I used vinyl fabric for the layers.

The vinyl was stitched to some heavy quilter's cotton. I was a little worried that I might need to adhere the layers to the cotton to get it to "drape" right and not stretch, distort the horizontal lines, but it seems like this is going to work well!

Here you cans see the bias tape being arranged. It's not a perfect approach--I think anybody looking to make a costume should follow Hydra's approach (on this forum), but for our purposes and cost range, we went with what was cheap and available, rather than leather.

Finished back

Finished front.

Before I call it done, I need to add velcro for closure and some weathering/color-correction paint.

I appreciate any feedback, encouragement, or advice. Thanks!

 

[Got2bfett]

Wow the gloves and apron look fantastic. Great detail on both looking to see more..

 

[cp60520]

Regarding the "jumpsuit." Initially, we had planned to create the jumpsuit as a jumpsuit based on Simplicity's 8722 pattern, but the wearer suggested that it might be a better experience for her if she could more easily go to the restroom during a convention by having the jumpsuit split, jacket and pants, so after making a muslin mockup for the jumpsuit, I adapted it by cutting it down to jacket length.

The other changes I had to make were

1. adding the applique details to the sleeve, creating a short sleeve and a long sleeve inside it,
2. adding the fancy "bias tape" type edge to the short sleeve. (I followed Hydra's advice and used a lighter, t-shirt material for the inner sleeve to help make it more breathable.)
3. adding the pattern stitch and the back detail line in the center of the jacket. I'm not sure that this is the pattern on the back, but look at this image from Art Andrews's gallery and tell me that's not likely the cool repeated hexagon pattern!

I should have also adapted the collar to make the high neck style, like Hydra features on hers, but my partner in crime prefers to have her neck a bit less encumbered, so it's a short collar--I know, not realistic!

I also need to wash it to get the chalk marks off because I realized that after I marked the whole pattern out, I had the fabric backward. I kind of liked the rougher interior side, but decided to make it right side out. The chalk will be no problem to remove--that's what it's for. And I will probably add some "weathering" paint at least to the red bias tape to get them looking more leathery and like they've been in a blacksmith forge.

Also, I’ll probably dye it just a bit more green—my screens are giving me different opinions about the actual color of her suit, but I’ll dye the jacket and pants together when we get there.

Next up will be the "boots." I'm about halfway through that project. Thanks for reading and for the encouragement. This is quite the undertaking!

 

[cp60520]

Let's talk armorer boots. This is probably going to be a multi-post step because these boots are involved!

Step one was to borrow some boots from the Armorer-to-be and mock up a cardboard pattern based on the reference photos.

Good start so far...

Then, I built the toe caps out of EVA foam. They aren't perfect--you can see the more pronounced slope in this reference photo, and mine are a bit boxier, but they ain't bad!

For the tiny rivets, I just used a leather hole punch and cut circles that I glued onto the EVA foam. After a bit of shaping with the Dremel, they were pretty much good for painting.

I plastidipped them and then dry-brushed and weathered them appropriately. Next post will cover the soft parts of the boots.

As always, I appreciate the advice and feedback.

 

[cp60520]

Next up: soft parts of the boots. This shouldn't be too tough--I drafted a pattern from plastic wrap and masking tape for the part that wraps around the bottom of the boot.

There you can see the "spat" as I called it. I reversed it and made one for the right side too.

Before going much further, I experimented with some weathering and the acrylic blackwash on the fake suede accomplished two things for me: 1) color adjustment and 2) stiffened the fabric up to feel like real leather. So far, so good! I attached some velcro tabs to the back, which looks pretty much like how the real ones are done based on the reference photos I saw.
Next up was the bands around the shafts, which I guestimated on the first time, finished a whole one out of vinyl but then realized that the pleats were too wide, so I started over and made two more closer to the right size. In order to make the pleats, I glued the folds together over and over and over...

Here was the first completed version with the too-wide pleats. So I started again and made two more, better ones.

For comparison, the too-wide vs the correct ones. Too wide is on the bottom.

A long day of folding and stitching later--they're done. For the edge, I just made, essentially a bias tape out of vinyl and stitched in the ditch next to the edge.

Then, I attached both to the shafts and added velcro to the sides for closure on the inside. Then I sewed the "spat" to the top, added a piece of elastic to the bottom to hold it to the boot and glued the whole thing to the foam toe-caps from the last post.

I think the only thing left to manage for these is the possible addition of some velcro to secure the toe caps to the toes of the boots they'll be covering. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with them!

Now...on to the belt and the pants. Gotta build my leatherworking skills. Wish me luck! I'm on the homestretch!

 

[TerranCmdr]

Super impressive. Great work as always.

 

[sionnach]

Looking amazing! And thank you or using our patterns!

 

[cp60520]

Looking amazing! And thank you or using our patterns!

Y’all did much of the hard work for me. Way easier than drafting from scratch like I did for the gloves and boot patterns.

 

[cp60520]

The belt is coming along.

 

[cp60520]

Greeblie progress and belt update

 

[cp60520]

Before and after the black wash.

They aren’t perfect, but they’ll partially be covered by the belt bits.

 

[cp60520]

First test fit. Gotta adjust quite a few things and make the pants. We’re getting there.

 

[bigkidbiggertoys]

That is looking great!