- Member DIN
- S922
I'm in the process of making Cap's shield right now for a Halo/Captain America crossover build. After researching it for awhile, I found the majority of takes on it are as follows:
Make the shield pattern
Take 2 foam mats (or a roll that you cut down to a square ~24"x24" as mentioned above. Use a straight edge to find the center.
I took a plastic ruler and drilled holes at 1cm (rotation point) as well as 9cm, 15.5cm, 22cm, 27cm, and 29cm. On one square foam mat use something (like a thumbtack or wood skewer) through the 1cm hole and into the center of the mat. Use a sharpie or pen and rotate to make circles at the 9, 15.5, 22, and 29cm marks. On the other mat use the ruler and skewer to draw a circle at the 27cm mark.
Cut and Score
Cut out both circles and score the inner circles of the larger one. You can also score your star here if you want, but I did that part later. Take a heat gun and heat up your score marks.
Get that shield dome
To get the dome, an exercise ball works really well. Wrap the circles on either side of the ball and go around it with plenty of cling wrap. And I mean when you think you have enough keep going. Clear packing tape can be used to pin down remaining ridges pointing up (I also kept the packing tape w/ me while heating so that if I left my heat gun too long and edges raised, I could re-pin them and keep going. I put the large circle on one side and got it mostly wrapped before wrapping the smaller one on the other side of the ball. Heat with a heat gun. I heated each side while watching a longish YouTube video (~15min per side). Allow to cool. It was late when I did the heating, so I let it cool overnight. Use scissors (not a utility knife to reduce the chance you puncture the ball) and cut out the now domes. I cut the smaller dome first and did all of my work on that first before releasing the larger dome.
Alternatively you can simply heat, curve, and repeat on the disks until you get the dome that you want.
Prep the back and handles
Create your handle brackets (you can freehand these or I'm sure you can find a pattern somewhere). I, like many others, simply used an old belt to create handles. After gluing 2mm foam "brackets" on the back (concave side) of the small dome I measured the width of the belt and cut slits to push the belt through. Cut the belt to the sizes you need to get 2 loops. If desired and you have a decent buckle on the belt you can leave that and use that to make it adjustable. I did not do that. Push the ends of the your belt pieces through the slits and glue to the back. Add rivets as desired.
Glue it all together
Release the large dome (if you haven't already) and glue the small dome to the inside of the large one. This helps it keep its curve better than just one sheet of foam does. If you use contact cement, be sure to lay down some cardboard or something inside the large dome so that you can align the inner dome before starting to remove the cardboard and press sections together.
Add the star (if you haven't)
I waited until this point to add the star because I didn't want to worry about arranging the inner dome exactly to get the star right after it was there. Draw and score the star shape. I scored 2 stars and used a pipe to score circles at the corners of the inner star. Heat gun to show the star lines.
Went back and did that before moving on.
Seal and paint
I used plastidip that I had leftover from my Pidge costume. Currently still sealing the back,which reminds me, I need to take pics of the back. Using Duplicolor Metalcast Chrome, Red, and Blue, which I was able to get at a local auto shop for painting.
Make the shield pattern
Take 2 foam mats (or a roll that you cut down to a square ~24"x24" as mentioned above. Use a straight edge to find the center.
I took a plastic ruler and drilled holes at 1cm (rotation point) as well as 9cm, 15.5cm, 22cm, 27cm, and 29cm. On one square foam mat use something (like a thumbtack or wood skewer) through the 1cm hole and into the center of the mat. Use a sharpie or pen and rotate to make circles at the 9, 15.5, 22, and 29cm marks. On the other mat use the ruler and skewer to draw a circle at the 27cm mark.
Cut and Score
Cut out both circles and score the inner circles of the larger one. You can also score your star here if you want, but I did that part later. Take a heat gun and heat up your score marks.
Get that shield dome
To get the dome, an exercise ball works really well. Wrap the circles on either side of the ball and go around it with plenty of cling wrap. And I mean when you think you have enough keep going. Clear packing tape can be used to pin down remaining ridges pointing up (I also kept the packing tape w/ me while heating so that if I left my heat gun too long and edges raised, I could re-pin them and keep going. I put the large circle on one side and got it mostly wrapped before wrapping the smaller one on the other side of the ball. Heat with a heat gun. I heated each side while watching a longish YouTube video (~15min per side). Allow to cool. It was late when I did the heating, so I let it cool overnight. Use scissors (not a utility knife to reduce the chance you puncture the ball) and cut out the now domes. I cut the smaller dome first and did all of my work on that first before releasing the larger dome.
Alternatively you can simply heat, curve, and repeat on the disks until you get the dome that you want.
Prep the back and handles
Create your handle brackets (you can freehand these or I'm sure you can find a pattern somewhere). I, like many others, simply used an old belt to create handles. After gluing 2mm foam "brackets" on the back (concave side) of the small dome I measured the width of the belt and cut slits to push the belt through. Cut the belt to the sizes you need to get 2 loops. If desired and you have a decent buckle on the belt you can leave that and use that to make it adjustable. I did not do that. Push the ends of the your belt pieces through the slits and glue to the back. Add rivets as desired.
Glue it all together
Release the large dome (if you haven't already) and glue the small dome to the inside of the large one. This helps it keep its curve better than just one sheet of foam does. If you use contact cement, be sure to lay down some cardboard or something inside the large dome so that you can align the inner dome before starting to remove the cardboard and press sections together.
Add the star (if you haven't)
I waited until this point to add the star because I didn't want to worry about arranging the inner dome exactly to get the star right after it was there. Draw and score the star shape. I scored 2 stars and used a pipe to score circles at the corners of the inner star. Heat gun to show the star lines.
Went back and did that before moving on.
Seal and paint
I used plastidip that I had leftover from my Pidge costume. Currently still sealing the back,
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